What is Autistic Thinking?

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My therapist checked "autistic thinking" on some assessment paperwork of mine. What exactly does it mean?

For my own self it's a black & white, either/or type of thinking. I don't get the NT trait of never saying what they mean or not meaning what they say. It confuses and aggravates me. If someone says they're going to do something, I take their word for it.

It can mean so many things that it might help more to ask your therapist what they meant

lacking flexibility in thinking comes to mind

For me, lacking flexibility is a big thing.

Part of that too is that I tend to interpret things very strictly, and have trouble generalizing to a "big picture." I can sometimes have a kind of gestalt understanding thanks to data that helps me connect everything to create a big picture out of all the smaller bits that I've collected, but usually I just take things as meaningful strictly within the context in which they are offered.

Like if someone hands me an article and tells me to look for a single point. I look for that single point, and ignore the rest, even though they likely wanted me to read the whole thing.

Or having to relearn the same thing in different contexts.

Or interpreting what I hear literally, rather than applying more contextual information to interpret it.

One that bites me often is you can ask me a question about something in general, and I'll say "I have no idea what you mean" but if you offer a concrete example, I then say "Oh, yes, I know that." THis happens to me a lot and I am frustrated because I can't recall any specific examples. I'll ask a friend with whom it seems to happen often if she recalls.

I assume it means how autistic people think. But it's very vague. It can mean so many different things. I have been told for one I think like a deaf person and like an aspie.

I have similar observations.

I suppose this happens either because they are afraid of saying "the wrong thing", or perhaps they feel it is much easier to toss random words around, instead of saying something they can be held responsible for.


Autistic thinking can mean a lot of things - as mentioned already, it could mean inflexibility. It could also mean going very deep into minor details that NT people would usually ignore. Or interpreting these details in unusual ways.

according to diagnostics autistic thinking is "preoccupation with inner thoughts, daydreams, fantasies, private logic; egocentric, subjective thinking lacking objectivity and connection with external reality."

usually accompanied by obsessive thinking, misregulated emotions, sensory issues and many more things

I am quite capable of thinking along the same lines as other people in general, but sometimes I get something lodged in my head where I find it difficult to reason with, and I keep going on and on about it as though I am waiting for a really good answer or solution to the problem.

Or I could get something in my head what I think is right, and I try to explain it to other people, and they just go with the real logical explanation/answer (where as I have got something into my head that is totally untrue). Like for example, I hate snow, and say if it was going to snow heavily on Wednesday and the wind was going to definately change Wednesday night into a southerly wind, making the temperature feel very mild and was bringing rain, everyone would be like, ''good, we won't get ice or any more bitterly cold winds.'' But I might get this strange thing into my head something like ''but what if the snow makes it feel cold and so doesn't melt?'' And everybody's got to explain that snow melts very quickly once the temperature gets over 3 or 4 celcius and a mild southerly breeze brings rain, but I'd keep going on and on about it until I am proven wrong.

Is that an example of Autistic thinking? Or are the majority of Autistics more clever than my thinking in this example?

Simply put:

My way of thinking.

(Say it yourself exactly the same way. Don't reword it.)

I don't understand.

I am autistic, therefore my way of thinking is right, to me.

If you were autistic, your way of thinking would be right, to you.

Autistics have a tendency to presume that others are thinking the same things they are. It's very common for us to be taken completely off guard to discover after expressing an opinion (that we accept as fact), that others don't agree with us. "Aut" means "self" in greek. Autism, essentially means "selfism." It's a very simplistic way of describing how we think and view life, the universe and everything.

It's not that we're all completely incapable of imagining other ways of thinking. It's that doing so requires a lot more effort than it does for the average person, for most of whom it's almost automatic.

"Autistic-like" thinking doesn't necessarily mean you have autism. It just means you have a self-centric view of things. Not the same thing as "selfish" or "self-centered." Self-centric (in the strictest sense) simply means you see things from your own perspective, not anyone else's.

Is your therapist a believer in psychoanalysis?

Because I've heard 'autistic thinking' used in psychoanalysis a lot. In that context, it doesn't refer to autism at all. It refers to a style of thinking where you're preoccupied with what goes on in your own head instead of the outside world. Similarly, in that context, 'autistic speech' is speech that is intended for the person saying it, instead of an attempt to communicate.

Autism, originally, wasn't a diagnosis, but a term for the symptom of social withdrawal. It was originally coined by Bleuler in 1911, with reference to his new syndrome of schizophrenia. Phrases like 'autistic thinking' are a relic of Bleuler's use of the term autism.

There you go. ^^^ Exactly what I was referring to actually, with a little more background information.

I don't know if this is what was meant by "autistic thinking" in the OP's context or if it's the main definition generally. However, I really like it! You've managed to make something I was finding intangible considerably more tangible in one respect at least. It's given me another way to perceive the whole autistic thinking concept. As far as your definition is concerned, it definitely applies to me!

I'm not so sure about other definitions though - I must find an example I came across the other day and post it. Back soon hopefully!