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A discussion about Theory of Mind : From an Autistic Perspective

J. Blackburn, K. Gottschewski, Elsa George, and Niki L, "A discussion about Theory of Mind : From an Autistic Perspective," Proceedings of Autism Europe’s 6^th International Congress, Glasgow 19-21 May 2000, in print.

This is a fascinating presentation, which is primarily composed of email excerpts from an Autism mailing list. ACs (Autistics and cousins) comment on theories of ToM, its relevance, and their personal experiences dealing with faces, people, and intentions.

For example:

Jared tried to give an explanation why both ACs and NTs may see a lack of ToM in the respective other group:

Because Autistic people see most normal people as seeming to assume everyone is like themselves, and would react as they would in the same situation, normal people may often seem to lack "Theory of Mind" ("ToM-less NTs") to many high functioning Autistic people. On the other hand, normal researchers are tempted to assume lack of or deficiency in "Theory of Mind" when Autistic people don’t automatically jump to these conclusions.

Elsa replied:

This makes sense! It is logical that people who think differently will have trouble understanding other peoples thoughts / actions / interactions. Its seems to me that this is a matter about whether ToM is valid in a particular situation or not, not about whether or not someone has it. In which case ToM works between NT’s, and it works between AC’s but it fails when AC’s and NT’s interact together.

I often do have a lot of difficulty understanding people’s actions / decisions etc. but I do not think this is because of a LoToM. It is just that I don’t personally see the worth or value of their reasons. E.g. I know that people think I look strange because my clothes are home made and unfashionable, however I fail to see what, in itself, makes unfashionable clothes look strange… except for the fact that nobody else wears them. Which suggests that things are strange if they don’t conform to what the majority does, but again I can’t draw any connection between the two. It all seems to boil down to different value judgements.

 

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