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drjoot · 5 years

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Autistic Jotaro

Alright so I’m absolutely going to spend too much time on this but here we go.

The formal diagnostic criteria for ASD (autism spectrum disorders) are as follows:

A. Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, as manifested by the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive, see text):

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

B. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities, as manifested by at least two of the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive; see text):

1. Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech (e.g., simple motor stereotypies, lining up toys or flipping objects, echolalia, idiosyncratic phrases).

2. 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).

3. 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).

4. 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).

C. 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).

D. Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning.

E. These disturbances are not better explained by intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder) or global developmental delay. Intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder frequently co-occur; to make comorbid diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability, social communication should be below that expected for general developmental level.

If I recall correctly from my last class on the matter, to be officially diagnosed with ASD, a qualified individual has to note at least 2 criteria from sections A and B, and all three criteria stated in C, D and E. I am not in any way qualified to diagnose autism, of course, but I can make some notes and observations based on each of these. Also keep in mind that to ‘qualify’ these traits must be persistent, i.e. not related to a mood (not feeling like talking) or a circumstance, and instead being a constant behaviour of the individual in most or all circumstances. So one-time happenings do not count.

Criteria set A: In regards to social interactions and communication

1. 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.

I don’t think I need to go into much detail for this one, it’s not that difficult to notice that Jotaro doesn’t talk much, talks even less about himself, his interests, and his feelings, and rarely carries a full conversation (especially before part 4). He doesn’t start conversations without a purpose, and he doesn’t carry them any longer than he needs to.

2. 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.

Note in particular, “total lack of facial expression”. While we do note a range of expressions in Jotaro:

Majority of these expressions are very similar in structure. I could probably narrow down the entirety of Jotaro’s expressions to four faces: angry, small smile, what the fuck, and tense. Compare that to, for example, Josuke:

We can also note difficulties in eye contact and body language. Jotaro will fairly regularly tilt his head down and touch his cap, fully blocking any and all eye contact with whoever he’s interacting with. He also looks away quite often when talking to someone, which is played for dramatic effect, but could also very well be an avoidance of eye contact.

As far as body language goes? He pretty much only ever stands one way when he’s not fighting or doing something active with his hands, and that pose has him with his hands either on his hips or in his pockets. Zero gesturing for effect, except when doing cliche things he likely copied from somewhere - pointing at a foe when threatening them, for example. Also, remember when a complete stranger glomped him directly in the chest and he didn’t react physically *at all*?

3. 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.

Oh boy, the list here goes on for ages. You can tell Jotaro cares deeply about the people in his life, like Josuke, Joseph, Holly, Jolyne, Kakyoin, Polnareff, etc., only because of his actions regarding their safety. He rarely, if ever, expresses any emotion or feeling to them at all (the sole exception I can think of is the one time he told Jolyne he cherished her), offers no physical comfort to them, and can come off as not only cold, but downright mean. See: repeatedly calling his mom a bitch and telling her to leave him alone, pushing away her kisses, and then travelling across the entirety of Asia to save her life. See also: never being there for his daughter, barely being home, being emotionally distant from her, then showing up to risk his life for the sake of her safety.

So basically, I think he ticks all three boxes here. Moving on.

Criteria set B: In regards to interests and behaviour

1. Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech (e.g., simple motor stereotypies, lining up toys or flipping objects, echolalia, idiosyncratic phrases).

For those who don’t know, echolalia refers to repeating sounds, phrases, or actions seen in other people or in media. It’s very common for autistic people, especially children, to be much more comfortable mimicking behaviour than ‘creating’ their own. For example, ignoring a question asked of them to instead quote a favourite movie, hum a favourite tune, or copy a common behaviour of an adult or peer.

In terms of repetitive motor movements, Jotaro will often touch his cap, clench his fists/jaw, shut his eyes when frustrated, and so on. Repetitive speech also makes a show, with “yare yare daze”, “ora”, and so on. He’s also very specific with which sounds he uses in his throat to express emotion - note when Polnareff asks the impostor Jotaro, “Since when did you make noises like that?”

I can’t prove echolalia, because I have no access to what kind of media Jotaro was exposed to as a kid or the behaviours those around him frequently exhibited, but I can make some guesses. Now and then he delivers lines or makes poses that he almost certainly saw in some cool action movie. In particular, this one that he does a *lot* of:

2. 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).

Again, I can’t prove most of this because we didn’t see much of Jotaro’s day-to-day life before the Crusade, but we did see a few things. For example, his mother not coming to kiss him on the cheek was concerning enough to him to go back into the house and investigate, because that’s a break to routine. There are a good hundred or more reasons why Holly might have been unable to come and give Jotaro that kiss, including that she just forgot for once, but Jotaro instantly assumed something was wrong. (Which of course it was, but the point still stands.)

He also demands the exact same clothing be made for him again after his original set was ruined, and he refuses to wear anything else, ever. He has specific names for people and will stick to them, never using variations or pet names. His fighting style never changes unless it *has* to for the sake of getting anywhere in the fight. He also has much more of an eye for detail and things being out of place than the rest of the group, see: calling out Enya/Enyaba for knowing his name prematurely, one of his stand abilities being superhuman sight for details, etc.

Also his mum’s cooking is his favourite food, according to Araki, which is an interesting detail. It’s the food he’s eaten at probably every meal in his childhood, or at least most of them. It’s the “right way” for food to be. Or he could just like the way his mum makes rice for no reason except it tastes good. Shrug.

3. 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).

Fish. Jotaro loves fish, and that’s honestly about the only thing we see him express any interest in. We know from Araki that he has a favourite movie and song and all, but he never shows any investment in these things. He’s never played video games before the Crusade, and possibly never does after. We never see him do anything in his downtime that isn’t directly related to fish. We do know he can play poker, and pretty damn well, but even that comes as kind of a surprise when it’s revealed.

4. 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).

Again, fish and water. There’s something oddly different and somehow tactile in the way sea life moves. Not literally tactile, of course, but still. Nothing else moves the way the surface of the ocean does. There’s a coolness to the colour and feel of it all, and any time Jotaro is underwater or near water, you can bet he’ll be sneaking off to look out windows or take in the sea floor scenery. This isn’t a headcanon by the way, it’s done deliberately in the anime (not so much the manga though, apparently). This is making a bit of an assumption, but there are more reasonable things to point out, too; the insistence on his jacket even in the hot weather, his need to keep his hands in his pockets, getting overly annoyed at people chattering around him, etc.

So he pretty much ticks all four boxes here, too, to varying degrees.

Criteria sets C, D and E: regarding severity

C. 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).

Honestly, we have no way of knowing for this one. We never see Jotaro as a kid and the only time it’s talked about is when Holly says he ‘used to be a good boy’, or something to that effect. I’m going to assume he meets this criteria, but honestly have no idea.

D. Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning.

See: every relationship Jotaro has ever had.