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  • Essay / Temple Grandin and The Existence of the Autistic Mind

    According to Leo Kanner, autistic children often present as severely disabled. It could be argued that if we could, we should eradicate conditions such as autism, because an autistic person cannot live a fulfilling life or contribute to society. However, Temple Grandin says that "if I could snap my fingers and not be autistic, I wouldn't, because then I wouldn't be myself." Autism is part of who I am. From another perspective, it could be argued that autism offers advantages to the individual because they are able to think outside the box, so to speak. An autistic person has a unique thought process and is able to approach ideas with a different perspective than someone who does not have an autistic mind. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Temple Grandin states that "we need to think about all these different kinds of minds and we absolutely need to work with these kinds of minds because we will absolutely need these kinds of people in the future." From this perspective, one really has to wonder what we are missing as a society by not embracing and developing the autistic or any other unusual mind. I think even if we could eliminate autism, we shouldn't. As a society we don't ask ourselves if we should eliminate the "normal" mind, so why should we ask such a question when it comes to autism. I understand that there are different spectrums of autism, there is high functioning and very low functioning. Low functioning on the spectrum can present many challenges not only for the individual but also for the support system around them, whether parents, siblings, caregivers, or friends, but this does not give enough reasons to consider eliminating the autistic mind. I view these autistic people as incredibly special beings who can contribute to their community and beyond in ways that a typical individual cannot. Every autistic mind needs to be worked on, cared for in the way their mind understands. In the film Temple Grandin, her mother did not listen when the doctor advised her to institutionalize her daughter after being diagnosed with autism; instead, she tried everything she could to learn what worked for Temple. Her mother's perseverance paid off and taught Temple to understand her own mind. Temple grew to become the inventor of a system that was a game-changer for the cattle industry. The system she created is something that might never have been discovered without an autistic mind like Temples. Temple states in one of his speeches that "in my work with cattle, I noticed many little things that most people don't notice and that would cause cattle to balk...in the early 1970s, when I started, I found myself in the thick of it. falls to see what the cattle were seeing. People thought it was crazy. His unique mind allowed him to see things differently and look at situations from a different perspective, that of livestock in this case. This proves that the autistic mind does not need to be institutionalized; there is no need to throw it away and judge it useless. It must be accepted and encouraged. I also support the autistic mind and its presence in our world because I believe it is part of the natural plan, God's plan if you will. I do not consider it a detrimental or terminal presence and see no reason why it should be eradicated. Keep.