[002]
CaptainCapsase
Current Version
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Given that it\\\'s been removed and re-added perhaps a dozen times since the start of the show, I think it\\\'s time we come to a consensus on whether or not AmbiguousDisorder belongs on Ruby\\\'s character entry. I\\\'m of the opinion that it does, and given that this is an EditWar that\\\'s been going on for about a year and a half, I\\\'ve done my research, complete with citations that should be publicly accessible to everyone. Bear with me, because this is going to be an extremely long and detailed post.
I was, to the best of my knowledge, the first person to add that trope to Ruby\\\'s entry, back when it was called \\\"Ambiguously Autistic\\\" and I did so largely because certain mannerisms of hers felt familiar to behaviors I\\\'ve noticed in myself. I am (professionally) diagnosed with what would now be classified as Autism Spectrum Disorder, and got the diagnosis at age 16, six years ago at this point. I\\\'ve since attended and graduated from college, and am in the process of applying to medical school. Reevaluating my position, I\\\'ve found that I\\\'d still consider AmbiguousDisorder to apply to Ruby, and here\\\'s why.
We\\\'ll use the most objective metrics possible for this sort of thing: the actual diagnostic criteria for the disorder in question. I\\\'ll be using the DSM-4-TR criteria, along with extended criteria from the Adult Asperger\\\'s Assessment, which are denoted with a [=*=].
While DSM-5 is newer, there were initially, and continue to be concerns regarding the criteria used for diagnosing cases of ASD on the high functioning end of the spectrum, at least compared to the DSM-4, to the point where the vast majority people diagnosed with Asperger\\\'s under the DSM-4 would no longer qualify in early drafts. This was partially alleviated by an addendum that recommended all previous diagnoses of disorders categorized as part of the Autism spectrum under the DSM-4 be updated to ASD, regardless of whether or not the individual would actually qualify for ASD under the new criteria. (3)
It should be noted that the diagnosis of Asperger\\\'s—low severity ASD under the DSM-5—in adults or adolescents is significantly complicated by the fact that in many cases, traits associated with the disorder will be masked by learned behaviors, which can be facilitated by a supportive upbringing and by professional coaching. (1) Now for the actual criteria (2)(4):
A. Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
1. Marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
2. Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
3. Lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people
4. Lack of social or emotional reciprocity
5. Difficulties in understanding social situations and other people’s thoughts and feelings[=*=]
B. Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
1. Encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
2. Apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
3. Stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms
4. Persistent preoccupation with parts of objects
5. Tendency to think of issues as being black and white, rather than considering multiple perspectives in a flexible way[=*=]
C. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
D. There is no clinically significant general delay in language e.g., single words used by age two years, communicative phrases used by age three years).
E. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development.
F. Criteria are not met for another specific pervasive developmental disorder or schizophrenia.
In addition to these criteria, there are two additional lists, from which three of four symptoms must be present, either at the present or at some point in the past.
Additionally: Qualitative impairments in verbal or nonverbal communication with at least three of the following symptoms:
1. Tendency to turn any conversation back on to self or own topic of interest
2. Marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others.
3. Cannot see the point of superficial social contact, niceties, or passing time with others, unless there is a clear discussion point/debate or activity.
4. Pedantic style of speaking, inclusion of too much detail
5. Inability to recognize when the listener is interested or bored
6. Frequent tendency to say things without considering the emotional impact on the listener
Additionally: Impairment in at least one of the criteria relating to childhood imagination:
1. Lack of varied, spontaneous make believe play appropriate to developmental level
2. Inability to tell, write or generate spontaneous, unscripted or unplagiarized fiction
3. Either lack of interest in fiction (written, or drama) appropriate to developmental level or interest in fiction is restricted to its possible basis in fact (e.g. science fiction, history, technical aspects of film)
Now as far as our protagonist is concerned, from list A, I would argue that items 2 and 5 are present. Item 2 insofar as there is no indications—for example phone calls to old friends—she had any close friends prior to attending Beacon, other than family members like Yang and Qrow. She mentions a “gang back at signal” at one point, but since then, there\\\'s been no other mentions of other signal students Ruby knew, and Yang had encouraged her to go out and make friends of her own, making me suspect they weren\\\'t particularly close, perhaps more like cordial acquaintances than friends. They can see Signal from Beacon, so there\\\'s nothing that would prevent her from spending time with old friends if she wanted to. Either way, that\\\'s not really indicative of proper development of age appropriate friendships. This has obviously changed in the 8 or so months since the start of the series, but as with the other items in the list, having historically met this criteria counts.
