Autistic Culture And The Double Empathy Divide

How Language Shapes Culture

Dr. Damian Milton posited the double empathy problem as an explanation for the perceived deficit in social and emotional reciprocity and empathy that Autistic people are often accused of. This was significant because it shifted the responsibility for communication breakdown away from the Autistic person and towards a middle ground wherein both sides (Autistic and non-Autistic) were struggling to empathise with one another.

Essentially, Autistic people do not have a lack of empathy. Perceived deficits are instead a communication breakdown caused by a lack of shared experience of the world. I can only experience the world Autistically, and they do not experience it that way. Neither one of us has a reference point in the others experience and thus we can not fully appreciate that experience. The subsequent communication breakdown is then set at the feet of Autistic people due to the power imbalance between Autistic and non-Autistic people. That is to say, Autistic people are not allowed to frame the mainstream narrative, and as a marginalised group are held responsible for the breakdown.