trust only those you can make yawn

I was reading an interview with Temple Grandin today. It was in a dog magazine (hey, I'm pre-Vet; I'm allowed). If you haven't heard of her, Temple Grandin is autistic. She's made a name for herself by being successful despite that. She's got a PhD; she's an associate professor; she's written books. The books are the main reason for her fame, because most autistic people can't communicate very well. Most of what we know or think we know about autistic people comes from observation and guessing. But here she comes along, and she can tell us exactly what it's like to be autistic.

I haven't read her books, though I might now. I have read a recent bestselling novel where the character who tells the story is autistic -- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime -- which was terrific. It's quite a slim story, about a dog that someone has killed, and the "hero" of our story -- a 15 year old autistic boy -- finds the dog, and decides to try and find out who did it. The point of the story is really the whole getting into the head of this autistic boy, seeing what's going on around him and understanding it when he doesn't. The author isn't autistic, so I don't suppose he really knows, but it's an impressive feat of imagination. And, if you think about it, interesting in that the author is doing exactly what autistic people can't do, that is, putting himself in someone else's head.

Reading about the way Dr Grandin thinks (in pictures not in words), I was reminded of the way my brother thinks. Not that he's autistic! Quite the opposite, actually. You see autistic people have no empathy. Well, that's how I understand it; I'm no psychologist! But from what I've read, they seem to think the one of the problems with autism is that they have no "Theory of Mind", which basically is what we use when we put ourselves in someone else's shoes.

Actually, I don't think there's any either/or about this. Autistic people might be at one end of the spectrum, but there's plenty of "normal" people who would fail an empathy test. Which is interesting, because the academics say that's what's special about humans, that they have this "Theory of Mind"), and they do experiments with other primates, and very small children, to try and find out when it arises.

I think it would be more to the point to look at all the successful men (and yeah, I'm being sexist here, cos I think this is more a male failing) and see how many of them would qualify (not as being autistic; as failing to have a Theory of Mind). And then we should make it a requirement of public office that anyone have to demonstrate a "good" Theory of Mind!

I just remembered a test, that anyone can do. This was probably offered a little tongue in cheek by researchers, but you know how contagious yawning is? It's been suggested that how responsive you are to other people yawning is a good indicator of how well-developed your Theory of Mind is. So all we have to do is gather all the politicians together and yawn at them!

Who wants a leader who isn't affected by other people, right?