The paper presents semantic spaces of emotion names obtained using multidimensional scaling in two samples: autistic adult subjects and healthy children of different age. The same experimental procedure, raw data processing methods, and the same unified approach to data presentation utilising posterior geometric models were used in both samples. Anomaly of the spatial semantic model associated with autism consisted in selective dropping of the “anger – fear” dimension, while the “pleasure – displeasure” dimension remained intact. In healthy children those two dimensions do not develop simultaneously: the primary “pleasure – displeasure” system serves as the basis for the “anger – fear” system, which develops later in ontogenesis. In contrast to the normal samples, in autistic subjects the reduced perception of emotion names in the “anger – fear” spectrum remains stable and is not associated with age. Neurophysiological origins of this phenomenon are discussed.