Mindblindness: An Essay on Autism and Theory of Mind
Save 17%
Original price
$34.95
Current price
$29.18
Author: Simon Baron-Cohen
Publisher: A Bradford Book
Paperback:
ISBN 10: 9780262522250
ISBN 13: 978-0262522250
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, 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."
A Bradford Book
Review
-- Henry M. Wellman, University of Michigan
" Wow! in this lucid, compelling book Simon Baron-Cohen guides us deep into the realm of the mind....This fascinating book captures the excitment of an emerging field, and advances that field." -- Henry M. Wellman, University of Michigan
& quot; Wow! in this lucid, compelling book Simon Baron-Cohen guides us deep into the realm of the mind....This fascinating book captures the excitment of an emerging field, and advances that field.& quot; -- Henry M. Wellman, University of Michigan
"Wow! in this lucid, compelling book Simon Baron-Cohen guides us deep into the realm of the mind....This fascinating book captures the excitment of an emerging field, and advances that field."--Henry M. Wellman, University of Michigan
Review
Wow! In this lucid, compelling book Simon Baron-Cohen guides us deep into the realm of the mind. His topic: our everyday ability to attribute mental states―beliefs, desires, emotions, intentions―to each other. Mindreading, he calls it. But his topic is also the intriguing inability of some individuals―especially autistics but also infants and nonhuman animals―to engage in this everyday feat. Mindblindness he calls it. Baron-Cohen convinvingly argues that mindreading of this mundane everyday variety is actually an impressive human ability, one that is specially evolved, specially neurologically supported, and that is rapidly acquired by almost all young humans, save autistics. In these senses it is much like seeing. Baron-Cohen neatly stitches together neuroscience, psychiatry, development, and evolution; he summarizes and integrates his own impressive research, but that of many others as well. This fascinating book captures the excitment of an emerging field, and advances that field.
―
Henry M. Wellman, Department of Psychology and Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan
From the Back Cover
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 un- consciously. It is the natural way in which we interpret, predict, and participate in social behavior and communication. Building on many years of research, Baron-Cohen concludes that children with autism suffer from 'mindblindness' as a result of a selective impairment in mind reading.
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.