Item 5 is less prominent, but still clearly present, particularly in Ruby\\\'s interactions with Weiss and more recently Winter. More specifically, I\\\'m referring to RunningGag of Ruby completely misinterpreting the intent behind something Weiss says—for example her haughty \\\"Can I?\\\" as a statement of doubt rather than confidence—or failing to recognize Weiss\\\'s unsubtle attempts to cue her to shut up, as was the case when Ruby was goofing off in class, and when she was embarrassing Weiss in front of Winter. Another example that comes to mind is Ruby randomly abandoning Jaune to go sit with Yang during Ozpin\\\'s welcoming speech to the Beacon freshmen
From list B, I would argue 1, 4 and 5 are present. Ruby\\\'s intense interest in weapons—and the hunters who wield them—seems unusual even to Yang, and the first time she met Jaune, it was literally the first conversation topic, right after an exchange of names, that came to her mind. Much later, we see her distracted from a rather somber encounter with Penny by a presentation of new Atlas military hardware. Item 4 requires some explanation, because the wording does not really convey what\\\'s actually meant by “persistent preoccupation with parts of objects”. Essentially, this symptom is the tendency for individuals on the autism spectrum to “miss the forest for the trees”; oftentimes, when someone with ASD finds something interesting about what someone says to them, regardless of whether it was pertinent to the conversation, they will fixate on that part of the statement. (1) I can think of two specific examples of this: Ruby telling Yang she doesn\\\'t need help to grow up because she drinks milk, and “correcting” Qrow about there not being any medals for almost. Item 5 appears in the form of Ruby\\\'s idealistic and rather naïve view of the world, which is the lighter side of this sort of black and white mindset.
C does not appear to be the case as of the present, but she was very clearly struggling adjusting to life away from home, particularly in terms of socializing. If the speculation about her lack of close friendships prior to attending Beacon, than this would have clearly been the case earlier in her life. As for D and E, were such delays actually to be present, the main difference is that the diagnosis would be High Functioning Autism rather than Asperger\\\'s (1). F is largely irrelevant for our purposes.
From the first additional list, I see a case for items 1, 3, and 6. 1 and 3 were present in the first few episodes of the series, with Ruby initially expressing no desire to make friends of her own at Beacon, and, after starting their conversation by noting he threw up on the zeppelin ride in, immediately changed the topic of the conversation to weapons. Both have seen improvement since the start of the series. 6 shows up frequently in her interactions with Jaune; immediately upon meeting him, she identifies him as the person who threw up on the zeppelin, then, based on the cut to them still talking about it some distance away, made a big deal about it, and ended up calling him vomit boy at least once more. Later on, the first half of her attempt at a motivational for Jaune was clearly making him feel worse, not that she seemed to notice.
The second of the additional lists is largely concerned with a person\\\'s childhood, and the vividness or lack of vividness of Ruby\\\'s imagination hasn\\\'t really been touched upon, so we can\\\'t really say whether or not any of these items apply, though Ruby\\\'s view of fairy tales as an ideal to be aspired to is suggestive of item 3.
Now that we\\\'ve gotten through that gargantuan explanation, I\\\'m going to conclude by saying that this is largely semi-novice conjecture; I took one year of introductory psych courses, which were newly added requirements for the 2015 update of the MCAT exam, but my area of expertise deals more with physical healthcare than mental healthcare. This ended up being way, way longer than I was expecting when I started writing, which I did alongside a rewatch of the series.
Anyway, the gist of this whole psiel is that I think there\\\'s more than enough of a basis to say that Ruby might be autistic, high functioning obviously. That\\\'s what the trope is generally used for, and there\\\'s certainly far more questionable examples currently on the page. Now obviously all this would be cleared up significantly by a flashback to Ruby\\\'s early childhood; you\\\'d expect, under this assumption, for the issues she had/has to be much more pronounced. All we\\\'ve gotten so far is a flashback of Yang\\\'s wherein she was asleep the entire time.
