Baron-Cohen essential Difference - Men, Women.....

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Katze
Snowy Owl
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23 Aug 2005, 10:08 pm

Has anyone here read this book? What is your opinion of it? I have just looked at the 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test' and I am unable to connect with any of it. There are too many unknown and unseen variables to draw a conclusion as to how another person may feel unless they are in an extreme emotional state. Does that mean lack Empaty? I don't think so, at least not now. I may have as a child.

According to the other Tests in the Book I am Bordeline Aspergers but a recent Assessment by a Local Expert on Aspergers drew a blank apart of some strains of Aspergers as a Child. I am Adult (at least I am tring to be).


Thanks for any feedback


Katze



spacemonkey
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23 Aug 2005, 11:37 pm

I have read it, and thought it was quite insightful. I had begun to notice in recent years that women have some unexpected advantages in the work place due to their empathy related skills, and this book layed it all out pretty well. That is not to say that all women are better at empathizing of course. It is just a more typically feminine trait.

Did you take the eye test?
I did suprisingly well. I think this is indicative of something about AS. I seem to have abilities that are very NT yet the newer parts of my brain, overthink and secondguess them. As they have no doubt evolved to do.



Katze
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24 Aug 2005, 1:34 am

Yes, I did take the eye test and as I have mentioned above I just don't get it, it seems to be subjective and dependent on labels. I have serious doubts about any cut and dried assessment of Aspergers, I really think that School can have a damaging and distorting influence on a child, even the idea of 'gifted' children seems doubtful. I'll keep on reading the book more thoroughly to find teh interconnectedness with other ideas.


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spacemonkey
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24 Aug 2005, 9:20 am

Looking at those eyes I thought that I would do really badly on the test, because there were so many options and the eyes could be construed to look like almost any of them. So I just sort of guessed, or went with my initial response, my score wasn't nearly as bad as I expected.
It just illustrates the difference between operating on an instinctual or emotional level versus an intellectual analytical level. If I tried to rationally think out the answer it would have been impossible.