Jordan Peterson: How Autism and Intelligence Connect

Jordan B Peterson (born June 12, 1962) is a Canadian clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. In this clip, he talks about autism, the ability of abstraction and intelligence.

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[dylanmitchell]

I have Aspergers and Ive done things people said I would never do. Believe in yourself

[splatninja]

My wife has autism. Until i met her i thought what a lot of people think, autistic=stupid. She proved me so wrong. While she has trouble in some areas, what shes good at, she excels at. That woman has kept us whole through the most trying of times, doing things i didnt think could be done, approaching issues from angles i would never consider. She is a genius in her own right.

[vyvienvp]

Only diagnosed at age 60yrs, cried with relief. Life has been perpetually exhausting trying to keep up reading, recognising and forming patterns. I speak several languages, am a good thinker and an artist, but cannot for the life of me fill in forms!! Loath bureaucracy, because it is so non descript. Life is pretty challenging.

[annebrasch-verhagen]

I’m a psychologist and I have Autism. It was difficult growing up. Later it all worked out ok.

[novsbvs]

As a girl with Asperger's, I generally have struggled speaking with other women. It sounds harsh, but the emotions tend to drain me completely and it feels quite unnatural. I tend to find hanging around with boys or tomboys easier, as they tend to lean more towards talking about things and ideas as opposed to feelings and people.

[tannerstone]

Grew up not knowing I had Asperger’s but after learning about it more I realized that it was more of a help than a hindrance. Growing up was a little rough not catching on to social signals as quick as other kids but once you get past that it turns into a superpower. Big thanks to my parents for treating me as a normal kid and not allowing me to believe I would be harmed as an adult by this condition.

[BanjoPixelSnack]

I’m on the spectrum. Autism and ADHD. As a female, this was very much ignored because I was very quiet and I just always felt weird having mainly male friends and being interested in tech rather than people. Couldn’t ever connect with girls who wanted to talk gossip and make up and boys and my mother would ask me if I was a lesbian because I wasn’t feminine and was more interested in video games than shopping or makeup. Never had many female friends, mostly male. I struggle to connect with people. Yet people say I am a great listener because I am very accepting and don’t get emotional in return. I am sometimes very slow to get a concept because I can’t keep my thoughts in one place and everything connects to everything else so nothing is ever simple for me. My mother used to call me stupid and slow but she didn’t realise I was *processing* *everything*. I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 40 so I spent my whole life beating myself up - why am I not like everyone else, what’s wrong with me, etc. I’m still getting my head around it now.

[lxpkosd]

One of the main positives for me of being an Aspie is a genuinely don't care what people think of me because I just don't feel any connection to them. I always enjoy watching the realisation they have no power over me - really freaks them out.

[delilahhart]

I wouldn't say that all autistic children dislike people. I'm on the spectrum, and I was very outgoing when I was little. It was only after years of bullying and rejection that I learned to loathe humanity.

[kaiceecrane]

As an autistic person who sees a lot of misinformation about about autism, I wanted to write a short description of not only what autism is but what it is like to have it. This is based off of my own experiences as well as other autistic people I have talked to.


Autism is a different way the brain can be "wired". Some observations may lead an outside observer to think one way, but without the rest of the context it can be very misleading. People with autism take in more information from their surroundings. While doing some activity the neurotypical person (not autistic) may take some time to process said activity and some of their surroundings, an autistic person takes in everything around them that is going on while doing an activity. Take eating lunch in cafeteria for example; while sitting with their friends a neurotypical person will be eating food, talking with their friends, and listening to what they are saying while an autistic person will be doing the same while taking in every sound difference in their friends voice, eye movement, body language, and doing all of these things with anything they also see and hear. Because of that a delay in time to respond may occur as they are taking in and processing more information before they can respond.

A lot of autistic people also have Sensory Processing Disorder, which is a disorder that manifest itself in such a way that the individual with it processes their senses either more dramatically or less. Let’s use the cafeteria example again: the autistic may be hearing every noise and conversation at once in that room, and while the lights may be fine for some people, they may be so bright for an autistic person it is physically painful. This can get overwhelming as all of this stimulus can be too much.

Stimulus is any information gathered by any of your 7 primary senses: sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste, proprioceptive (sense of where you are in space and movement), and vestibular (sense of balance). While these are external stimuli, internal stimuli can affect an autistic person in the same way; internal stimulus being things such as stress or anxiety to name a few. It is important to let an autistic person know how they live and process information is normal and fine, there is nothing wrong with them. They are perfectly normal people, just with a nerotype that isn't typical.


Too much stimulus can cause a meltdown sometimes, or a shutdown. A shutdown is straightforward as they just shutdown like a computer and need to rebute away from all that stimulus. A meltdown is when the autistic person goes into a fight or flight response, where they will act accordingly as does anyone when their subconscious feels threatened. Keep in mind, too much stimulus is painful, and can be drastically so. You could say that a shutdown is when the fight or flight response goes so extreme they freeze. To combat all of this stimulus an autistic person needs to do one of two things, and may sometimes need help doing them: 1.) Remove the negative stimulus, say like going somewhere darker or quieter 2.) Stim. Stimming can be with any of the 7 primary senses as it replaces bad information, or stimulus, with good. This may be repeating some sound, rocking back or forth, touching some textured object, or hand flapping. These are just a tiny few examples of stimming.

