Theory Of Mind

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is ''Theory Of Mind'' and ''Mindblindess'' when I am walking my dog or out in public I don't really notice or pay attention to other people? it's as if I am ''disconnected'' or anything else that is going on is not important, I always feel in the zone of focused on what I am doing, is that due to the neurological aspect of being a Aspie? I also don't like to be interrupted when I am doing something

"Theory of mind" is the ability to imagine or intuit what others might be thinking and "mindblindness" is the lack of it. So it is not what you're describing; it's hyperfocus and/or introversion. But those can be aspie things.

I think the term "mindblindness" is a misleading analogy for autism and mind dyslexia would be more accurate. Myself and a lot of people here seem to have some limited theory of mind and it's something I've gotten a lot better at as I've gotten older. In elementary school it was close to true mindblindness.

needs to be mentioned that there are different levels of TOM. the most basic level [i have a clue about how you are feeling] is fairly common among NTs and fairly rare among us spectrumites. but there is a level of TOM that is rare even among NTs, "i know that you know that i know that you know."

I like that, and it really does describe what I experience better than "mindblindness" or "lack of TOM." Those never quite seemed to fit, as I can sort of "get it" sometimes. It's more of a difficulty than a complete lack of. Thank you, and I hope you don't mind if I use that. It says so much so concisely.

To the OP, as others have said, that would be more in the realm of "hyperfocus". You're just not noticing things outside of the thing you're doing. That happens to me pretty often too.

I don't mind at all. I've seen other people come up with that same phrase independently.

I don't have trouble having a clue how other people are feeling.

Neither do I.

There's a qualitative difference between sympathy and empathy.

ASD might be more selective in these matters than NT's. This is not only scientific theory, but i have witnessed 1st hand. NT's supposedly have more mirror neurons. Which means they are more naturally inclined to express sympathy/empathy reactions to a given stimulus, atleast on the surface body-language level. We on the other hand, might appear more indifferent, stone faced, unreactive to the same stimulus.