You know that average passerby on the street?

Post Reply New Topic

Do they know what 'NT' means?

If you answered 'no' with certainty, does that mean you have a theory of mind since you recognize the knowledge that an average person, a person different from yourself, possesses? (And since beliefs are just a form of knowledge, you thus have the ability to understand the beliefs that others may potentially hold, and thus have a theory of mind.)

They do not no what NT means. The term was invented by the aspie community.

Do they know that they are different? Depends on the person.

Adult Aspies DO have a theory of the mind. Might be less subtle that those of NTs but it doesn't mean not having one at all.

I think the average passerby is just making do with the programming that they were each born with. They certainly don't have the same minds; they merely contain a basic advantage in how to interact between each other.
After getting past that annoying layer of peripheral programming, I find it easy to apply my version of Theory of Mind.

I've been becoming more aware of my own theory of mind issues, which are generally more subtle than "you don't realize that other people have minds with thoughts different from yours," but does involve having difficulty predicting what those thoughts might be in some situations. It's more like I have a terrible time predicting how people will react to some things unless I have a body of experience to draw upon with that particular person, or with enough other people who may fit into similar categories that the prediction may be sound.

So, yes, I could predict most people do not know what "neurotypical" means, and perhaps even predict that most of them haven't seen the two films in which the word was used (Adam and Snow Cake). I am aware of the concept of information penetration into the general population through experience.

Now if you picked someone on the street and asked me:

1. "Does he have a mind and thoughts separate from yours?" I'd say yes.

2. "What do you think he is thinking?" I likely have no idea or interest whatsoever. Or any ideas I do have are going to be pretty spare of embellishing details.

This may be better described as a lack of social imagination rather than a lack of theory of mind.

Also, a lack of theory of mind as a core deficit in autism, however, is not really demonstrated. Only 80% of the autistic children who took it scored poorly on the Sally-Anne test in the study used to establish this as a core deficit, and of course to "prove" adults lack theory of mind they have to make ever more exacting and complex tests to trip adults up.

Last edited by Verdandi on 01 Jun 2011, 12:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Actually, it was invented by the autistic community.



This is so.

This is one of the many places people take a common developmental delay and turn it into a defining feature.

The only difference is that aspies have to learn through experiences and NTs have it naturally. We don't have "common sense" but we a more capable of learning certain stuff.

I think the meaning of Neurotypical is obvious.....but also I tend to think aspergers/autism is not the only thing that that prevents one from being Neurotypical considering there are quite a few other disorders that also prevent that.

The only place I use NT is here and only because it is the 'common vernacular'. Also easier than coming up with variations of 'normal' which, is just insulting anyway.

If one is born "NT," one is already preprogrammed to get along with others. It's almost as if it's just instinctive...a natural progression. They don't have to know anything beyond what they're programmed to know. Anyone on the spectrum is different because that knowledge is not ingrained, or natural. We need to be taught certain skills.

Probably not - I knew that "New Technology" was a backronym but thought they'd just chosen letters that sounded good, but Wiki says it referred to a particular processor. I'm a geek, and I didn't know that so it's unlikely that Joe Public knows.

Most neurotypicals only have Theory of Neurotypical Mind. They lack theory of other minds, but can develop these theories if they work at it, just as I can work to develop theories of minds very different from my own, from neurotypical to schizophrenic to any other.