in this blog post, i will be explaining why i, faggot autist, believe that Dexter Morgan is autistic by laying out the DM5 symptoms for autism and telling you how or if he relates to each;
umbrella of social diagnosis; persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts - i think this one is pretty self explanatory, Dexter finds it hard to process emotions and react well in social interactions in his younger and older years and will become either apathetic or very agitated if he hasn’t.
Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions - Dexter quite literally believes that he has no feelings, meaning he is often apathetic to people’s feelings and does not reciprocate them in the way that others would want, he often takes himself out of situations that he doesn’t want to be in by ignoring people or acting as if his job is keeping him late, the only interest that Dexter ever shares with anyone else is killing, which is quite literally the only interest he has.
Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures; to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication - the only time we see Dexter not actively speak to get his point across is during the ITK case and he only understands what the ITK means because he’s a murderer himself, it’s shown in multiple occasions that Dexter’s resting face is blank and while he doesn’t use body language badly, he doesn’t do it very often either.
Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts; to difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends; to absence of interest in peers - the amount of evidence for this one is overwhelming so I’ll keep it short, Dexter cannot even maintain relationships with family members because of his general lack of traditional emotion toward them, Dexter cannot understand why people want to have sex or be in relationships in season 1 and Dexter fails to hold himself back and adjust to the content when he knocks out Paul and drags him out. Dexter is shown to not have many friends outside of his workplace in almost every season and they end quite quickly and often in gruesome ways but he is quite imaginative, he quite literally says to Harry when he’s a teenager that he isn’t interested in anyone else and doesn’t want to date anyone.
repetitive nature of actions and behaviours umbrella; Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities - Dexter is quite literally a creature of habit, his kill ritual barely changes each time and when it does he becomes agitated and upset and may even meltdown in the middle of it. Dexter tries to stop killing multiple time and even succeeds but he always goes back to it because it is a comforting repetitive thing for him in the strangest way.
stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech (e.g., simple motor stereotypes, lining up toys or flipping objects, echolalia, idiosyncratic phrases) - there isn’t much for this one, Harrison portrays this symptoms better rather than Dexter, i guess the stabbing his victims in the chest could be a repetitive or his ‘I am Switzerland’ comment but there just isn’t enough evidence on this one.
insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns or verbal nonverbal behavior (e.g., extreme distress at small changes, difficulties with transitions, rigid thinking patterns, greeting rituals, need to take same route or eat food every day) - if we take the intro into perspective, it implies that Dexter does this routine when he wakes up, every time without fail, Dexter becomes agitated and upset when Doakes tails him and when Lila interrupts his scheduled time with Rita with her voicemail and multiple other times he reacts badly to changes in his routine or plan. Harry’s code is almost all Dexter thinks in, he quite literally has rules for living and killing and almost exactly adheres to these rules. I think i can just apply a big ‘Dexter intro’ sticker on the last two to even it out.
highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (e.g, strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interest) - i think this perfectly describes Dexter’s need to kill and his interest in blood and death, he is completely hyperfixated on the idea or taking someone’s life for the greater good, an idea and hyperfixation that Harry practically groomed him into having but it’s the principle of it.
Hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input or unusual interests in sensory aspects of the environment (e.g., apparent indifference to pain/temperature, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects, visual fascination with lights or movement) - Dexter doesn’t often slow down or react much past a groan if he is injured unless he is badly injured or thrown off his balance and isn’t able to catch up with his victims, Dexter sometimes has an adverse reaction to blood in a visual and or tactile state and occasionally feels overwhelmed and unable to think while in crime scenes and or hearing loud noises.
symptoms must be present in the early developmental period (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities or may be masked by learned strategies in later life) - Dexter shows signs of the same behaviours and reactions to the world when he is very young, Harry teaches Dexter to mask around his mid childhood to early teenage years and is taught strategies to prevent people from ‘thinking he’s a psychopath’ (even though he’s like twelve years old.. get it together Morgan, just send your kid to a non-delusional therapist please.) Dexter’s ability to use these tactics deteriorates though but he gets new masking techniques the more he studies people.
Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning - Dexter is absolutely hopeless when he isn’t masking or is blindsided in social situations, he isn’t a social person, Dexter’s symptoms have sometimes lead to him being excused from work and caused trouble with co-workers.
in conclusion, due to the overwhelming evidence on the part of autist Dexter, i rule this Dexter Morgan, fictionally diagnosed as autistic. Bangs my gavel or whatever they’re called
gummygunk
janainaart
pixelskylines
titsay
vaporwave
andulkaphoto
baratheonpilled
ellievsbear
jacobvanloon
