“Camouflage” is defined as a combination of masking — hiding behaviours that mark one as different — and compensating — using conscious or unconscious strategies to adapt to a specific environment (Hull et al. 2017). The previous post on Camouflage and Autism (1) established that camouflage and masking are not exclusively autistic. They may be useful social tools for strengthening relationships and navigating different contexts, rather than merely harmful attempts to “pass” (

If everybody camouflages, what exactly are we talking about? In Camouflage and Autism (1), I've made what may seem like a rather inconvenient observation: Everybody camouflages. Not just autistic people. Not just people with a diagnosis of some kind or without any diagnosis. Everybody. We adjust our behaviour according to where we are, whom we are with and what is expected of us. We suppress things we would otherwise say. We imitate behaviours that seem to work for other peop

Autism is real. Disability is real. Support can be essential, sometimes life-changing, and sometimes the difference between exclusion and participation. But it does not follow that a diagnosis should become the organising principle of a person’s entire identity, or that every difficulty, preference, gift, habit, wound, achievement and failure should be interpreted through one label. In some ways, the past may have been easier – not because society was kinder or more enlighten

I received two private messages in response to my recent blog post, Autism, Murder and the Death Penalty: Two Japanese Cases. One was negative—How dare you write about it?!—while the other was positive: Thank you. It is very important to talk about real cases, even when they are… Interestingly, both messages eventually asked the same question: Is the nursing profession suitable for autistic people? Here is what I can say about it. Autistic nurses: is this the “wrong” job? App

Can autism ever reduce criminal responsibility for murder? It is an uncomfortable question, but one that courts occasionally have to answer. A recent paper by Kashiwagi and Hirabayashi (2026)[1] examines two extraordinary Japanese cases in which healthcare professionals with ASD or autistic traits committed multiple homicides. Although the defendants shared certain autistic characteristics, the courts reached dramatically different conclusions: one was sentenced to death, whi

Diagnosis, Comorbidity, and the Question of What Makes Us Who We Are Before discussing autistic identity, it is necessary to clarify several terms that will be used throughout this article. Identity refers to the qualities, beliefs, personality traits, social roles, and affiliations that define a person or a group. It may include characteristics such as nationality, sex, profession, values, political or religious beliefs, and membership in particular communities. For example,

The slogan “Nothing about us without us” has become one of the defining principles of modern disability advocacy. At its core, it expresses an important moral idea: disabled people should not be excluded from decisions that affect their lives. In many contexts, this principle is both reasonable and necessary. But autism raises difficult questions that the slogan alone cannot answer. Who exactly is the “us” without whom nothing can be decided? Does it refer primarily to autist

In recent years, the public image of autism has changed dramatically. Media coverage, social media advocacy, and popular culture increasingly portray autistic people as articulate, independent, academically successful, or socially unconventional in appealing ways. Autism is often framed primarily as a natural human variation – a different way to think and experience the world. For some autistic people, this representation is undoubtedly valid. But it is far from the whole pic

This post is in response to a discussion on Facebook, 05.05.2026 Having trouble shopping with an autistic youngster? I understand this problem only too well: from the time my son was a toddler, it was impossible to take him shopping with me. Anything (and I do mean ANYTHING) could trigger his meltdown. Sometimes I could identify the cause of it (even if it took days after the event) – constantly playing the ‘video’ of the latest ‘catastrophe’ in my head until I found a more o