@misc{cogprints1193,
editor = {Peter Carruthers and Peter K Smith},
title = {Autism as mindblindness: an elaboration and partial defence},
author = {Peter Carruthers},
publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
year = {1996},
pages = {257--276},
journal = {Theories of theories of mind},
keywords = {autism, mind-blindness, executive function, self-knowledge, pretend play},
url = {http://cogprints.org/1193/},
abstract = {In this chapter I defend the mind-blindness theory of autism, by showing how it can accommodate data which might otherwise appear problematic for it. Specifically, I show how it can explain the fact that autistic children rarely engage in spontaneous pretend-play, and also how it can explain the executive-function deficits which are characteristic of the syndrome. I do this by emphasising what I take to be an entailment of the mind-blindness theory, that autistic subjects have difficulties of access to their own mental states, as well as to the mental states of other people.}
}