Mental Blindness

Sir Simon Baron-Cohen coined the term "mental blindness" (or "mind-blindness") to describe a situation he encountered during his research of Autism Spectrum Disorders. He noticed that individuals diagnosed with ASD struggled to be able to attribute mental states onto others, resulting in a deficit of empathic and social skills. He found that children who displayed mind-blindness frequently went on to develop an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Mental Blindness is frequently associated with Theory of Mind, which explores the capacity of individuals to understand that others have different opinions and experiences than themselves.

Baron-Cohen's work on mental blindness paved the way for the discovery of an interesting phenomenon. People with Schizophrenia are similarly impaired in Theory of Mind and also exhibit mental blindness. This discovery has helped to create an important dialogue around Schizophrenia and how it impairs cognitive functions.

1. ↑ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11754830/
2. ↑ https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Mindblindness%3A-Autism%2C-Writing%2C-and-the-Problem-of-Jurecic/763accef62f9c30c25e91baad9a5eaf306c5955c
3. ↑ A.M. Leslie,

Theory of Mind,

Editor(s): Neil J. Smelser, Paul B. Baltes,

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences,

Pergamon,

2001,

Pages 15652-15656,

ISBN 9780080430768,

https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-08-043076-7/01640-5.
4. ↑ Pijnenborg, G.H., Spikman, J., Jeronimus, B.F., & Aleman, A. (2012). Insight in schizophrenia: associations with empathy. *European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 263*, 299-307.
Not only does mental or mind blindness prevent individuals with autism or schizophrenia from having an impaired sense of what emotions others may be experiencing, this also makes it more difficult for these individuals to predict others' behaviors. We still have little known data surrounding what areas of the brain this defict is caused by, but mindblindness does aid in explaining an experience that individual's with certain diagnoses may experience. It is important to mention that individuals who suffer from mental blindness do not suffer from a loss of imagination - they can imagine the answers to how a person may feel, make it up as they go. What they do suffer from is a difficulty gathering data that leads them to a discernible answer as to what another is feeling. Autism in many cases is caused by genetic dispositions, therefore, there is a significant part of the brain that is likely impacted by those who struggle with mental blindness, it is not just a happen-stance phenomena.

Some examples of a child with autism exhibiting mental blindness is "...fail to follow another person's gaze, fail to point at or show objects of interest - both signs of shared attention - and fail to understand make-believe play". All of those mentioned previously occur naturely for children who develop normally. What this does for children who struggle with this process is create barricades in communicating with other peers and can make building intimate friendships more difficult. Some people find the view of Theory of the Mind and mental blindness to be shallow in it's way of explaining how this occurs for individuals on the autistic spectrum. A question to be posed is if this mental blindness is a stark example of the differences between an autistic and non-autistic brain, or if someone can develop mind blindness due to development difficulties, neglect, poor social learning, etc.

1. ↑ https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/82375639.pdf
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627301005529
3. ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/aspergers-diary/200805/empathy-mindblindness-and-theory-mind