icyfire4w5 wrote:
why are people on the autism spectrum described as "mind blind"? Is it true that "mind blind=unable to read minds"? Thanks.
Mind Blindness is a cute, illogical way of referring to the ToM (theory of mind) -- an expression of exasperation rather than optical coherence -- as in, the ability to "see" other people's thinking is blinded.
TOM and "mind blindness", is the idea that ASD people place an emphasis on self-perspective rather than consider an outside observer's perspective on a problem, or, someone else's perspective when in a conversation, that both parties in a conversation will have different ideas on what's happening in the conversation, and will react differently with different knowledge at times.
the example for ToM i read was, the idea of an opaque pencil case containing marbles, someone with ASD would know the answer, and assume others would also know the contents were marbles, whereas an NT perso, after seeing the marbles inside, would assume other people would guess the pencil case contained pencils.
ToM goes beyond perspectives, and into unshared thoughts, conclusions, emotions that are assumed by either NT to NT, ASD to NT, or ASD to ASD party, but it's a start.
It becomes an issue with social interaction, because one person comes in with different ideas and different expectations, and thoughts, and then the ASD person has to work out if they want to say something about it, want to get emotive feedback on an issue, want a logical answer, or just want to talk about themselves, etc.
i'd hazard to guess, it's a lack of instinctive clues to decipher emotion and meaning from someone asking...
"how's things"
or "hey"