Autism, language, and the folk psychology of souls
Stephen Flusberg a1andHelen Tager-Flusberg a2 a1 Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 a2 Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118. sflus@stanford.eduhtagerf@bu.edu
Anecdotal evidence suggests that people with autism, with known impairments in mechanisms supporting a folk psychology of mind or souls, can hold a belief in an afterlife. We focus on the role language plays, not just in acquiring the specific content of beliefs, but more significantly, in the acquisition of the concept of life after death for all people.
