The term 'Autism' means 'absorbed in the self'.

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"I have chosen the label autism in an effort to define the basic disorder that generates the abnormal personality structure of the children as we are concerned with here. The name derives from the concept of autism in schizophrenia. Autism in this sense refers to a fundamental disturbance of contact that is manifest in an extreme form in schizophrenic patients. The name 'autism', coined by Bleuler, is undoubtedly one of greatest linguistic and conceptional creations in medical nomenclature.
Human beings normally live in constant interaction with their environment, and react to it continually. However, 'autists' have severely disturbed and considerably limited interaction. The autist is only himself (cf. the Greek word autos) and is not an active member of a greater organism which he is influenced by and which he influences constantly." - Hans Asperger 'Autistic Psychopathy' in Childhood

The description in Asperger's Paper (as that's the one I have in front of me at the moment), fits a lot better than the phrase "self-absorbed" because of implications, and seems to get the idea across better to me.

The description of me not being an active member of a greater organism is one that absolutely fits, the phrase "self-absorbed", am not nearly so sure about.

I'd taken self absorbed in this instance to mean:

"preoccupied with one's own thoughts, emotions, life"

rather than:

"limited to or caring only about yourself and your own needs"

I think some people are rightfully uncomfortable with the latter as it implies a certain deliberate selfishness.

But going with the first definition, self absorption is one of my biggest problems. It is why I find it so hard to organise things involving other people, why I miss meaningful events for others such as birthdays. It is why I find it so hard to consider other peoples feelings, not out of simple meanness but because it never occurs to my brain to spend any of its time thinking about others. And with the constant internal dialogue that I'm forced to listen to, it takes a lot of energy to break out of this inward looking focus in order to interact with others.

A problem with this is that the word "autism" has, at least, two or three meanings with some small differences:

1 - for one side, it is the name of a well-defined neurological disorder (or a set of disorders)

2 - it was also the meaning (used by Bleur) that of someone who retreated in his inner world of thoughts and fantasies (in this meaning, has more to do with schizophrenia than with the clinical "autism")

3 - at least in my country, in common language, has the meaning of "someone who live in his own world", disconnected from reality. For example, when a politician says that "economy is going good" when all indicators show the economy collapsing, it is common to say that that politician is "autistic"

[or perhaps 2 and 3 are the same meaning?]

The "absorbed in the self" is true for all the 3 meanings, but, in many ways, is probably more true for the meanings 2 and 3 that for the 1.

Uh-oh...autism is being associated with some kind of "badness"? BRING IN THE INTERPRETATION POLICE!! ! Obviously someone needs to be corrected here!

"Absorbed in the self" would not be the definition of autism, but it would be similar to the meaning of the root words. I'm currently studying medical terminology;
Aut/ o means "self"
Where as "ism" is a condition of.

Terms are read kind of backwards, so, Autsim, literally, "Condition of the self."

I've been doing a lot of research into the sense of self and how it is different in say people with schizophrenia compared to those with Asperger's and was pleased when I found out autism means absorbed in ones self since it fitted in perfectly with the results of the research I'd been doing.

I believe people with Asperger's have a diminished sense of self,one way that this can be seen in the way that they use language.

for instance I often talk in the third person.

people with schizophrenia have belief in the origin, this was shown to be true to myself when I had a psychotic break caused by belief in the origin.

I have selective ''thinking-of-other-people'' (whatever the proper term for that is). I only think of other people when I want to, but that doesn't mean I lack interest in other people. I can just be selfish when I want to be, which isn't that typical in everyone?

Besides, I'm often advised, ''you've got to be a bit selfish sometimes''.

The text is simply sharing the root meaning of the word, and the publishers have made no faux pas or error. "Autos" is "self" and "ismos" is "a state of being." It is not meant as a judgment. It is simply a word origin. And the root meaning of the word will never change over time as "autos" and "ismos" will always mean the same thing. The contextual meaning of autism may evolve, but it's origins won't.

the sense of self is different though, it relates to how you relate to other people (other selfs) as opposed to other things.

Although autistics may seem self absorbed their probably absorbed in other things and not in themselves. Schizophrenics often get absorbed in themselves to the extent that they actually believe all the weird s**t that goes on that other people ignore. politicians for instance are self absorbed in a different way, their very much interested in people. psychopaths exist at the other end of the spectrum.

So....it's impossible for an NT to be selfish? Wow....I've seen people act selfish before. I often hear people say ''gosh, how selfish of him/her!''