Understanding Other Minds
Published on 1. April 1993
Book
Hardback
528 pages
978-0-19-262054-5 (ISBN)
Description
This book focuses on the "theory of mind" hypothesis, an important new psychological approach to autism. The theory asserts that autistic children fail to develop the ability to think about mental states--a "theory of mind"--unlike other children, and thus fail to conceptualize behavior in terms of mental processes. Proponents argue that this psychological deficit underlies some of the key features of autism, such as abnormalities in social and communication development. The editors have collected both the evidence and the controversies surrounding the theory, and present a valuable discussion about the nature of what is widely recognized as the most severe childhood psychological disorder. The chapters are written by distinguished scholars from a variety of disciplines, including developmental psychology, neuropsychology, philosophy, psycho-linguistics, primatology, and psychoanalysis.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
31 line drawings, index
ISBN-13
978-0-19-262054-5 (9780192620545)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Content
Part 1 Introduction: an introduction to the debate; early understanding of mind - the normal case; social development in autism - historical and clinical perspectives. Part 2 The theory-of-mind hypothesis of autism - the cognitive approach: from attention-goal psychology to belief-desire psychology - the development of a theory of mind and its dysfunction; what autism teaches us about metarepresentation; the theory-of-mind deficit in autism - rethinking the metarepresentation theory; what language reveals about the understanding of minds in children with autism; the theory-of-mind deficit in autism - evidence from deception. Part 3 The theory-of-minds hypothesis of autism - critical perspectives: the theory-of-mind and joint-attention deficits in autism; understanding persons - the role of affect; pretending and planning; narrative language in autism and the theory-of-mind hypothesis - a wider perspective; theories of mind and the problem of autism; the complexity of social behaviour in autism; the development of individuals with autism - implications for the theory-of-mind hypothesis. Part 4 Wider perspectives: the role of imitation in understanding persons and developing a theory of mind; evolving a theory of mind - the nature of non-verbal mentalism in other primates; the comparative study of early communication and theories of mind - ontogeny, phylogeny and pathology; autism and the theory of mind - some philosophical perspectives; desire and fantasy - a psychoanalytic perspective on the theory of mind and autism; the theory-of-mind deficit in autism - some questions for teaching and diagnosis; the place of this book in autism research.