It may be true in the case of autism that if you start off with a deficit in terms of empathy or mind reading, you've just got more time to devote to understanding the world by systemizing.
Interpretation
Autism may lead to a unique perspective, allowing for a focus on systemizing the world rather than relying on empathy.
In this quote, Simon Baron-Cohen suggests that individuals with autism might initially experience challenges with empathy or understanding others' thoughts and feelings. However, this could provide them with the opportunity to invest more time and effort in analyzing and systemizing the details of their environment, ultimately leading to a different but valuable way of engaging with the world.
In practice
During a seminar on autism and cognitive styles, this quote can illustrate the strengths found within neurodiverse individuals.
When I first started in this field there were all kinds of stereotypes about autism, as if these were children from another planet, or children who had been brought up by wolves, that they weren't part of our population and were somehow separate.
Empathy is like a universal solvent. Any problem immersed in empathy becomes soluble. It is effective as a way of anticipating and resolving interpersonal problems, whether this is a marital conflict, an international conflict, a problem at work, difficulties in a friendship, political deadlocks, a family dispute, or a problem with a neighbor.
Brains come in different types and they're all normal.
Well, in the general population, we find differences between the typical male and typical female. For example, males seem to be more interested in systems and females seem to be more interested in people and particularly people's emotions.
Empathy is a skill like any other human skill - and if you get a chance to practice, you can get better at it.
There are people with Asperger's whom I've met who certainly would be very upset to learn they'd hurt another person's feelings. They often have very strong moral consciences and moral codes. They care about not hurting people.
The aim of psychoanalysis is to relieve people of their neurotic unhappiness so that they can be normally unhappy.
Both dreams and neurotic dream-states have as their function the avoidance of displeasure, but the dream-states also serve to provide a positive pleasure gain.
While we somehow understand revenge on an intuitive level between individuals, I do suspect that companies, assuming that people are rational, completely miss and underestimate the motivation people have for revenge.
We live in a world where most people still subscribe to the belief that shame is a good tool for keeping people in line. Not only is this wrong, but itβs dangerous. Shame is highly correlated with addiction, violence, aggression, depression, eating disorders, and bullying.
In the investigation of a neurotic style of life, we must always suspect an opponent, and note who suffers most because of the patient's condition. Usually this is a member of the family.
The fact is that people are good, Give people affection and security, and they will give affection and be secure in their feelings and their behavior.
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