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Extreme male brain + Simon Baron Cohen

miaxx

Can anyone explain why people find Simon Baron Cohen and his 'Extreme Male Brain' problematic/harmful?

Please don't comment if you're just going to say you don't think it's problematic, that's not what I'm asking.

I would just like examples as to why he and it IS harmful or problematic to people with ASD

Parents

  • I think that it is the interpretation of what the theory claims by others, including clinicians, that is the major problem. The theory claims that autistic brains are more extremely male-like in only two areas of cognition: systematising information and processing emotional cues. It does not claim that the brains of female autistics are more male-like otherwise. Unfortunately, generalist media tend to not know what is meant by a scientific theory - and I would class this as a hypothesis anyway - and tend to misinterpret them. This leads to over-reaction by interest groups. However, anything that tends to make diagnosis for female autistics more difficult, is unhelpful. Unfortunately, scientists are often afforded only limited access to correcting misapprehensions that their work can give rise to.

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  • I think that it is the interpretation of what the theory claims by others, including clinicians, that is the major problem. The theory claims that autistic brains are more extremely male-like in only two areas of cognition: systematising information and processing emotional cues. It does not claim that the brains of female autistics are more male-like otherwise. Unfortunately, generalist media tend to not know what is meant by a scientific theory - and I would class this as a hypothesis anyway - and tend to misinterpret them. This leads to over-reaction by interest groups. However, anything that tends to make diagnosis for female autistics more difficult, is unhelpful. Unfortunately, scientists are often afforded only limited access to correcting misapprehensions that their work can give rise to.

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