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- Title
「人の気持ちがわからない」ことに気づいたアスペルガー症候群児童の心理面接過程:他者に同一化する能力に着目して
- Authors
稲垣 綾子
- Abstract
Some children with Asperger’s syndrome are capable of passing ‘theory of mind’ tasks contingent upon high verbal mental ages exceeding 9 years 2 months, and are capable of becoming cognitively aware of the dynamics of the mind in oneself and others. However, studies have pointed out their weaknesses in intuitive mentalizing, which is a gut feeling of the mind of others through emotions and/or physical sensations. Namely, they are capable of attaining conceptual understanding of the self and others, but not on a pre-conceptual emotional level, leaving them open to imbalances in self-other understanding. This can lead to a sense of psychological deficiency and/or disappointment with the self, which may influence the ego-identity formation process in adolescence. This article is a case study of a boy with Asperger’s syndrome who confronted his difficulties with intuitive mentalizing through awareness that he could not understand the feelings of others. The subject was capable of propositional mentalizing-given high verbal capacity and a basic ability of identifying with others--but had difficulties identifying with inner aspects, such as the feelings of others. However, he came to understand feelings of self and others via the therapist’s inner side--the therapist’s thoughts and emotions--confronting his own disorder through symbolization of the therapist’s myopia as a disorder and symbolic play of an ‘eye glasses and mask game,’ through which he was able to attain a certain degree of self-other understanding. This developmental and therapeutic change was discussed from the viewpoint of Hobson’s identification theory which focuses upon the pre-conceptual process before acquisition of the ‘theory of mind’. Furthermore, the author discusses the significance of focusing attention on individual capacities for identifying with others in providing support to subjects with Asperger’s syndrome.
- Publication
Japanese Journal of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2015, Vol 56, Issue 3, p385
- ISSN
0289-0968
- Publication type
Article