Citations
(1) Asperger\\\'s Syndrome in Adulthood http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695286/
(2) The Adult Asperger Assessmen (AAA): A diagnostic method. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16331530/
(3) ASD in DSM-5 http://autisticadvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ASAN_DSM-5_2_final.pdf
(4) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision
I was, to the best of my knowledge, the first person to add that trope to Ruby\\\'s entry, back when it was called \\\"Ambiguously Autistic\\\" and I did so largely because certain mannerisms of hers felt familiar to behaviors I\\\'ve noticed in myself. I am (professionally) diagnosed with what would now be classified as Autism Spectrum Disorder, and got the diagnosis at age 16, six years ago at this point. I\\\'ve since attended and graduated from college, and am in the process of applying to medical school. Reevaluating my position, I\\\'ve found that I\\\'d still consider AmbiguousDisorder to apply to Ruby, and here\\\'s why.
We\\\'ll use the most objective metrics possible for this sort of thing: the actual diagnostic criteria for the disorder in question. I\\\'ll be using the DSM-4-TR criteria, along with extended criteria from the Adult Asperger\\\'s Assessment, which are denoted with a [=*=].
While DSM-5 is newer, there were initially, and continue to be concerns regarding the criteria used for diagnosing cases of ASD on the high functioning end of the spectrum, at least compared to the DSM-4, to the point where the vast majority people diagnosed with Asperger\\\'s under the DSM-4 would no longer qualify in early drafts. This was partially alleviated by an addendum that recommended all previous diagnoses of disorders categorized as part of the Autism spectrum under the DSM-4 be updated to ASD, regardless of whether or not the individual would actually qualify for ASD under the new criteria. (3)
It should be noted that the diagnosis of Asperger\\\'s—low severity ASD under the DSM-5—in adults or adolescents is significantly complicated by the fact that in many cases, traits associated with the disorder will be masked by learned behaviors, which can be facilitated by a supportive upbringing and by professional coaching. (1) Now for the actual criteria (2)(4):
A. Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
1. Marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
2. Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
3. Lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people
4. Lack of social or emotional reciprocity
5. Difficulties in understanding social situations and other people’s thoughts and feelings[=*=]
B. Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
1. Encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
2. Apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
3. Stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms
4. Persistent preoccupation with parts of objects
5. Tendency to think of issues as being black and white, rather than considering multiple perspectives in a flexible way[=*=]
C. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
D. There is no clinically significant general delay in language e.g., single words used by age two years, communicative phrases used by age three years).
E. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development.
F. Criteria are not met for another specific pervasive developmental disorder or schizophrenia.
In addition to these criteria, there are two additional lists, from which three of four symptoms must be present, either at the present or at some point in the past.
Additionally: Qualitative impairments in verbal or nonverbal communication with at least three of the following symptoms:
1. Tendency to turn any conversation back on to self or own topic of interest
2. Marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others.
3. Cannot see the point of superficial social contact, niceties, or passing time with others, unless there is a clear discussion point/debate or activity.
4. Pedantic style of speaking, inclusion of too much detail
5. Inability to recognize when the listener is interested or bored
6. Frequent tendency to say things without considering the emotional impact on the listener
Additionally: Impairment in at least one of the criteria relating to childhood imagination:
1. Lack of varied, spontaneous make believe play appropriate to developmental level
2. Inability to tell, write or generate spontaneous, unscripted or unplagiarized fiction
3. Either lack of interest in fiction (written, or drama) appropriate to developmental level or interest in fiction is restricted to its possible basis in fact (e.g. science fiction, history, technical aspects of film)
Now as far as our protagonist is concerned, from list A, I would argue that items 2 and 5 are present. Item 2 insofar as there is no indications—for example phone calls to old friends—she had any close friends prior to attending Beacon, other than family members like Yang and Qrow. She mentions a “gang back at signal” at one point, but since then, there\\\'s been no other mentions of other signal students Ruby knew, and Yang had encouraged her to go out and make friends of her own, making me suspect they weren\\\'t particularly close, perhaps more like cordial acquaintances than friends. They can see Signal from Beacon, so there\\\'s nothing that would prevent her from spending time with old friends if she wanted to. Either way, that\\\'s not really indicative of proper development of age appropriate friendships. This has obviously changed in the 8 or so months since the start of the series, but as with the other items in the list, having historically met this criteria counts.
