Deeper Dive: Autism and Dealing with Others

In this deeper dive, I want to address the difficulty that those of us with autism and related “neurodivergent” conditions have in dealing with others who do not share our way of thinking.

About Deeper Dives: For those of you who have supported my work by making paid subscriptions to this Substack, I will be writing supplemental articles to some of my regular weekly posts. These “deeper dives” will have a less formal structure than the main article, consisting of my current thinking on a particular aspect of the main article’s subject.

In my article “Dealing with Others’ Irrationality,” I argued that we should limit our interactions with—and concern for—irrational people to the amount necessary to advance our rational values. In this deeper dive, I want to address the difficulty that those of us with autism and related “neurodivergent” conditions—which often include both a more reason-oriented outlook on life and difficulty in regulating emotions—have in dealing with others who do not share our way of thinking.