As above.
As above.
Should also have said in summing up that theory of mind as a construct also allows one to attribute thoughts, desires, and intentions to oneself, to predict or explain one's own actions, and to posit one's own intentions. It enables one to understand that mental states can be the cause of—and can be used to explain and predict—the behavior of oneself. (thanks wiki.... ) Having had the upset of finding out at 59 there was so much and such an important part of my mind that I did not realise I am drawn to wonder that perhaps the key to understanding how to improve most in this area the first recourse is to learn to know myself better.... All the best :-)
For me "theory of mind" does rings alarm bells about the differences between autistic and non-autistic people.
Personal observations from neurotypical people about me and my post diagnosis research and analysis into the subject triggered by how important it may be as linked to the diagnositic criteria makes it a really important thing to understand better so thank you ComputerGeek1337 for raising the conversation.
The "pattern" of diagnostic criteria for autism is that the individual must have difficulties in (i) social-emotional reciprocity; (ii) developing, understanding, and maintaining relationships; and (iii) nonverbal communication
As Lotus has I believe correctly replied to TheCatWoman Theory of Mind in psychology and philosophy is the "thing" that enables understanding/interpretation of the thoughts, beliefs, desires and emotions of other people. It is the ability of a person to ascribe a mental state of another person.
It is also the ability to represent one's own mental state to oneself. This perhaps opens the topic of how theory of one's own mind is also linked with autistic living.
In social communication between people there is the topic of communication and there are the people who are engaged in the communication. The mental state someone is in makes a big difference for their ability to understand and/or interpret the communication.
The responses of Lotus and SpikeyMark of the characteristic interplay of the double empathy problem and other studies indicates that the problem may lie in the neurotypical world being insufficiently able to resonate with the autistic mind rather than vice versa.
Personally I ascribe to the idea that autistic people and neurotypical people have different types of mind (with specific neurological differences) and different types of communication. My personal experience backs this up . The Apple vs Windows computers analogy rings true to me...
Nevertheless the problems identified in the diagnosis exist and perhaps it is wise to consider the echo-chamber effect in communication within and between autistic people - one might consider that if both individuals share the same deficiency how would they know?
Personally I have regularly reflected too late that I have failed to adjust my behaviour to accommodate sufficiently another persons mental state.
I have also regularly failed to be sufficiently capable to adjust my behaxiour to take into account my own mental state too - often only realising it when too late and it has cause other problems. Whether this is because I have lived behind a mask for so long, because of the way my mind is made, because neurotypical behaviour has gas-lighted me for so long etc. Who knows?
Nevertheless the personal implications of, in some ways, being "deficient" in this area may lead one to conclude that working to improve upon it may be worth the effort if it makes life more livable.
So then, how do I improve it as an autistic person - it is after all a big thing and by extrapolation of diagnosis it may be something that that I am so poor at I might have no idea what bit's I'm lacking in... ?
I should say at this point that (ironically) I have worked in a profession where understanding people is pretty important. I am by profession a physiotherapist. I have been for 26 years. Before it a 15 year background in understanding of movement and biomechanics from Taoist martial arts and medicine. I have for a long-time ascribed to a bio-psycho-social model of analysis and practice. Suffice to sat that for me the "bio" bit of that is for me (even if I say so myself) pretty damn good. The psychology bit? Well....at A level study this was my "best" academic topic. The social bit is where I've had my biggest issues...
I concur with Martin experience that narrative sources from fictional literature that link thoughts, feelings and actions can help one build up a "library" of insight into this. Interestingly I was particularly poor at English lit when younger but as I have got older I've got better at it and "get it" more.
The bit about picking up on non-verbal communication and noting "clues" for consciously becoming aware of someone else's' state of mind I've learned.
I used Taoist yoga to learn to hold my body in postural sets that correspond with emotions. This helped me identify these feelings in myself and to spot them in others. (regretfully also running my body like a robot for many years and piling mask upon mask of consciously applied repression for how I truly felt...)
I have learned strategies for responding to the cues that I consciously pick up and occasionally even get them right!
At long last I've started to apply the same sort of care I apply in observation, interpretation and interactions with others towards myself.
I think tho' that the hardest difficulty to overcome is that to me neurotypical people seem to interact in have a whole lot of rapid, mainly subconscious social and emotional communication that goes on before the conscious thinking part of their brain gets involved. I'm not sure how much I am engaged with this myself however. I think this is where the deficit, if there is one, lies. The neurological explanation of problems with links between the emotional and cognitive centres of the brain seems to match this/
I wonder if in other autistic people it may explain the difficulties that autistic people are observed to demonstrate?
So Theory of mind as a construct allows one to attribute thoughts, desires, and intentions to others, to predict or explain their actions, and to posit their intentions. It enables one to understand that mental states can be the cause of—and can be used to explain and predict—the behavior of others. I would conclude that on a conscious level my theory of mind is pretty good and can be improved with careful study and attention in all sorts of ways The critical filter in terms of personal morals and social ethics that I can apply to it is pretty good too and is pen to being updated. Personally I am drawn to observe that there may be aspects relating to access to subconscious parts of my mind and that of others regarding (i) social-emotional reciprocity; (ii) developing, understanding, and maintaining relationships; and (iii) nonverbal communication where there are big question marks - especially with neurotypical people.
I look forward to reading the response of others to see if there are ways of enhancing the more subconscious skills that I personally appear to lack. :-)
Thanks again for posing the question ComputerGeek1337
I can understand others quite well at least I can intellectually and not always emotionally regardless of thier neurological status. I just suffer from foot in mouth disease and do things like naming the games I see others playing which rarely wins friends when I call out thier behaviour. I often say very little because I'm afraid of putting my foot in it and come across as aloof, it's a no win situation.
Hi Catwoman, it's being able to understand/interpret the thoughts, beliefs, desires and emotions of other people and it is thought that autistic people have difficulty with this. But more recently study has indicated that autistic people understand other autistic people while NT people understand other NTs - known as the double empathy problem
I'm not sure what a theory of mind is?
The best way, I have found, to improve interpretation of other people is to read fiction. The literary novel is probably the best, but any fiction is useful. Novels often include descriptions of the internal feelings of characters. The external events and situations of characters can be compared with their internal emotions and motivations.
It has been commonly said that autistics have poor theory of mind.
After several months of having interactions with autistics of low support needs, high support needs and self-realised, I'm more inclined to believe Dr. Damian Milton's theory of double empathy
https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/professional-practice/double-empathy
One of my prouder moments last year was distilling this theory into the following, and the good doctor himself (Damian, not the TV guy!) saying that he liked it.
When I was thinking about the often-cited patronising “theory of mind”, I came up with this in relation to your idea:
The last three are largely ignored by the ‘experts’ – and they shorten ‘Allistic Mind’ to just ‘Mind’
But…! Even though Autistic people have a poor Theory or Allistic Mind, it is a damn sight better then the Allistic people’s Theory of Autistic Mind.
