A history of autism

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Another way to approach Theory of Mind  - and lack of it - by Dr OLGA BOGDASHINA (extract)

From Volume 4 Number 1

IT HAS been noticed that autistic people find it hard to perceive the mental states of others and it has been suggested that the central feature of autism is an inability to infer another person's views - that is, they lack understanding of what other people are thinking, feeling, intending to do, etc. In extreme cases, autistic children may have no concept of mind at all (Baron-Cohen et al. 1985; Frith 1989).
    This inability has been termed lack of Theory of Mind (ToM) or "mindblindness." This theory seemed to explain a lot in "autistic" behaviours, and it was enthusiastically welcomed by the researchers and developed further. Numerous experiments have been conducted in order to prove that, unlike normally developing children and children with other developmental disabilities, autistic individuals cannot understand and predict actions of others. New terms have been coined that have spread rapidly in the field – "mind-blindness" and "mind-reading"
    ToM theory has stimulated a great amount of research and a lot of criticism. Numerous studies have shown that ToM cannot be a primary impairment in autism.             Paradoxically, however, despite the growing evidence that ToM difficulties are secondary to some primary (and as yet unidentified) deficit(s) in autism, the theory of ToM theory has grown in popularity among professionals working with autistic individuals.         Having failed to explain the development of autism, this theory has proven to be very useful when applied to practical work with people with ASDs because it gives professionals and parents explanations of what otherwise have been seen as idiosyncratic behaviours, and provides ideas on how to address these problems.
    So-called lack of ToM in autistic children implies a different interpretation of "rudeness" and "deliberate stubbornness," as well as suggesting the necessity to explain explicitly our intentions and emotions.
    The downside of this theory is "one-sidedness" – it implies that there must be only one ToM for all people, and either you develop it (and become "normal"), or you fail to develop ToM (thus indicating autism) ...

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