AutisticTopics

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Maqqi kicks off tonight’s webinar on The History of Autistics with a tribute to two people our community will be forever indebted to

Yep, this is going to be an emotional rollercoaster ❤️

What does it mean to be neurodiversity affirmative? | BPS With a focus on the autistic experience, our contributors (see below) consider this question and its implications for how professionals and services can adapt.

𝐌 𝐎 𝐍 𝐎 𝐓 𝐑 𝐎 𝐏 𝐈 𝐒 𝐌

Imagine you look through a telescope all day,
seeing more than most wherever you look, yes,
but being quite challenged by the task
of switching what you were looking at,
locating the next thing that demands your attention.

When you move the telescope, all is a blur,
the next subject wildly challenging to locate.
Awkward.

Additionally, there are so many pressures on you
to take in a bigger picture,
things clamouring equally for your attention,
but not at all suited to how you actually are,
the way you will always be.
Gasp.

Further, your senses are super-tuned
to engage with a highly defined area of focus.
Ouch.

WHAT IS MONOTROPISM?

It is a theory.

It theorises about what central underlying feature about autism makes autistics ... autistic.

It seeks to be a unified theory about what autism really is. Explaining so much in a breath - if not all.

Autistics and those with ADHD can experience monotropism as the mainstay of how they are most, if not all of the time. For folk with ADHD, what can appear to be inattention or hyperactivity, distractibility or impulsiveness, to outsiders, is actually just what outsiders are inferring, unable to comprehend that Monotropic focus and vision is what is really happening.

Shifting attention, 'multitasking', and adapting to sudden changes to be weaknesses to those encountering us. But you can't beat Monotropic folk when a situation or subject cries out for a deep-dive].

Monotropism doesn't imply an inability to focus, but rather a different way of focusing that might vary from the norm. Many Monotropics describe it as their 'Happy Flow State', the way in which they can be comfortable in their skin.

WHOSE THEORY?

Monotropism is a theory specifically developed by autistic people, from our vantage point as an understanding developed internally, not like those theories or claims of non-autistics which are developed from an external perspective.

The three main autistics associated with the development of the theory of Monotropism were/are
-the late Dr. Dinah Murray, a researcher with autistic children;
- Dr Wenn Lawson, a leading to contributor to the world's understanding about being autistic; and
- the late Mathematician Mike Lesser, who with Dinah and Wenn saw the importance of computers nd computing to so many autistics, and how the mind of a hunter matters to humanity - a person who plainly sees what is currently being seen, stripped of old or previous knowledge that might interfere with them seeing reality and choosing rationaly.

IS IT GOOD OR BAD?

Monotropism sees autistics mostly focus their attention on one, or a relatively small number of interests, which means missing things outside our attention tunnel as an inevitable result. It is no more a good or bad thing that being a human with broad vision, strength, speed, height, nimbleness, etc. These are all things humanity needs in approximately the right proportion. The strength that we call "diversity", a covering of all bases for all possibilities.

SO WHAT ARE NON-MONOTROPIC PEOPLE CALLED?

Blurries? Muggles? Vagues? Ah, no. Their cognitive style can be best contrasted by use of the word 'Polytropicism'... they are 'Polytropics'.

NOTE ON INTERSECTIONALITY

It is no accident of history that other aspects of these three autism philosopher's identities were quite diverse in other ways. What is brought to better comprehending being autistic from the world of progress and politics, LGBTQIA2+ and pro-diversity, pacifism and anti-racism, equality and human rights, past trauma and healing, etc. more than just matters greatly - it goes on and on to be utterly for the leaps and bounds such striving fellow autistics make for us all. Nothing develops the autistic layer of colour better than the richness of all the other layers of colours swirling.

FURTHER READING:

MONOTROPISM

https://monotropism.org/ #:~:text=Monotropism%20is%20a%20theory%20of,history%2C%20and%20what's%20happening%20now

https://youtu.be/qUFDAevkd3E

https://www.facebook.com/NeurodiversityCollective/posts/pfbid028khQ2RCD38NvMD6zNQV568zLP8kcc94KBALz8fSVEBin3AdAfHT3aeGDMYftWBDol

https://autisticandunapologetic.com/2020/07/26/monotropism-the-most-accurate-autism-theory-youve-probably-never-heard-of/?fbclid=IwAR1-aIkxOmY5owETF_gl67YO1TvbbjNfGY-yP38UBmX1coJlcwOw_k8ajak

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ASNZGROUP/posts/10159238488636542/

DR DINAH MURRAY

https://monotropism.org/dinah/

DR WENN LAWSON

http://www.buildsomethingpositive.com/wenn/

MATHEMATICIAN MIKE LESSER:

https://monotropism.org/mike-lesser/

SEMINAL WORK FROM 2005 [Small PDF]
https://web.archive.org/web/20180519194244/http://www.autismusundcomputer.de/english/139.pdf

MODERN WRITINGS:

https://monotropism.org/2023/recent-writing/

~ ʎllɐǝɹƃ uɥoɾ

Co-founder https://www.facebook.com/groups/autisminclusivity
155𝒌+ 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄, 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒔, 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔, 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒚-𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒓𝒔

Books with neurodivergent characters mark new chapter for publishers Children’s books featuring protagonists who are autistic or have ADHD are going to the highest bidder