Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by impairment of automated social skills. Narcissism is a personality disorder characterized by socially inappropriate behavior. Because both seem to involve a focus on the self and a deficit in the ability to perspective shift, each has become a pejorative term leveled at libertarians and objectivists. The main difference between the disorders is that ASD involves mind blindness while NPD involves a savvy use of mind reading and mirroring the mental states of others for the purpose of manipulation. While clinicians state that it is possible to have a comorbidity between the two conditions, it is unlikely that someone who is mind blind can have much success manipulating others. This kind of manipulation is a tactic that has survival value only to those with at least a neurotypical ability to read the social cues of others.
Julia Hanna and I will compared ASD and NPD on our show. Here is the link:
