Also: attempting to model another person’s mind works much less well if the other person’s mind works much differently.
This is known as the Double Empathy Problem and has been described by Milton (2012) in On the ontological status of autism: the ‘double empathy problem’. Some excerpts:
In a sense it is a ‘double problem’ as both people experience it, and so it is not a singular problem located in any one person. Rather, it is based in the social interaction between two differently disposed social actors, the disjuncture being more severe for the non-autistic disposition as it is experienced as unusual, while for the ‘autistic person’ it is a common experience.
In analysing the interactions that ‘autistic people’ have with the wider population, it is easy to problematise the definition of autism as a ‘social deficit’ located within an individual’s mind. Differences in neurology may well produce differences in sociality, but not a ‘social deficit’ as compared to an idealised normative view of social reality. Such definitions may help to signpost disability support services, but they are no way of defining autism in any kind of holistic sense.
I’d volunteer for this too! Especially others were involved in selecting texts and other organisation.