Referring to yourself in the third person

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Mostly, I don't realize I'm doing it, but according to other people I do it all the time- especially when I want to express a preference.

EquestriatoLA is bored. (Like this.)

I once met someone who did that. His nickname (I assume) was "Tree." He constantly said, "Tree wants this" and "Tree did that." It was quite odd. I was only around 15 at the time, and I did not know what to make of him.

I do.

Expecially when I'm sad or disappointed.

"it's not chlov's fault"

"what has poor chlov done to get this s***?"

"poor chlov is sad"

Like this.

So far, I haven't really annoyed anyone with the rare occasion of when I do this.

I don't do it often. I used to know someone who did it all the time but I never really thought anything of it.

Hi guys.

I've finally come to conclusively realize that referring to yourself in the third person is a manifestation of the basic handicap in autism.

It is a manifestation of the basic lack of what I like to call "subjectivity".


Consider two flowers planted beside each other. One is taller than the other.

An objective viewer (autistic view) might say something like: "The flower to the left is about 5 cm taller than the right one." With this outlook you would refer to yourself in the third person: "Peter is now looking at flowers."

A subjective viewer (non-autistic view) might say something like: "Even though the small flower is the prettiest, I still like the tall one the most, because it looks more impressive as a present." With this outlook you would refer to yourself as "I/me": "I am looking at flowers."

The difference is that the objective viewer doesn't filter the information received. Everything is equally important. Even if the height of the flowers is of no use to the viewer, the viewer may still consider it important/interesting.

Oppositely the subjective viewer filters the information received. Everything is not equally important. The only things that are important are the things that are important for the viewer, i.e. the relation between the viewer and what the viewer is looking at.


So the basic handicap in autism is a lack of filtering received information. To work around the handicap one has to only treat information that is important in relation to oneself, and ignore all other information.

Socialization is exactly about filtering extremely much, and that's why it can be so difficult for us.

I do this every once in awhile now but used to do it almost everytime I reffered to myself. I trained myself to correct the reference when I speak.
Thank u so much for the explination I quoted below. If u don't mind I would like to use this when explaining my brain to others. So often people ask how my brain works differently then the norm. This is a perfect way to help them understand.

I don't. Never had and (probably) never would.
I don't feel comfortable referring to myself as "she".