Published on 12, July, 2020
I wonder if any other people on the forum are as interested in - and fascinated by - the various theories of social cognition, as I am. At the heart of individual autistic experience and the socio-cultural conceptualisation of autism, social cognition surely plays a major experiential role in our lives.
Like many others, on being diagnosed I researched, ‘what is autism?’ Quickly one is presented with ‘Theory of Mind’ or Mindreading. Further research reveals, ‘Theory Theory of Mind’ and Simulation Theory of Mind .’ Then there are various phenomenological accounts that could be categorised as ‘Social Cognition without Mindreading.’ There are many other theories and innumerable syntheses thereof.
A further question must be asked, how much of social cognition has neuro-genetic underpinnings? Is there just a basic genetic toolkit that permits acquisition? Or are some aspects of social cognition hardwired?
One could argue that, experientially it make no difference which of the multitude of theories is correct. Although surely for therapeutic interventions to be successful, one could equally argue that the success of any such intervention would depend - at least in part - on knowing what is hardwired and what is not.
In ‘Why We Cooperate’, Michael Tomasello noted that because of the variations in inter-group behaviour and social cognition we have the concept of culture. Culture exists precisely because there are cultural differences. From an anthropological view point, autism could be regarded as an intra-culture variation. Our social cognitive differences don’t allow full integration in to the prevailing culture in which we are situated.
Just wondering if anyone else thinks about this stuff - or if I’m on a typical, solitary, autistic journey.
Hi guys,
I'm new. I agree with all that has been said and especially the fact that we tend to care more in general about important things than non autistic people. They can empathise with another normal bod having a "bad day" which to us is absolutely nothing in comparison to our "bad day," and that's seen as lack of empathy. We have empathy for who and what we prioritise as important. No human lacks empathy ( except psychopaths, that's the point of being one) it just depends what that person cares about and understands the most. Non autistic people don't get this. Also, their idea of social "success" is pointless in most situations and only has value to themselves and similar people. Social "success" depends entirely on being able to manipulate, deceive, pretend and follow etiquette that has no other purpose other than to make people feel better about themselves while doing nothing of any benefit to anyone. The irony is that we are seen as narcissistic, rude and deficient when it is the non autistic people that live and breathe those qualities like air. We are honest, not rude; we hyper focus and like to learn and share our learning ; we have to relate everything to ourselves in order to process it, we are not narcissistic; we care about things that matter and disregard the rest, we are not deficient. I said all this and more to a psycologist and a psychiatrist recently and they labelled me with several personality disorders including BPD. I have not met a single non autistic person alive that understands autism in 38 years.
Huskies and malumutes are the quietest dogs I've met so far.
NAS64271 said:Huskies and malumutes are the quietest dogs I've met so far.
Then you need to ask them to sing you the Husky Awoooo Best thing ever.