SelfhelpMagazine

by Marlene M. Maheu, Ph.D.

Caetexia or "context blindness"  is a chronic, lifelong disorder manifesting in the inability to adjust behaviors or perception to deal appropriately with interacting variables. As used in the video shown below, Caetextia describes context blindness caused by an inability to keep track of multiple interconnecting variables and to prioritize any change in those variables by referring to a wider field that contains their historical roots.

This causes people with Asperger's syndrome or caetextia to resort to one of two mental modus operandi: logical, straight-line thinking or thinking by random ssociations.

To whatever extent one is afflicted, this condition is also known as Asperger's Symdome. People with this syndrome have also been known to refer to themselves as "'aspies" or even" semi-aspies" when they manifest only some of the predominant symptoms of the syndrome.

Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell first coined the term "caetextia" in 2007 to describe the most dominant manifestation of autistic behavior for people who are at the highest functioning levels of the autistic spectrum. They describe how many of the world's leading scientists have been able to sustain immense focus and energy in the successful pursuit of scientific rigor when they were clearly showing full symptoms of caetexia or "context blindness."

The first publication of this idea was in the Human Givens Journal Vol 14, No 4 (2008) and the paper presented and illustrated with numerous filmed examples of Caetextic behaviour at a MindFields College Advanced Studies Course and also at the Human Givens Institute Conference in 2009.

In this lecture given at the Human Givens Institute Conference in May 2009, Joe Griffin explains the connection between madness and creativity, why we are caetextic in dreams, and how caetextia is supported by the current brain research into the default network. Watch a video of Joe Griffin explaining caetextia here:

The REM state, Caetextia and the development of self-concept from Mindfields College on Vimeo.

About the Author:

Dr. Maheu is an author, speaker, and researcher. She is the lead author of "E-Health, Telehealth & Telemedicine: A Guide to Program Startup and Success" co-written with Pamela Whitten and Ace Allen, published by Jossey-Bass: San Francisco.

She has also been the lead author on these two books: "Infidelity on the Internet" and "The Mental Health Professional and the New Technologies."