Autism and the Development of Mind

R. Peter Hobson

Preface -- 1. Prolegomena -- Introduction -- The Autistic Individual -- The Interpersonal Domain -- Self and Other -- The Capacity to Symbolise -- Explaining Autism -- The Perspective of Developmental Psychopathology -- 2. The Picture of Autism -- The Earliest Years -- The Cardinal Features of Autism -- Beyond Childhood -- Autism “From the Inside” -- 3. Interpersonal R elatedness I: The Norm al Infant -- Early Personal Relatedness -- Capacities for Social Perception -- The Development of Self -- Overview -- 4. Interpersonal R elatedness II: The Case of Autism -- Interpersonal Relatedness and Relationships -- Imitation -- Attachment -- Self-development -- Conclusion -- 5. The Growth of Interpersonal Understanding -- “Explicit” Interpersonal Understanding in Normal -- Development -- The Case of Autism -- Conclusion -- 6. Conceptual Issues I: On Understanding Minds -- “Theory of Mind” -- What it Means to Understand “Belief' -- Bodies and Minds -- Persons and Selves -- The Emotional Origins of Psychological Understanding -- 7. Conceptual Issues II: On Thought and Language -- The Nature of Thinking -- Perceiving, Acting, and Feeling -- The Nature of Symbolic Functioning -- Developing the Capacity to Symbolise -- The Interpersonal Origins of Symbolic Functioning -- Communication and Language -- Recapitulation -- 8. Thought and Language: The Case of Autism -- A Clinical Example -- A Theoretical Perspective -- The Capacity to Symbolise -- Language -- Analysing Communication -- Cognition Revisited -- 9. The Development of Mind and the Case of Autism -- The Normal Development of Mind — The Theoretical -- Challenge -- A Theory of Development -- The Case of Autism -- Congenital Blindness -- Epilogue -- References -- Author index -- Subject index.