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Theory of Mind

NAS78593

Hello all,

I have recently had three sessions with a clinical psychologist to explore whether difficulties I have had for as long as I can remember (depression, anxiety, intense social anxiety, difficulty maintaining relationships etc etc) might actually have an explanation, i.e. perhaps I am on the autistic spectrum.  

I approached this man in particular as his profile - on BUPA Finder - listed one of his specialisms as Autism Assessment.  I completed the Adult Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and GADS questionnaires and I was told that I had 'autistic traits' but he could not go further than this - I would have to get an official assessment (which I thought I was getting but that is another story!).

The ambiguity of this has left me feeling quite confused and upset. 

However, from what I have researched, having issues around 'theory of mind' is fundamental to being autistic, and I don't think this is something I have difficulty with.  So, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share real life examples of how difficulties with theory of mind might present itself/affect them?  

I should mention that I am a 44 year old woman.

Thank you so much.

Parents

  • Hello, I understand that you have read about Theory of Mind but this theory was devised by a non autistic person who is heavily criticised by the autistic community. The idea that it is fundamental to being autistic is wrong.

    The idea that autistic people have difficulty with Theory of Mind is innacurate - another false and harmful claim from Simon Baron Cohen. Autistic people have a Theory of Mind it’s just that cross neurotype interactions frequently lead to misunderstandings as both groups of people have vastly different experiences of the world. Therefore it becomes difficult to relate to each other. Autistic masking is also very common which also means that SBC’s theory is wrong as we understand how we are perceived by non autistic people. Have you heard of the Double Empathy problem?

    https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/professional-practice/double-empathy

    https://autisticscienceperson.com/2018/05/31/theory-of-mind/amp/

  • in reply to Ausomely Autistic

    Regarding the double empathy theory, I found this paper particulalry interesting: 

    https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1362361320919286#:~:text=However%2C%20the%20Double%20Empathy%20theory,and%20a%20non%2Dautistic%20person. 

    Essentially what they did is they made groups of 8 people: either 8 autistic people or 8 neurotypicals or a group of mixed austists and neurotypicals (50:50). 

    A researcher would read a story to the first person in each of the groups. That person would then have to tell the story to the next person in their group. This second person would then again have to pass on the story to the following person etc. The researchers recorded how much information was lost at each recounting/ passing on of the story.

    Interestingly they found that communication in autistic only groups/chains was just as effective as in neurotypical only groups. However in the mixed autistic/neurotypical group communication was much less effective and more information was lost.

    This supports the idea the autistic people can communicate well amongst each others. Similarly neurotypicals communicate well with each other. The difficulties arrise when autistic people and neurotypicals communicate with each other. It probably took a while for this to be recognised as autistic people usually get judged on how they communicate with neurotypicals and not on how well they communicate with each other. 

    I found this study very interesting. 

  • in reply to Ann :)

    Autistic people typically converse to share information and gain knowledge we information transfer can be really accurate when engaging with each other.

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