Understandably my community are again dismayed, and angry, at the purported intentions of Gregg Wallace's legal team to disclose that he is likely autistic and that this accounts for his unacceptable behaviour and not 'understanding' when he is crossing the line.
My personal feelings about Wallace largely echo the majority of my community's, but with an extra layer stemming from my feelings about my own estranged father who died in August this year.
I'm furious that his legal team might be planning to field the 'autism' defence to excuse his atrocious behaviour, and I'm hoping that this won't be another high profile and irresponsibly reported event, aligning with the numerous 'school shooter' articles, that further harms autistic people by spreading misinformation about the reason that people behave in awful and terrifying ways. I'm disgusted with his behaviour, that has harmed so many women and men (by association).
I'm also consumed with pity for him as a human being, much as I was for my father who was a very similar type of man - harmful and pitiful at the same time.
I've professionally supported people like him, and met others like him in my community.
Wallace's published views on autism, and his son in particular, reek of internalised ableism to me. I'm thinking specifically about the implied neuronormative expectations to speak verbally, 'make eye contact' and 'cuddle' here.
My father's reaction to my sharing with him that I had been formerly diagnosed, was one of scorn and ridicule. I'll never forget his response in that moment "you're just not trying hard enough to be normal", which really upset me as what I was hoping for was acceptance and understanding. It was the pre-cursor to me finally going 'no-contact' with him, with the amasing support of my therapist at the time, 6 years ago.
A few times I almost felt like I had nearly broken through to my father about the possibility that he was autistic and also a narcissist. Narcissism could explain his entitlement-rage, particularly in relation to his incel-like beliefs about women, Autism could explain his apparent, constant confusion about why he wasn't very good at getting, or couldn't get, what he wanted or needed in terms of narcissistic supply.
There is some evidence to show that personality disorders such as antisocial, borderline, histrionic and narcissistic do co-occur with autism, but are less common (Rinaldi et al.,2021) than paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive.
This means that, like obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCD), narcissism is a separate condition to autism but an autistic person can be both autistic and a narcissist. Autistic people, without an intellectual disability, may in fact be slightly more likely to be vulnerable narcissists, than non-autistic people (Broglia et al., 2024).
Wallace reminds me of my father. I want to shake him by the shoulders until he agrees to go to therapy! - something I could never convince my father to do, but that I hope someone does for Wallace.
References
Broglia, G., Nisticò, V., Di Paolo, B., Faggioli, R., Bertani, A., Gambini, O., & Demartini, B. (2024). Traits of narcissistic vulnerability in adults with autism spectrum disorders without intellectual disabilities. Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 17(1), 138–147. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.3065
Reidy, Dennis & Zeichner, Amos & Foster, Joshua & Martinez, Marc. (2008). Effects of narcissitic entitlement and exploitativenss on human physical aggression. Personality and Individual Differences. 44. 865-875. 10.1016/j.paid.2007.10.015
.
Rinaldi, C., Attanasio, M., Valenti, M., Mazza, M., & Keller, R. (2021). Autism spectrum disorder and personality disorders: Comorbidity and differential diagnosis. World journal of psychiatry, 11(12), 1366–1386. https://doi.org/10.5498/wjp.v11.i12.1366
