Abstract

This article proposes a link between autistic people being misperceived by the neurotypical majority and their being at risk of poor mental health and well-being. We present a transactional account of development in which the misperceptions (and consequent behaviour) of the neurotypical majority influences the perceptions and behaviour of autistic people such that they become increasingly separate and indeed isolated from mainstream society. This jeopardizes their mental health and prevents autistic people from developing to full potential. The situation is not only problematical for the development of autistic people but is also to the detriment of wider society, in so far as autistic people are effectively prevented from contributing fully. This account assumes that some (not necessarily all) autistic people yearn to be included, to be productive and to be useful. It thus directly opposes accounts that view autism as an extreme case of diminished social motivation.

Highlights

  • We argue that exclusion of autistic people from society likely serves to prevent opportunities for neurotypical people to learn from cross-neurological social interactions, and maintains or even increases division within society

  • We propose that how the behaviour of autistic people is perceived by neurotypical others, influences how they behave towards autistic people, which is perceived by autistic people, which impacts on the behaviour of autistic people

  • We envisage that early-emerging, or even innate, social interaction differences between autistic and non-autistic people act as a starting point for a transactional developmental process across the lifespan, the outcome of which is two ever more distinct groups, each with their own social interaction styles, which do not understand or empathize with each other well. This means that both groups miss opportunities to learn from each other, not just about each other’s’ style of social engagement, and fail to benefit from each other’s’ unique skills and abilities. We propose this to be a bidirectional issue, it is plausible that, as suggested by Milton (2012; see Chown, 2014), neurotypical people might fail to empathize more than autistic people, as autistic people probably have greater opportunity to interact with and understand neurotypical others than the reverse, because the majority of society is neurotypical

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Summary

Invited Article

Autism and the double empathy problem: Implications for development and mental health. In co-designed research, autistic people described experiences of trying to camouflage their autistic characteristics in social situations, but as a consequence their ‘true self’ was not accepted, leading to increased feelings of thwarted belonging, and the high rates of poor mental health, suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Given that autistic people are the minority in society, they appear to be at significantly greater risk of being difficult to read and being perceived unfavourably by the neurotypical majority, which may lead to increased attempts to camouflage their autism to fit in, giving rise to increased feelings of thwarted belonging and suicidality. Social motivation and insight are likely to be important moderator variables in the later stages of the model, influencing whether autistic people attempt to camouflage their autistic characteristics in an attempt to fit in, experience increased feelings of thwarted belonging, and poor mental health

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