From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
1. (Med.) a mental disorder characterized by inability to engage in normal social interactions and intense self-absorption, and usually accompanied by other symptoms such as language dysfunctions and repetitive behavior.
Note: autism usually manifests itself at an early age [PJC]
2. behavior showing an abnormal level of absorption with one's own thoughts and disregard for external realities. [PJC]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: (psychiatry) an abnormal absorption with the self; marked by communication disorders and short attention span and inability to treat others as people
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
172 Moby Thesaurus words for "autism": acquisitiveness, airy nothing, alienation, anesthesia, autistic thinking, avoidance mechanism, bashfulness, blame-shifting, bubble, careerism, catatonia, chill, chilliness, chimera, cold blood, cold heart, coldheartedness, coldness, compensation, coolness, daydream, deadpan, deception, decompensation, defense mechanism, deluded belief, delusion, dereism, dereistic thinking, dispassion, dispassionateness, displacement, dissociability, dissociation, dream, dream vision, dreamery, dreamland, dreamworld, dullness, ego trip, egotism, emotional deadness, emotional insulation, emotionlessness, escape, escape into fantasy, escape mechanism, escapism, false belief, fantasizing, fantasy, flight, flight of fancy, frigidity, frostiness, graspingness, greed, heartlessness, iciness, ideal, idealism, ideality, idealization, ignis fatuus, illusion, imaginative exercise, immovability, impassibility, impassiveness, impassivity, impracticality, incompatibility, individualism, inexcitability, insociability, interest, isolation, lack of affect, lack of feeling, lack of touch, misbelief, misconception, mopishness, moroseness, narcissism, negativism, objectivity, obtuseness, overcompensation, passionlessness, personal aims, personal ambition, personal desires, personalism, pipe dream, play of fancy, poker face, possessiveness, privatism, projection, psychotaxis, quixotism, quixotry, rationalization, remoteness, resistance, romance, romanticism, self-absorption, self-admiration, self-advancement, self-centeredness, self-consideration, self-containment, self-deceit, self-deception, self-delusion, self-devotion, self-esteem, self-indulgence, self-interest, self-interestedness, self-jealousy, self-occupation, self-pleasing, self-seeking, self-serving, self-solicitude, self-sufficiency, selfishness, selfism, social incompatibility, sociological adjustive reactions, soullessness, spiritlessness, straight face, sublimation, substitution, sullenness, trick, trip, uncommunicativeness, uncompanionability, uncongeniality, unemotionalism, unexcitability, unfeeling, unfeelingness, unfriendliness, ungeniality, ungregariousness, unimpressibility, unimpressionableness, unpassionateness, unpracticalness, unrealism, unreality, unresponsiveness, unsociability, unsociableness, unsusceptibility, unsympatheticness, untouchability, utopianism, vapor, visionariness, wish fulfillment, wish-fulfillment fantasy, wishful thinking, withdrawal, wrong impression
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Let's see what we can do if we put our heads together.
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