Part 2 book “New developments in autism” has contents: Systemizing and empathizing in autism spectrum conditions, language and its development in autistic spectrum disorders, a partnership between parents and professionals, and other contents. | Chapter 7 Systemizing and Empathizing in Autism Spectrum Conditions Sally Wheelwright INTRODUCTION Autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) are diagnosed when a child or adult has abnormalities in a ‘triad’ of behavioural domains: social development, communication, and repetitive behaviour/obsessive interests (APA 1994; ICD-10 1994). In the past, cognitive developmental theories of autism have not attempted to account for the whole triad; rather they have focused on one or two of its components. Here we present a new theory, empathizing–systemizing (E–S) theory, which does account for the whole triad. E–S theory evolved from the mindblindness theory of autism. MINDBLINDNESS THEORY The mindblindness theory of autism (Baron-Cohen 1995) proposed that in autism spectrum conditions, there are deficits in the normal process of empathizing, relative to mental age. These deficits can occur by degrees. Here we use the term ‘empathizing’ to encompass ‘theory of mind’, ‘mind-reading’, and taking the ‘intentional stance’ (Dennett 1987). Empathizing involves two major elements: (a) the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others, as a natural way to understand agents (Baron-Cohen 1994a, 1994b; Leslie 1995; Premack 1990), and (b) having an emotional reaction that is appropriate to the other person’s mental state. In this sense, it includes what is normally meant by the term ‘theory of mind’ (the attributional component) but it goes beyond this, to also include having some affective reaction (such as sympathy). Empathizing thus essentially allows us to make sense of the behaviour of another agent we are observing, predict what they might do next, and how they might feel. 155 156 / NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN AUTISM And it allows us to feel connected to another agent’s experience, and respond appropriately to them. Since the first test of mindblindness in children with autism (Baron-Cohen, Leslie and Frith 1985), there have been more than 30 experimental tests. The vast .
