1:58pm February 22, 2012

“

in fact, my son identified with animals more than humans because of not having speech, this was not obvious, as his sensory acuteness led to barking, etc., being aversive.

however, i came to realize that some of the reaction was due to his other kind of sensitivity…he grieved over dogs barking yet no one responding. 

also, i think a lot of his anxiety associated with nervous pent up animal behavior is empathy therewith.

he was the one who taught me that siamese cats, at least, have language. i had no idea until he typed for me what his sister’s cats sounds meant. he had matter-of-factly taken them for words….and turned out to be right. 

my son, now 21, has taught me much about how outmoded many of our larger society’s ideas about intelligence are….

”

Cybermaurn

I couldn’t find the time she and I talked about it. But as I recall, her son had been typing long vowel strings in between English words, and only after she asked what that was about did he tell her they were Siamese cat words.

And of course yet more proof that the empathy/autism thing is bunk.

I have ended up associating myself with cats so thoroughly that I can feel where my ears ought to be and what muscles move them. (And turned out to be right about the corresponding human muscles.) I don’t literally think I’m a cat, but my mental self-image is certainly highly cattish down to where I expect my nose to be.

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