Mastodawn

Andy Jan 29

@dedicto @autistics

I have been on-off reading an academic book on autism, and the chapter on theory of mind (like a few other chapters) highlights inconsistent findings. There appears to have been some movement towards focusing on specific abilities within "theory of mind", but even there the evidence is mixed - perhaps reflecting in part the heterogeneity of autism.

https://zeroes.ca/@dedicto/115828453668213676

@misaimed_brain @autistics I think it's not so much heterogeneity within #autism itself, as conceptual confusion in the theory being tested. Some earlier reflections on this topic:

Douglas Edwards :neurodiv: (@[email protected])

An observation about "theory of mind deficits" in #autism: what's missing in our relationship to other minds is not a THEORY. It's a set of "click, whirr" automatic shortcut mechanisms for dealing with the social world that neurotypicals use INSTEAD OF the explicit, conscious reasoning that reliance on an actual theory would entail. It's what I've termed the #EnvironmentalYoke. It's what advertising and propaganda exploit, in ways that influence expert Robert #Cialdini has built a career exposing. It's likely a large part of the reason why we're less susceptible to advertising than neurotypicals are. It would be closer to the truth to say that NEUROTYPICALS lack a theory of mind. They actually do have one, but they mostly don't need to use it; their instinctive reactions, driven by their environmental yoke, mostly render actual theorizing unnecessary. It is WE who must reason explicitly about other minds if we are to understand them at all. The pernicious and misleading "theory of mind deficit" / #mindblindness terminology is frequently misunderstood by the public to mean that #autistics cannot even understand the CONCEPT of other minds. From that misunderstanding, it's only a short step to regarding autistics as subhuman. The #mindblindness theory is thus a major contributor to bigotry against autistics, as Morton Ann #Gernsbacher has so eloquently pointed out. I also have personal experience with another problem that #mindblindness theory can cause. I suspected that I might be autistic "or something like that" for DECADES before I finally reached the conclusion that I was, in late 2024. A major reason why it took so long: I, too, misunderstood #mindblindness theory to mean that autistics literally couldn't understand the concept of other minds; I knew that wasn't true of me; I accepted the #mindblindness theory as the best explanation of autism that psychological science could currently offer; and I concluded that I couldn't be autistic! It's time to bury the "theory of mind deficit" / #mindblindness idea with a stake through its heart. We should avoid using this terminology except to criticize it — and demand that psychology professionals do the same. They can and should find more accurate terminology to express their findings about our neurodivergent relationship with other minds. @[email protected]

zeroes.ca

Andy

@dedicto @autistics

I think that is also fair, and I can see that being a much more important explanation of the differences. Conceptual confusion is something I have seen in a lot of topics, and it does make it difficult to synthesise and evaluate the evidence.

I also take your point, and I think others have also commented this, that "theory of mind" is not a super helpful label.

@misaimed_brain @autistics I have a different concept of what we lack — one that doesn't tend to assume that lack of it is necessarily a tragedy. I call it the #EnvironmentalYoke. Check out that hashtag.

Elisabeth M Jan 29

@dedicto @misaimed_brain @autistics I looked at that hashtag but couldn't find a succinct definition of the term you created or why you named it that

https://zeroes.ca/@dedicto/115457107590672323

@independentpen @misaimed_brain @autistics I'm not sure the concept lends itself to a succinct definition. This excerpt is the closest I have to a definition:

'The neurotypical environmental yoke is NOT necessarily superior in addressing even the matters it highlights as important. What it provides is a "canned", "hardwired", instinctive attentional apparatus for engaging with the portions of the world that are relevant to survival in human society — prominently including direct social interactions, but also aspects of the physical world that are relevant to survival.'

There's also the post from 3 months ago that introduced the #EnvironmentalYoke, although at that time I wasn't hashtagging it yet:

Douglas Edwards :neurodiv: (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] There are numerous known genetic conditions, involving completely different genes, that can cause autism, like your PTEN; and many more cases of autism that are thought to be due to complex, poorly understood interactions between various as yet unknown collections of genes. Autism is a "final common pathway" that can be reached in many ways. To explain this convergence, I've hypothesized the existence of a complex neurological pattern I call "the environmental yoke", that is common to allistics, and is involved in closely monitoring the physical and social environment and integrating information gathered from the environment. Anything that TURNS OFF or DISABLES the environmental yoke results in autism. Since it is such a complex structure, there are many ways to turn it off. A point mutation in any gene critical to its functioning could disable it. But so could a complex pattern of subtle changes in multiple genes. And there may even also be a specific "off switch" that disables the environmental yoke with few or no other, separate effects. To allistics who rely constantly on their environmental yoke, and take it for granted, its absence may seem at once bizarre and pitiable. They have a hard time seeing autism as anything but a defect, and an equally hard time seeing how anyone could manage daily life without the environmental yoke. Yet it's also possible that, critical as the environmental yoke may have been to human survival and development in the past, at present it GETS IN THE WAY of the exercise of other valuable capabilities that we have developed. So allistics are confronted with the spectacle of a strange and seemingly incomprehensible pattern of thought and behavior that is commonly associated with things like seizures and intellectual disability — and yet is also commonly found in people who do NOT have any such problems, and even turns out to have distinct and considerable advantages whether or not it is associated with any other problematic abnormalities.

zeroes.ca

https://zeroes.ca/@dedicto/115508631395851934

@independentpen @misaimed_brain @autistics And this addresses the question why the term "yoke" was chosen for the #EnvironmentalYoke. It facilitates attention to, and understanding of, certain socially relevant things, but also CONSTRAINS attention in ways that can be detrimental if the things that need attention aren't within its purview:

Douglas Edwards :neurodiv: (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] The term #EnvironmentalYoke is NOT intended as laudatory — as defining autism through lack of something which everyone ought to have. No doubt neurotypicals would see it that way, but I am NOT implying agreement with that perspective. If I could somehow acquire a fully functional environmental yoke, I would find it suffocatingly oppressive: forcing me to be concerned continually with things that GET IN THE WAY of what I'd rather be thinking about — and, especially, with social interactions with people I'd rather not interact with. Indeed, I chose the term "yoke" specifically as a pejorative — to emphasize the role of this neurological structure as a facilitator of oppression. But the term "yoke" is used so often as a metaphor that the ugliness behind it is easily forgotten. I found the Wikipedia article on actual, literal yokes helpful in reminding myself what they're really about. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoke

zeroes.ca

Elisabeth M Jan 29

@dedicto @misaimed_brain @autistics as a yoke facilitates oxen pulling a wagon while also keeping the oxen in formation?

@independentpen @misaimed_brain @autistics Yes! In formation with each other, and with the wagon. It makes one thing easier, while making everything else harder.

Elisabeth M Jan 29

@dedicto @misaimed_brain @autistics and why environmental, as opposed to, cognitive, perceptive, or something like? Environmental makes me think it's originating from the environment as opposed to being applied to the environment

Jan 30

@independentpen @misaimed_brain @autistics The "environmental" in #EnvironmentalYoke refers to what they're yoked TO. It's the neurological structure that yokes them to the environment — the social environment, and the socially relevant portions of the physical environment. We're free of that.