Stimming is good stimulus, so an autistic person may stim sometimes just because it feels good to do so with no other reason or maybe to express themselves as is natural and feels good to them. Sometimes when an autistic person has too much negative stimulus they may become nonverbal, or in other words may not be able to talk or use their words. Sometimes they may still be able to make sounds, write, or communicate in some other alternative fashion. Some autistic people take in more stimulus than other autistic people, and can be prone to experiencing more meltdowns and being nonverbal. Nonverbal occurs when the mind and body has to divert resources to dealing with other tasks. An autistic person may normally not be nonverbal but become so during a meltdown or when overwhelmed. Sometimes instead of being nonverbal, there might be a stutter instead.

An autistic person has a certain amount of “spoons” they have for every day. Spoons are the resources (mentally, emotionally, physically) you can use to do some task. Some days you may have more spoons, and other days you may feel like you have none. Getting up out of bed cost spoons, dressing oneself cost spoons, brushing your teeth, showering, eating breakfast, going to work, going to class, anything you do cost some amount of spoons; with little resources of spoons available, you may only be able to accomplish only a few tasks, and that is perfectly okay. Sometimes a task can cost a lot of spoons, and sometimes the same task may cost more spoons than other times.

Sometimes looking at a person's face or communicating with someone can be difficult. Communication is like a dance, and can be very difficult to follow. There are 3 ways of communication: what is said, how it is said, and body language. A person's face goes through a lot of changes over a short period of time to reflect how they are feeling, and looking at a person while talking can take a lot of spoons at time. It can be very overwhelming to try to pick up on a lot of cues people have in any form of communication. A lot of times an autistic person may only focus on one form of communication, if any, to be able to communicate. Communication in of itself (talking, listening, changes in subject) yet alone looking at some, taking in all the noise, and light, among some many things happening at once can be too much. If things feel that way, that everything is overwhelming, it is okay to remove yourself from that situation or choose not to be there in the first place. There is nothing wrong in taking care of yourself.

[khfanlife]

I’m a woman with Asperger’s. I don’t really see myself as very intelligent, but my dad told me that I have this ability to read any book and remember information from it. He described that my brain is like a sponge, constantly taking in new information and being able to repeat it. Mind you, it only applies to visual information, like books, websites, etc. A lot of times, I forget new information if it’s auditory.

[RichardJamesStayAtHomeDad]

One of my favorite things about grad school and the PhD office was almost everyone else there was more than likely on the spectrum. It felt comfy.

[bealltho]

I've found that the simplest way to live with having Asperger's (high functioning autism) is to not get hung up on whether I have friends or not. I look at it this way. My brain is optimized to do solo work, not group projects.

[animelife]

i was told i would never even graduate, let alone be successful in life, thanks to autism, tourette syndrome, ADHD, severe epilepsy, and learning issues. here i am almost 30 years later not only graduated with honors, but also got a job i love, not even a single penny of debt, lots of money in the bank, i'm a martial arts instructor going on 7 years now, and i live on my own. we may have disabilities, but that doesn't mean we're completely broken and worthless.

[stcsfqy]

When, at age 42, I realized that I had Asperger's, I cried incessantly for over five hours. I could not stop. Not tears of grief, but tears of 'thank you God, I finally know what is "wrong" with me!" I then went through the list and; one by one, I purposefully changed each 'odd/not a social norm' attribute on the AMA's 'list of' Aspy characteristics until I had that 'social flaw' conquered. The rest I have realized are a rare blessing of abilities and capabilities not many people possess. Thank you God!

[edwinamendelssohn]

That's a generalization. My granddaughter loves people.

[DudeMaybeSomeday]

I have aspergers and am 35... I have known since a child.. Life was tough man... It's not anymore.. At one point, I had a teacher who told me 'I was as dumb as a box of rocks..' and many others bothered me negatively in different ways.

Jokes on them.. I have a beautiful family, a beautiful home and property, and a beautiful life. The trauma pops up from time to time, but I'm here to tell you having a belief in yourself and fighting through the tough times will pay off.. We might develop later, but if you are high functioning, it comes through so purely. You end up so far ahead of others... The joy of this is if you make sure to be kind, you learn how to be awesome and nice while still taking what you need.. At this point in my life I feel above most and not in a negative or egotistical way. I just know what I know and that's enough, and how I am able to live my life and provide proves my point.

Find your potential.

[Thalasius]

"They don't like people" that hits hard with me, most people frustrate the hell out of me

[joostprins]

I see a lot of overkill, as many people with Autism, as many different forms of Autism there are. People are different, treat them as such. I, for myself learned at about age 40 I was what they call an autist. Also I learned I had an IQ of 139. It explained a lot for me, the reason why I could not work with a coach when I was a teenager rowing athlete, I became a world champion, without a coach. It explained to me why I can “see” numbers, being terrible with names but never forget a number. It explained to me why I changed my handwriting in a few months when I was 13. It also explained why I’m sacked quit a few times, being totally bored and not seeing this, the feeling is this a trick question or is it really simple. I did my university in 7 years, it took some time but I did it.
It explained to me why I hate groups, why I had trouble playing team sports.
I’m married for over 25 years now, my wife is the most patient woman in the world (well not statistically), I got two children, a boy, more autistic then me, and a girl with ADHD, we knew from young ages and support them as much as possible, we have only one goal, try to let them be happy, and that, is for us the challenge.

[jaguar]

My beautiful autistic son just turned 20. He started reading at 22 months. Comprehension has always for the most part been nebulous. He is very frugal with words. He’s like a puppy and a computer. He also has always been so full of joy and mirth. Very affectionate which is unusual for autism. He had an aid throughout school. Currently in a 3 year post grad program that focuses on life skills and job skills. He was mainstreamed and some learning support. He has a beautiful personality even though he doesn’t speak much. I love his mind. He’s good at art and maths and memorizing. It’s like he’s locked inside his mind.