On The Ontological Status Of Autism And Double Empathy


The double empathy/cross-neurological hypotheses of Milton and Beardon can be summarised as follows:
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(1) non-autistic people appear to have as much difficulty in understanding autistic minds as vice versa;
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(2) autistic people often develop a greater understanding of society than non-autistic people develop of autism; and
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(3) autistic people have a similar ability to empathise with other autistic people as non-autistic people have with their peers.
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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).
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  • 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.


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


  • 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?


  • Love it! Best response EVER! Loving your mind DeepThought! 


  • Elephantintheroom wrote:

    .....a silly flippant thought....as you know I can be both things....plus prone to finking! 


    I am more prone to extensively divergent flinking! Open mouth


    Elephantintheroom wrote:

    am I reaching an existential epiphany or just having a seizure?


    If everything is making sense and your not all big and confused and surrounded by medical personnel or a crowd of concerned people ~ it could be an epiphany! Wink


  • Thank you Robert.  Don't overthink the connection between the femme fetale and autism!

  • Love the new avatar, at first I thought, Dax from star trek DS9. Now I realise it's Janet Leigh from Psycho.

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