Item 5 is less prominent, but still clearly present, particularly in Ruby\\\'s interactions with Weiss and more recently Winter. More specifically, I\\\'m referring to RunningGag of Ruby completely misinterpreting the intent behind something Weiss says—for example her haughty \\\"Can I?\\\" as a statement of doubt rather than confidence—or failing to recognize Weiss\\\'s unsubtle attempts to cue her to shut up, as was the case when Ruby was goofing off in class, and when she was embarrassing Weiss in front of Winter. Another example that comes to mind is Ruby randomly abandoning Jaune to go sit with Yang during Ozpin\\\'s welcoming speech to the Beacon freshmen
From list B, I would argue 1, 4 and 5 are present. Ruby\\\'s intense interest in weapons—and the hunters who wield them—seems unusual even to Yang, and the first time she met Jaune, it was literally the first conversation topic, right after an exchange of names, that came to her mind. Much later, we see her distracted from a rather somber encounter with Penny by a presentation of new Atlas military hardware. Item 4 requires some explanation, because the wording does not really convey what\\\'s actually meant by “persistent preoccupation with parts of objects”. Essentially, this symptom is the tendency for individuals on the autism spectrum to “miss the forest for the trees”; oftentimes, when someone with ASD finds something interesting about what someone says to them, regardless of whether it was pertinent to the conversation, they will fixate on that part of the statement. (1) I can think of two specific examples of this: Ruby telling Yang she doesn\\\'t need help to grow up because she drinks milk, and “correcting” Qrow about there not being any medals for almost. Item 5 appears in the form of Ruby\\\'s idealistic and rather naïve view of the world, which is the lighter side of this sort of black and white mindset.
C does not appear to be the case as of the present, but she was very clearly struggling adjusting to life away from home, particularly in terms of socializing. If the speculation about her lack of close friendships prior to attending Beacon, than this would have clearly been the case earlier in her life. As for D and E, were such delays actually to be present, the main difference is that the diagnosis would be High Functioning Autism rather than Asperger\\\'s (1). F is largely irrelevant for our purposes.
From the first additional list, I see a case for items 1, 3, and 6. 1 and 3 were present in the first few episodes of the series, with Ruby initially expressing no desire to make friends of her own at Beacon, and, after starting their conversation by noting he threw up on the zeppelin ride in, immediately changed the topic of the conversation to weapons. Both have seen improvement since the start of the series. 6 shows up frequently in her interactions with Jaune; immediately upon meeting him, she identifies him as the person who threw up on the zeppelin, then, based on the cut to them still talking about it some distance away, made a big deal about it, and ended up calling him vomit boy at least once more. Later on, the first half of her attempt at a motivational for Jaune was clearly making him feel worse, not that she seemed to notice.
The second of the additional lists is largely concerned with a person\\\'s childhood, and the vividness or lack of vividness of Ruby\\\'s imagination hasn\\\'t really been touched upon, so we can\\\'t really say whether or not any of these items apply, though Ruby\\\'s view of fairy tales as an ideal to be aspired to is suggestive of item 3.
Now that we\\\'ve gotten through that gargantuan explanation, I\\\'m going to conclude by saying that this is largely semi-novice conjecture; I took one year of introductory psych courses, which were newly added requirements for the 2015 update of the MCAT exam, but my area of expertise deals more with physical healthcare than mental healthcare. This ended up being way, way longer than I was expecting when I started writing, which I did alongside a rewatch of the series.
Anyway, the gist of this whole psiel is that I think there\\\'s more than enough of a basis to say that Ruby might be autistic, high functioning obviously. That\\\'s what the trope is generally used for, and there\\\'s certainly far more questionable examples currently on the page. Now obviously all this would be cleared up significantly by a flashback to Ruby\\\'s early childhood; you\\\'d expect, under this assumption, for the issues she had/has to be much more pronounced. All we\\\'ve gotten so far is a flashback of Yang\\\'s wherein she was asleep the entire time.
