Integrity is the totality of yourself; it is what you really are, ...

... not what you believe about yourself, or what you pretend to be. – Dr. Miguel Ruiz

For some time now there has been a lot of talk about "identity" and how someone identifies themselves, or as who or what. Recently I read that someone identifies as autistic, so the person was not talking about themselves as autistic, or as someone with autism, but that they identify as autistic.

I see two distinct things here.

In my opinion, some things are being distorted here that can be fatal not only on an individual level but also socially. Let's take a closer look at "identity.

Identity is not much more than an idea supposedly based on real facts. For example, someone who is 20 years old today identifies as Peruvian because he was born and raised there and his whole family is from Peru. Then he goes to study in Norway, finds life there great, meets a partner and gets married, at 40 he takes Norwegian citizenship and from then on identifies as Norwegian. It works the same way with religion.

This identity is what social and cultural conditioning tells us about ourselves. Often enough, it has little or nothing to do with biological and/or neurobiological reality. A child of Chinese parents adopted by an Australian or perhaps French or perhaps Chilean couple will grow up with this identity, but biologically he or she is Chinese.

Identity is a socio-cultural question, also a philosophical one.

Autism, however, is a neurological and neurobiological reality. That's where the difference lies, and you can't confuse that, that can also cause damage.

Not to mention that in this day and age, all emphasis is placed on "identity" rather than real life circumstances. Instead of actual tangible social issues, the concept of "identity" is brought into the discussion, and this misses the real issues.

But that is only one definition of identity, and one has to differentiate precisely on the subject.

The "other" identity can be captured to a large extent in biometric data, so it is more biological/medical. Fingerprint, genetics, sex, age, ethnicity, socio-cultural background, life history (professional and private)... Some of these factors are immutable, others change, or can change.

And then there are ideas about identity, and also definitions that no longer have much to do with it. Recently I read about a man in Norway, middle-aged, physically demonstrably healthy - but who identifies himself as a "disabled woman". And he lives his life in a wheelchair and tells everyone firmly that he feels nothing from the waist down and cannot move. Regardless of the fact that appropriate tests show the opposite.

Defining identity in this sense is an enormous psychological problem, both at the individual and societal levels.

It is also important to note that the neurobiology of humans is basically the same for all because we all belong to one and the same species Homo sapiens sapiens. If you don't do that, you open the door (again!) for racism and other intellectual destructive directions, and there one has to be very careful (we can see where alleged "science" led to in the 19th century!).

However, the social and cultural environment of course has a formative influence on each person and their neurobiology. In this sense, each individual differs from the other, even siblings who grow up in the same family. But this is more psychological, or perhaps better neuropsychological.

Therefore, when we speak of identity, we have to be more precise. In some Western countries, we have already reached the point where the identity an individual ascribes to himself or herself counts for more than his or her actual reality (see that man in Norway). I consider this to be a social and socio-political problem of enormous proportions, the consequences of which we will probably only really see and hopefully understand in the coming years and decades.

Autism as a neurobiological (individual) reality is of course something that shapes or can shape a person's identity. But it does not have to, and does not necessarily need to. There are enough autistic people who don't know it, don't even begin to realize it, but lead content and fulfilled lives.