Mind-blindness

Mind-blindness can be described as an inability to develop an awareness of what is in the mind of another human. It is not necessarily caused by an inability to imagine an answer, but is often due to not being able to gather enough information to work out which of the many possible answers is correct. Mind-blindness is the opposite of empathy. Simon Baron-Cohen was the first person to use the term 'mind-blindness' to help understand some of the problems encountered by people with autism or Asperger syndrome or other developmental disorders. Generally speaking, the "Mind-blindness" Theory asserts that children with these conditions are delayed in developing a theory of mind, which normally allows developing children to put themselves "into someone else's shoes, to imagine their thoughts and feelings."^[1] Thus, autistic children often cannot conceptualize, understand, or predict emotional states in other people.^[2]

Use & Relevance

Relationship to Diagnostic Criteria

Classic autism and Asperger's syndrome usually share three diagnostic features: (1) Marked difficulty in social development compared with peer group, (2) Difficulties or delays in development of critical communications skills, and (3) Strong tendencies to exhibit narrow interests and highly repetitive behaviors. The Mind-blindness Theory is able to explain the first two of these criteria ably.

Criticism

Simon Baron-Cohen himself has acknowledged that the theory, while adept at explaining the communications difficulties experienced by autism and Asperger's patients, fails to explain such patients' penchants for narrowly defined interests, an important step to proper diagnosis. Furthermore, mind-blindness seems decidedly non-unique to those with autism or Asperger's syndrome, since conditions ranging from schizophrenia to various narcissistic personality disorders and/or anti-social personality disorders all exhibit mind-blindness to some degree.^[1]

Other researchers have pointed out the inherent flaws of assuming autism develops from a "theory of mind" deficit, pointing out that this presupposes autism (or Asperger's syndrome) derives from a single, core insufficiency within the brain. This contrasts, they say, with the very same researchers' description of autism as a "puzzle," which implies a far more diverse range of causes than a single, unifying theory.^[3]

Many have also pointed out that Mind-blindness wrongly categorizes autism as a problem to be fixed, rather than a condition to be accommodated. This assumes an inherent lack of intelligence in autism sufferers, which ignores the nuanced view of intelligence (as in varying types of intelligence) that has been observed in cognitive research.^[3]

Recently, Simon Baron-Cohen and other "Theory of Mind" theorists have shifted away from the Mind-blindness Theory in favor of the E-S Theory, which seeks to better explain the relationship between forms of autism and repetitive, narrowly defined behavior patterns.^[1]

See also

• Empathy
• Simon Baron-Cohen
• Theory of mind
• E-S Theory
• Alexithymia

Citations

1. ^ ^{a b c} Baron-Cohen, Simon. "Autism: The Empathizing-Systemizing (E-S) Theory." The Year in Cognitive Neuroscience: Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1156 (2009): 68-80.
2. ^ Jurecic, Ann. "Mindblindness: Autism, Writing, and the Problem of Empathy." Literature and Medicine 25 (2006): 1-23.
3. ^ ^{a b} Smukler, David. "Unauthorized Minds: How 'Theory of Mind' Theory Misrepresents Autism." Mental Retardation 43 (2005): 11-24.

References

• Geoffrey Cowley, "Understanding Autism," Newsweek, July 31, 2000.
• Simon Baron-Cohen, "First lessons in mind reading," The Times Higher Education Supplement, July 16, 1995.
• Uta Frith, UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Review: Mind Blindness and the Brain in Autism, Neuron, Vol. 32, 969–979, December 20, 2001, http://www.icn.ucl.ac.uk/2001/frith01Neuron.pdf
• Suddendorf, T., & Whiten, A. (2001). "Mental evolution and development: evidence for secondary representation in children, great apes and other animals." Psychological Bulletin, 629–650.