Citations
(1) Asperger\\\'s Syndrome in Adulthood http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695286/
(2) The Adult Asperger Assessmen (AAA): A diagnostic method. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16331530/
(3) ASD in DSM-5 http://autisticadvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ASAN_DSM-5_2_final.pdf
(4) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision
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Given that it\\\'s been removed and re-added perhaps a dozen times since the start of the show, I think it\\\'s time we come to a consensus on whether or not AmbiguousDisorder belongs on Ruby\\\'s character entry. I\\\'m of the opinion that it does, and given that this is an EditWar that\\\'s been going on for about a year and a half, I\\\'ve done my research, complete with citations that should be publicly accessible to everyone. Bear with me, because this is going to be an extremely long and detailed post.
I was, to the best of my knowledge, the first person to add that trope to Ruby\\\'s entry, back when it was called \\\"Ambiguously Autistic\\\" and I did so largely because certain mannerisms of hers felt familiar to behaviors I\\\'ve noticed in myself. I am (professionally) diagnosed with what would now be classified as Autism Spectrum Disorder, and got the diagnosis at age 16, six years ago at this point. I\\\'ve since attended and graduated from college, and am in the process of applying to medical school. Reevaluating my position, I\\\'ve found that I\\\'d still consider AmbiguousDisorder to apply to Ruby, and here\\\'s why.
We\\\'ll use the most objective metrics possible for this sort of thing: the actual diagnostic criteria for the disorder in question. I\\\'ll be using the DSM-4-TR criteria, along with extended criteria from the Adult Asperger\\\'s Assessment, which are denoted with a [=*=].
While DSM-5 is newer, there were initially, and continue to be concerns regarding the criteria used for diagnosing cases of ASD on the high functioning end of the spectrum, at least compared to the DSM-4, to the point where the vast majority people diagnosed with Asperger\\\'s under the DSM-4 would no longer qualify in early drafts. This was partially alleviated by an addendum that recommended all previous diagnoses of disorders categorized as part of the Autism spectrum under the DSM-4 be updated to ASD, regardless of whether or not the individual would actually qualify for ASD under the new criteria. (3)
It should be noted that the diagnosis of Asperger\\\'s—low severity ASD under the DSM-5—in adults or adolescents is significantly complicated by the fact that in many cases, traits associated with the disorder will be masked by learned behaviors, which can be facilitated by a supportive upbringing and by professional coaching. (1) Now for the actual criteria (2)(4):
A. Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
1. Marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
2. Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
3. Lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people
4. Lack of social or emotional reciprocity
5. Difficulties in understanding social situations and other people’s thoughts and feelings[=*=]
B. Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
1. Encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
2. Apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
3. Stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms
4. Persistent preoccupation with parts of objects
5. Tendency to think of issues as being black and white, rather than considering multiple perspectives in a flexible way[=*=]
C. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
D. There is no clinically significant general delay in language e.g., single words used by age two years, communicative phrases used by age three years).
E. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development.
F. Criteria are not met for another specific pervasive developmental disorder or schizophrenia.
In addition to these criteria, there are two additional lists, from which three of four symptoms must be present, either at the present or at some point in the past.
Additionally: Qualitative impairments in verbal or nonverbal communication with at least three of the following symptoms:
1. Tendency to turn any conversation back on to self or own topic of interest
2. Marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others.
3. Cannot see the point of superficial social contact, niceties, or passing time with others, unless there is a clear discussion point/debate or activity.
4. Pedantic style of speaking, inclusion of too much detail
5. Inability to recognize when the listener is interested or bored
6. Frequent tendency to say things without considering the emotional impact on the listener
Additionally: Impairment in at least one of the criteria relating to childhood imagination:
1. Lack of varied, spontaneous make believe play appropriate to developmental level
2. Inability to tell, write or generate spontaneous, unscripted or unplagiarized fiction
3. Either lack of interest in fiction (written, or drama) appropriate to developmental level or interest in fiction is restricted to its possible basis in fact (e.g. science fiction, history, technical aspects of film)
Now as far as our protagonist is concerned, from list A, I would argue that items 2 and 5 are present. Item 2 insofar as there is no indications—for example phone calls to old friends—she had any close friends prior to attending Beacon, other than family members like Yang and Qrow. She mentions a “gang back at signal” at one point, but since then, there\\\'s been no other mentions of other signal students Ruby knew, and Yang had encouraged her to go out and make friends of her own, making me suspect they weren\\\'t particularly close, perhaps more like cordial acquaintances than friends. They can see Signal from Beacon, so there\\\'s nothing that would prevent her from spending time with old friends if she wanted to. Either way, that\\\'s not really indicative of proper development of age appropriate friendships. This has obviously changed in the 8 or so months since the start of the series, but as with the other items in the list, having historically met this criteria counts.
