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1:50am August 4, 2015

madeofpatterns:

My friends are FRIENDS. Not people I’m in a socially valued role with so that I can gain access to the good things in life.

There’s a disturbing idea embedded in all of this, that is very similar to an idea embedded in a particular school of pop psychology.

I’ve run into some autistic people who decided to learn social skills by learning that particular school of pop psychology.  It invariably turns their view of socialization into something that seriously disturbs me.  (I’m sure the same is true of nonautistic people who buy into it, but I think autistic people may be more vulnerable to using such things as a way to learn social stuff explicitly.)

I’m talking about, specifically, transactional analysis.  It’s one of the most horribly cynical views of human interaction I have ever encountered.  And it has something deeply in common with the Social Role Valorization stuff you’re reacting to, although I can’t articulate what.