Espectro autista: déficit en teoría de la mente versus entrenamiento en autodiscriminación condicional

Abstract

Abstract This paper intends to examine the cognitive approach to the autistic spectrum disorder (explanation based on the failure of the “theory of mind” mechanism) and face it to the behavior therapies. It emphasizes particularly the possibilities for rehabilitation of autism spectrum disorder, syndrome understood as a deficit in conditional self-discrimination (contemporary behaviorist view of self-awareness). Conditional self-discrimination is a learned capability that is on the basis of the mind attribution. Assume this alternative vision leads to a kind of rehabilitation that take into account the biological limits established by the cognitive theory, which does not implies rehabilitation because its structuralist nature. Key words: autism spectrum disorder, theory of mind, self-awareness, conditional self-discrimination, training, rehabilitation.