Item 5 is less prominent, but still clearly present, particularly in Ruby\\\'s interactions with Weiss and more recently Winter. More specifically, I\\\'m referring to RunningGag of Ruby completely misinterpreting the intent behind something Weiss says—for example her haughty \\\"Can I?\\\" as a statement of doubt rather than confidence—or failing to recognize Weiss\\\'s unsubtle attempts to cue her to shut up, as was the case when Ruby was goofing off in class, and when she was embarrassing Weiss in front of Winter. Another example that comes to mind is Ruby randomly abandoning Jaune to go sit with Yang during Ozpin\\\'s welcoming speech to the Beacon freshmen
From list B, I would argue 1, 4 and 5 are present. Ruby\\\'s intense interest in weapons—and the hunters who wield them—seems unusual even to Yang, and the first time she met Jaune, it was literally the first conversation topic, right after an exchange of names, that came to her mind. Much later, we see her distracted from a rather somber encounter with Penny by a presentation of new Atlas military hardware. Item 4 requires some explanation, because the wording does not really convey what\\\'s actually meant by “persistent preoccupation with parts of objects”. Essentially, this symptom is the tendency for individuals on the autism spectrum to “miss the forest for the trees”; oftentimes, when someone with ASD finds something interesting about what someone says to them, regardless of whether it was pertinent to the conversation, they will fixate on that part of the statement. (1) I can think of two specific examples of this: Ruby telling Yang she doesn\\\'t need help to grow up because she drinks milk, and “correcting” Qrow about there not being any medals for almost. Item 5 appears in the form of Ruby\\\'s idealistic and rather naïve view of the world, which is the lighter side of this sort of black and white mindset.
C does not appear to be the case as of the present, but she was very clearly struggling adjusting to life away from home, particularly in terms of socializing. If the speculation about her lack of close friendships prior to attending Beacon, than this would have clearly been the case earlier in her life. As for D and E, were such delays actually to be present, the main difference is that the diagnosis would be High Functioning Autism rather than Asperger\\\'s (1). F is largely irrelevant for our purposes.
From the first additional list, I see a case for items 1, 2, and 6. 1 and 2 were present in the first few episodes of the series, with Ruby initially expressing no desire to make friends of her own at Beacon, and, after starting their conversation by noting he threw up on the zeppelin ride in, immediately changed the topic of the conversation to weapons. Both have seen improvement since the start of the series. 6 shows up frequently in her interactions with Jaune; immediately upon meeting him, she identifies him as the person who threw up on the zeppelin, then, based on the cut to them still talking about it some distance away, made a big deal about it, and ended up calling him vomit boy at least once more. Later on, the first half of her attempt at a motivational for Jaune was clearly making him feel worse, not that she seemed to notice.
The second of the additional lists is largely concerned with a person\\\'s childhood, and the vividness or lack of vividness of Ruby\\\'s imagination hasn\\\'t really been touched upon, so we can\\\'t really say whether or not any of these items apply, though Ruby\\\'s view of fairy tales as an ideal to be aspired to is suggestive of item 3.
Now that we\\\'ve gotten through that gargantuan explanation, I\\\'m going to conclude by saying that this is largely semi-novice conjecture; I took one year of introductory psych courses, which were newly added requirements for the 2015 update of the MCAT exam, but my area of expertise deals more with physical healthcare than mental healthcare. This ended up being way, way longer than I was expecting when I started writing, which I did alongside a rewatch of the series.
Anyway, the gist of this whole psiel is that I think there\\\'s more than enough of a basis to say that Ruby might be autistic, high functioning obviously. That\\\'s what the trope is generally used for, and there\\\'s certainly far more questionable examples currently on the page. Now obviously all this would be cleared up significantly by a flashback to Ruby\\\'s early childhood; you\\\'d expect, under this assumption, for the issues she had/has to be much more pronounced. All we\\\'ve gotten so far is a flashback of Yang\\\'s wherein she was asleep the entire time.
