Applicable to autistic folks too.
...or not. An illustration:

I live in the mountains of western North Carolina, and most roads are pretty curvy as a result. Interstate 40 West runs past Asheville and continues into Tennessee. If I were to drive that road and stay in one lane, I would be negotiating many curves, but would not move much relative to other vehicles near me. Suppose, though, that traffic was light and I chose the shortest path through each curve. Relative to other vehicles, I would be weaving back and forth from lane to lane. But from my own standpoint, I’d be driving smoothly and efficiently while the highway wove under me. Which relative motion would be considered “eccentric”?

“Eccentricity”: is it being off-center in a way which has some external effect, or just moving in a noncircular orbit? There is an implication of circularity in the origin of the term - does this imply that the “eccentric” person kind of orbits around the central point instead of just being at it?

Actually , “eccentricity” may not be a particularly descriptive word, in that it connotes some kind of orbital path around a central locus or axis - like an ellipse or egg-shaped path. In the trigonometric metaphor, I’d say our relation to this central locus is more parabolic or hyperbolic. Consider the hyperbola: the curve approaches the locus from... somewhere outside, there is some amount of lateral motion along a couple of axes, and off it goes again. In this manner, an autistic person could enter “social-norm space”, interact - or study/learn - and depart again. The locus is of temporary, situational use without confining (or capturing!) the individual’s experiential path. The approached might be considered learning/teaching events or, at least, opportunities.

But even that doesn’t represent the full situation. What are the mathematics of someone walking an arrow-straight line through a square dance? The path would appear to change every time a different step was called... but who moved?

Last revised: June 20, 2007
(c)2007 Dave Spicer
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