# Asperger's Syndrome and NT Temperament



## GrayFox (Jul 16, 2017)

I'm guessing there's a big overlap, anyway. I'm trying to figure out how much of my psychology might be attributable to each factor. I was never diagnosed with Asperger's as a child, but I was diagnosed with major depression and suspected of having social anxiety disorder. I also tested gifted, but little was done about it. I attributed a lot to childhood experiences as well as intelligence. I continued to be severely challenged socially and emotionally throughout life. Now, I'm just trying to figure out how the NT temperament, specifically the INTJ type, might be interacting with Asperger's. I'm planning to see a psychologist about this, but of course I want to learn and try to understand as much as possible on my own first.

Any thoughts? 

Do any of you have Asperger's, or know INTs with it? How do they tend to interact in practice?


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## Inveniet (Aug 21, 2009)

Asbergers is a label made my psychiatrists.
ISTJs are drawn to psychiatry.
ISTJs hate Ni and thinks people not using Si in the right way are mad.
Hence when someone has Si adaptation problems due to their environment expecting it too much 
(SJ parents)
the ISTJ is handily there with the Si deficiency label called autism/asbergers.
I have no proof for this, just a theory that my Ni threw out there.


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## EidolonAlpha (Aug 11, 2014)

I think it's more likely that a person with Asperger is an ISTJ.
Both have very settled habits and both can get really, really uneasy if you interfere with their habits and rituals in some way. On the other hand, people with Asperger are claimed to think very logical and that they're not very in touch with their emotions.

That's the reason, why my mother-in-law once told me, one could mistake me for an Asperger patient =P


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## Tamehagane (Sep 2, 2014)

MBTI is based on people who develop "normally." Psychological abnormalities are off of the MBTI chart. 

Asperger's lacks cognitive dimensionality. Ti/Te without Ni/Ne. For instance, people with Asperger's are known to take figures of speech literally and have difficulty with abstract concepts.

Cognitive functionally, I would suppose that people with Asperger's are stacked higher in T and S functions and lower in N and F functions. There is resemblance with certain MBTI types but no neat equivalent.


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## god of whiNE and TIts (Jul 21, 2017)

asperger's is a medical condition, not a personality type.

I don't suddenly become an ESxP when I'm manic, or an INFP when I'm depressed just because I'm bipolar. Same goes for asperger's.

I've got a good INFJ friend with asperger's, and at times, he can come across as an INTJ. But at the end of the day, he uses Fe far more than I do. He's more wary of others' emotional reactions than I am, even if he is awkward about dealing with it. 

I know another "aspie" who is an INFP. Socially awkward, poor at dealing with other people, but with a strong conscience and a need for creative output. She had lots of sensory issues (sensitivity to light etc) but was very disorganized, contrary to the "rigid aspie" stereotype.

Limiting people with asperger's to a few personality types sort of indicates a lack of knowledge on either subject. Look for functions, not stereotypes.

OP, if you think that you might be autistic, I encourage you to be tested for it. But don't confuse personality traits with a neurological disorder. There's more to asperger's than social awkwardness and rigidity. There's also sensory issues and trouble with executive functioning.


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## god of whiNE and TIts (Jul 21, 2017)

Tamehagane said:


> MBTI is based on people who develop "normally." Psychological abnormalities are off of the MBTI chart.
> 
> Asperger's lacks cognitive dimensionality. Ti/Te without Ni/Ne. For instance, people with Asperger's are known to take figures of speech literally and have difficulty with abstract concepts.
> 
> Cognitive functionally, I would suppose that people with Asperger's are stacked higher in T and S functions and lower in N and F functions. There is resemblance with certain MBTI types but no neat equivalent.


This...is utter bullshit.

Aspergers stereotypes are absolutely erroneous. People try and pull the "aspies struggle with abstract thinking." If that were truly the case, aspies would not be attracted to subjects that involve working with a lot of math. And yet, subjects like physics, engineering, accounting, and other math-heavy topics attract more aspies than any almost any other studies. 

Not to mention, there are different types of empathy: aspies struggle with cognitive empathy (which is "putting themselves in other peoples shoes" so to speak) yet a plenty of aspies have a LOT of emotional empathy, which is the ability to acknowledge another individual's feelings, get upset, and immediately wanting to assist the distressed individual. 

Sounds a hell of a lot like Fe, doesn't it?


Another stereotypical trait of asperger's is "a strong moral conscience" which is _literally_ the definition of Fi. So yeah, people with aspergers can most CERTAINLY be feelers.


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## Tamehagane (Sep 2, 2014)

god of whiNE and TIts said:


> This...is utter bullshit.
> 
> Aspergers stereotypes are absolutely erroneous. People try and pull the "aspies struggle with abstract thinking." If that were truly the case, aspies would not be attracted to subjects that involve working with a lot of math. And yet, subjects like physics, engineering, accounting, and other math-heavy topics attract more aspies than any almost any other studies.
> 
> ...


I appreciate you pointing out that the stereotypes I've heard aren't entirely accurate.

Although that doesn't actually disprove the main point of "Psychological abnormalities are not on the MBTI chart."

Fe isn't just "feeling" empathy, it _is _by definition a cognitive function.
Math as a whole is abstract, and yet math can also be done as a simple manipulation of variables--computers do math without being able to think at all. It doesn't prove much in the way of Ne or Ni, unless we know just what kind math is being done. 

There are 40,320 ways that the 8 cognitive functions could be arranged, and yet there are only 16 personality types in the MBTI. 
We already know that the minds of people with autism work differently than people without it.
It seems quite reasonable that there are people, most likely people with known psychological disorders, who don't fit within the normal typing system.


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## Librarylady (Mar 11, 2017)

I don't think Aspergers is correlated to a specific temperament, I just think...autistic people will show their functions differently.

I'm an aspie INFP, so anything is possible. The INTJ I'm close to is neurotypical. If you think you are both, it is worth checking out, but It's best to not confuse them as the same thing.


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## Gojira (Dec 18, 2015)

Already been said, but a cognitive disability (wherever you are on the spectrum) isn't a personality. People with cognitive disabilities have a great range of personalities. I knew a guy with Asperger's in my Literature college course who was very outgoing and friendly. Your idea of aspergers is just the one perpetuated by the media's obsession with savants.


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## twirler (Jun 8, 2017)

I watched Parenthood and it did remind me of my INTP friend a little.


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