Citations
(1) Asperger\\\'s Syndrome in Adulthood http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695286/
(2) The Adult Asperger Assessmen (AAA): A diagnostic method. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16331530/
(3) ASD in DSM-5 http://autisticadvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ASAN_DSM-5_2_final.pdf
(4) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision
I was, to the best of my knowledge, the first person to add that trope to Ruby\\\'s entry, back when it was called \\\"Ambiguously Autistic\\\" and I did so largely because certain mannerisms of hers felt familiar to behaviors I\\\'ve noticed in myself. I am (professionally) diagnosed with what would now be classified as Autism Spectrum Disorder, and got the diagnosis at age 16, six years ago at this point. I\\\'ve since attended and graduated from college, and am in the process of applying to medical school. Reevaluating my position, I\\\'ve found that I\\\'d still consider AmbiguousDisorder to apply to Ruby, and here\\\'s why.
We\\\'ll use the most objective metrics possible for this sort of thing: the actual diagnostic criteria for the disorder in question. I\\\'ll be using the DSM-4-TR criteria, along with extended criteria from the Adult Asperger\\\'s Assessment, which are denoted with a [=*=].
While DSM-5 is newer, there were initially, and continue to be concerns regarding the criteria used for diagnosing cases of ASD on the high functioning end of the spectrum, at least compared to the DSM-4, to the point where the vast majority people diagnosed with Asperger\\\'s under the DSM-4 would no longer qualify in early drafts. This was partially alleviated by an addendum that recommended all previous diagnoses of disorders categorized as part of the Autism spectrum under the DSM-4 be updated to ASD, regardless of whether or not the individual would actually qualify for ASD under the new criteria. (3)
It should be noted that the diagnosis of Asperger\\\'s—low severity ASD under the DSM-5—in adults or adolescents is significantly complicated by the fact that in many cases, traits associated with the disorder will be masked by learned behaviors, which can be facilitated by a supportive upbringing and by professional coaching. (1) Now for the actual criteria (2)(4):
A. Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
1. Marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
2. Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
3. Lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people
4. Lack of social or emotional reciprocity
5. Difficulties in understanding social situations and other people’s thoughts and feelings[=*=]
B. Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
1. Encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
2. Apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
3. Stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms
4. Persistent preoccupation with parts of objects
5. Tendency to think of issues as being black and white, rather than considering multiple perspectives in a flexible way[=*=]
C. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
D. There is no clinically significant general delay in language e.g., single words used by age two years, communicative phrases used by age three years).
E. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development.
F. Criteria are not met for another specific pervasive developmental disorder or schizophrenia.
In addition to these criteria, there are two additional lists, from which three of four symptoms must be present, either at the present or at some point in the past.
Additionally: Qualitative impairments in verbal or nonverbal communication with at least three of the following symptoms:
1. Tendency to turn any conversation back on to self or own topic of interest
2. Marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others.
3. Cannot see the point of superficial social contact, niceties, or passing time with others, unless there is a clear discussion point/debate or activity.
4. Pedantic style of speaking, inclusion of too much detail
5. Inability to recognize when the listener is interested or bored
6. Frequent tendency to say things without considering the emotional impact on the listener
Additionally: Impairment in at least one of the criteria relating to childhood imagination:
1. Lack of varied, spontaneous make believe play appropriate to developmental level
2. Inability to tell, write or generate spontaneous, unscripted or unplagiarized fiction
3. Either lack of interest in fiction (written, or drama) appropriate to developmental level or interest in fiction is restricted to its possible basis in fact (e.g. science fiction, history, technical aspects of film)
Now as far as our protagonist is concerned, from list A, I would argue that items 2 and 5 are present. Item 2 insofar as there is no indications—for example phone calls to old friends—she had any close friends prior to attending Beacon, other than family members like Yang and Qrow. She mentions a “gang back at signal” at one point, but since then, there\\\'s been no other mentions of other signal students Ruby knew, and Yang had encouraged her to go out and make friends of her own, making me suspect they weren\\\'t particularly close, perhaps more like cordial acquaintances than friends. They can see Signal from Beacon, so there\\\'s nothing that would prevent her from spending time with old friends if she wanted to. Either way, that\\\'s not really indicative of proper development of age appropriate friendships. This has obviously changed in the 8 or so months since the start of the series, but as with the other items in the list, having historically met this criteria counts.
