On The Ontological Status Of Autism And Double Empathy

Deepthought said:

Milton does not suggest that non-autistic people are less capable of developing an understanding of autism than vice versa; as he points out, it is simply that autistic people have no choice but to try to develop an understanding of society if they are to ‘survive and potentially thrive’ whereas no such imperative applies in the opposite direction (Milton 2012).

The thing that makes me smile here, is Milton's and other's hypothesis that there is no imperative for non-autistic people to use an Autistic Theory-of-Mind (or AToM) ~ with my amusement arising from the fact that non-autistic and autistic parents have been having and raising autistic children for thousands of years now, and the use of an AToM or a Divergent Theory of Mind (DToM) has remained historically concurrent in all cultures and societies, therefore.

Also, societal ToM models that involve 'surviving and potentially thriving' ideologies featuring 'imperatives' are proving currently to be more and more unreliable, whereas when we live as we actually are ~ we thereby facilitate our life as it actually is in the dependable and reliable sense.

. said:

Don’t you find it a very blunt instrument of judgement though?

If judgement is employed the blunt instrument factor can very much become the case, yes. How do you imagine its application to be like a blunt instrument in the above respect?

. said:

So what is there understanding and what is ours? 

Our understanding and theirs is the same, it is the comprehension of our shared understanding that differs.

Autistic people are more self-centric (internally centred) and their genetic and linguistic architectures are more functionally specialised, and concretely receptive.

Whilst non autistic people are more ego-centric (externally centred) and their genetic and linguistic architectures are more functionally generalised, and abstractly receptive.

. said:

So....not quite yin and yang......it is just a matter of it you have an “inny ” or an “outy” mind! 

Actually it is yin and yang ~ it just a matter of being more one and less the other.

. said:

...but again my worry is that these definitions we find so lovely because they are so neat and succinct....is life really like that?....

Whilst we recognise and describe life neatly and succinctly ~ life is not 'like' that in the abstract linguistic sense, life is that or if not can be experienced as being neat and succinct in the concrete linguistic sense ~ as in balance wed with the abstract.

Right name and write object . . . oops! Right name and right object goes a long long way to a simpler understanding and a calmer comprehension of life, the universe and everything.

. said:

As the Elephant in the Room..... life and the universe may well be founded upon simple and clear cut constructs...

Well rather than clear 'cut' constructs ~ go perhaps for the clearly 'defined' ones as they are alot safer and saves as such on the Elastoplasts too!!! :-)

. said:

Would God make a rock that he could not lift?, after all! - lol!

Maybe it is just my inability to comprehend it as such or more importantly be able to successfully filter out (as well as you so brilliantly demonstrate) the illogical and erroneous to get to the centre of said rock!  Just when the water clears we muddy the pond!

The bit about me so brilliantly demonstrating my successful filtering ~ just be glad you get to see the filtered stuff as I am easter islanded right up to my neck here in the mud left over. ;-)

. said:

So much Existential angst for the Tuesday morning!! x

Well Existentialism comes in other flavours too you know ~ Existential elixir is very refreshing! :-)

https://www.alternet.org/story/147107/the_new_field_of_neurodiversity%3A_why_%27disabilities%27_are_essential_to_the_human_ecosystem?paging=off

alternatively...in relation to ASD and ToM

According to Henry and Camilla Markrams Intense World Syndrome theory (2007):

The intense world that the autistic person faces could easily become aversive if the amygdala and related emotional areas are affected with hyper-reactivity and hyper-plasticity. The lack of social interaction in autism may therefore not be because of deficits in the ability to process social and emotional cues as previously thought, but because a subset of cues are overly intense, compulsively attended to, excessively processed, and remembered with frightening clarity and intensity. Autistic people may therefore neither be mind-blind at all nor lack empathy for others, but be hyper-aware of selected fragments of the mind, which may be so intense that they avoid eye contact, withdraw from social interactions and stop communicating.

 http://www.larry-arnold.net/Autonomy/index.php/autonomy/article/view/AR17/html_1