Anyone up for literary references BINGO?

[a_blackpanther]

This is the discussion post for Episode 8x03 - "Through the looking glass". Watch out for SPOILERS in the comments.

Comments

[lumiere42.livejournal.com]

COMPLICATED.

My fanwank = Reid got suspicious after "Coda", researched, self-diagnosed, but is keeping it quiet because A) he's not sure how his colleagues would react; B) are autistic people even ALLOWED to be in the FBI?

More yammering re: this when I review.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

Why wouldn't autistic people be allowed in the FBI? It's not like autism is a mental illness or something that makes people dangerous.

[blue-sunflowers.livejournal.com]

I missed it, what exactly happened?
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And yeah, I can't see why someone with ASD can't be in the FBI. It's not like Reid can't do his job. Though I will say IMO it helps explaining how he got in in the first place. Even the real-life profilers told MGG first season his character would never be in the BAU simply because of the gun issue. Add to that all the waivers Reid says he got, and it'd be easier to fanwank that as maybe an ADA thing.

[lumiere42.livejournal.com]

If the FBI (wrongly) regards the autism spectrum as a "mental health issue", autistic folks might not be able to get the necessary security clearances to work for them. I did some Google-research on this, but can't find any info re: it.

The US military has a blanket ban on admitting autistic folks since a few years ago. AARGH

[blue-sunflowers.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine Reid not suspecting until Coda. Season One just screamed it, plus the unsub on the phone in like...the third episode?
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Not to mention as a kid. There's just no way I believe a teacher and/or counselor didn't bring it up either when he was in school or when he went to CalTech.

[lumiere42.livejournal.com]

Aspergers-type autism wasn't even a diagnostic label in the Western world till 1993. Reid would've already been a teenager by then. Probably his K-12 teachers would've explained away his autistic-type stuff as him just being highly gifted, and by then his mom was in no shape to question anything...

CalTech = full of Aspie-autie "Silicon Valley types", so Reid wouldn't have been seen as especially unusual there.

There are a LOT of late-diagnosed Aspie autistic folks out there, for a combination of the above reasons.

[blue-sunflowers.livejournal.com]

Asperger's wasn't a diagnosis, but Autism was. Reid presents enough symptoms - and as a child those symptoms would have been more pronounced - to if not fully qualify for a diagnosis, certainly to have raised enough interest to at least send him out for one. I made a list once. You can click on my user name and it will come up - the DSM-IV (comparable to DSM-III) list is in the comments though. I'd direct link, but I'm on my phone.
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As a child, Reid would have been a financial hardship on his school, and the school would have wanted federal funding - which means a diagnosis of some kind. So I'm more than sure that *somewhere* there is notation referring Reid for evaluation, even if his parents never did it. And even if CalTech and Silicon Valley is full of Reids, I'm pretty sure a 13 year old would still stand out. Even worse when he got to the FBI. I can't imagine - with all the bullying he probably endured - no one ever lobbed an offensive ASD related slur at him (like "Rainman").
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We are talking about a child who couldn't even directly ask his dad to stay as dad was walking out the door. The best Reid could do was an indirect plea citing statistics.