Item 5 is less prominent, but still clearly present, particularly in Ruby\\\'s interactions with Weiss and more recently Winter. More specifically, I\\\'m referring to RunningGag of Ruby completely misinterpreting the intent behind something Weiss says—for example her haughty \\\"Can I?\\\" as a statement of doubt rather than confidence—or failing to recognize Weiss\\\'s unsubtle attempts to cue her to shut up, as was the case when Ruby was goofing off in class, and when she was embarrassing Weiss in front of Winter. Another example that comes to mind is Ruby randomly abandoning Jaune to go sit with Yang during Ozpin\\\'s welcoming speech to the Beacon freshmen
From list B, I would argue 1, 4 and 5 are present. Ruby\\\'s intense interest in weapons—and the hunters who wield them—seems unusual even to Yang, and the first time she met Jaune, it was literally the first conversation topic, right after an exchange of names, that came to her mind. Much later, we see her distracted from a rather somber encounter with Penny by a presentation of new Atlas military hardware. Item 4 requires some explanation, because the wording does not really convey what\\\'s actually meant by “persistent preoccupation with parts of objects”. Essentially, this symptom is the tendency for individuals on the autism spectrum to “miss the forest for the trees”; oftentimes, when someone with ASD finds something interesting about what someone says to them, regardless of whether it was pertinent to the conversation, they will fixate on that part of the statement. (1) I can think of two specific examples of this: Ruby telling Yang she doesn\\\'t need help to grow up because she drinks milk, and “correcting” Qrow about there not being any medals for almost. Item 5 appears in the form of Ruby\\\'s idealistic and rather naïve view of the world, which is the lighter side of this sort of black and white mindset.
C does not appear to be the case as of the present, but she was very clearly struggling adjusting to life away from home, particularly in terms of socializing. If the speculation about her lack of close friendships prior to attending Beacon, than this would have clearly been the case earlier in her life. As for D and E, were such delays actually to be present, the main difference is that the diagnosis would be High Functioning Autism rather than Asperger\\\'s (1). F is largely irrelevant for our purposes.
From the first additional list, I see a case for items 1, 2, and 6. 1 and 2 were present in the first few episodes of the series, with Ruby initially expressing no desire to make friends of her own at Beacon, and, after starting their conversation by noting he threw up on the zeppelin ride in, immediately changed the topic of the conversation to weapons. Both have seen improvement since the start of the series. 6 shows up frequently in her interactions with Jaune; immediately upon meeting him, she identifies him as the person who threw up on the zeppelin, then, based on the cut to them still talking about it some distance away, made a big deal about it, and ended up calling him vomit boy at least once more. Later on, the first half of her attempt at a motivational for Jaune was clearly making him feel worse, not that she seemed to notice.
The second of the additional lists is largely concerned with a person\\\'s childhood, and the vividness or lack of vividness of Ruby\\\'s imagination hasn\\\'t really been touched upon, so we can\\\'t really say whether or not any of these items apply, though Ruby\\\'s view of fairy tales as an ideal to be aspired to is suggestive of item 3.
Now that we\\\'ve gotten through that gargantuan explanation, I\\\'m going to conclude by saying that this is largely semi-novice conjecture; I took one year of introductory psych courses, which were newly added requirements for the 2015 update of the MCAT exam, but my area of expertise deals more with physical healthcare than mental healthcare. This ended up being way, way longer than I was expecting when I started writing, which I did alongside a rewatch of the series.
Anyway, the gist of this whole psiel is that I think there\\\'s more than enough of a basis to say that Ruby might be autistic, high functioning obviously. That\\\'s what the trope is generally used for, and there\\\'s certainly far more questionable examples currently on the page. Now obviously all this would be cleared up significantly by a flashback to Ruby\\\'s early childhood; you\\\'d expect, under this assumption, for the issues she had/has to be much more pronounced. All we\\\'ve gotten so far is a flashback of Yang\\\'s wherein she was asleep the entire time.
Citations
(1) Asperger\\\'s Syndrome in Adulthood http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695286/
(2) The Adult Asperger Assessmen (AAA): A diagnostic method. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16331530/
(3) ASD in DSM-5 http://autisticadvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ASAN_DSM-5_2_final.pdf
(4) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision
