Mindblindness: An Essay on Autism and Theory of Mind

Baron-Cohen, Simon, and Cosmides, Leda, and Tooby, John

ISBN 10: 0262023849 / ISBN 13: 9780262023849

Published by Bradford Book, Cambridge, MA, 1995

Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 198 p. Learning, Development, & Conceptual Change (Hardcover). Audience: General/trade. Fine in fine dust jacket. excellent in excellent jacket, Seller Inventory # Alibris.0025605

Synopsis:

In Mindblindness, Simon Baron-Cohen presents a model of the evolution and development of "mindreading." He argues that we mindread all the time, effortlessly, automatically, and mostly unconsciously. It is the natural way in which we interpret, predict, and participate in social behavior and communication. We ascribe mental states to people: states such as thoughts desires, knowledge, and intentions.
Building on many years of research, Baron-Cohen concludes that children with autism suffer from "mindblindness" as a result of a selective impairment in mindreading. For these children the world is essentially devoid of mental things.
Baron-Cohen develops a theory that draws on data from comparative psychology, from developmental psychology, and from neuropsychology. He argues that specific neurocognitive mechanisms have evolved that allow us to mindread, to make sense of actions, to interpret gazes as meaningful, and to decode "the language of the eyes."

About the Author: Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor in Developmental Psychopathology and Director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, is the author of Mindblindness (MIT Press, 1997) and The Essential Difference: The Truth about the Male and Female Mind.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Mindblindness: An Essay on Autism and Theory...
Publisher: Bradford Book, Cambridge, MA
Publication Date: 1995
Binding: Hard cover
Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included