There’s a lot of confusion when it comes to the concept and terminology around neurodiversity and neurotypicality. Gender and Intersectionality have been interests of mine for more than a decade by now and since I found out that I am autistic, I am working on getting a deeper understanding of neurodiversity and how it is all connected. So here are my thoughts on the topic and I am very much interested in yours.
Neurotypicality is the performance of the social construct of neuronormativity, similar to the performance of gender, which is a social construct too. In the same way your sex does not define your gender, your neurology does not define if you are neurotypical or not. Same as gender, neurotypicality is about behavior, about how you present yourself.
And the point where it becomes tricky, is that “neurodivergent means having a mind that functions in ways which diverge significantly from the dominant societal standards of “normal.” (Nick Walker) When we stick to that definition and keep in mind, that neurotypicality is a social performance, you can have a neurodivergent mind and still perform neurotypicality, that is called masking. So, the opposite of neurotypical is not neurodivergent, it is neuroqueer, because queerness is a about behavior and identity, not something that is defined by your body, but something that you decide to live.
Being autistic is something that you are born with, it’s a difference from the neuromajority in the body, not a something you perform, while being neurotypical is something that you can choose to a certain extent, it is a performance same as gender. But your neurology strongly influences how difficult this performance, the behavior, that is perceived as normal is, to the point that it becomes extremely damaging or even impossible. In the same way nobody is born neurotypical, nobody is born a woman, it is an identity you choose on a more or less conscious level, not something that is defined by your body parts.
The opposite of the concept neuronormativity is the neurodiversity paradigm, not neurodiversity itself. “Neurodiversity is the diversity of human minds, the infinite variation in neurocognitive functioning within our species.” (Nick Walker), it is a biological fact.
While neuronormativity defines a neurology, that diverges from the majority as disordered, the neurodiversity paradigm sees neurodivergence as a valuable part of human diversity. For that reason, people who embrace the neurodiversity paradigm are so critical of the diagnostic criteria of autism, because they refer to a behavior and deem it as deficient, rather than understanding the neurology behind it. The diagnostic criteria of autism are not based in the science of neurology and neurodiversity, but on your ability of the performance of neurotypicality, which is a social construct. This where the nonsensical idea of “outgrowing autism” comes from.
The personal is very much political here, because all kinds of normativity (neuronormativity, heteronormativity etc.) are concepts that are upheld by people in power to control the masses, who are below them in the social hierarchy. The more your needs, your behavior diverge from what is defined as “normal”, the more difficult you are to control and are therefore defined as disordered by people in power. As a part of a minority group you are the living proof of the fact, that this system is not about meeting people’s valid needs, but about control, about upholding the power of a few. Validating your needs, would lead to a systemic change and that is not in the interest of the people on top of the hierarchy.
From this point of view, psychiatry is (at least partly) pseudo-science, it is a tool of control. This is why some people say, that many therapists are “cops” too, this is why “therapy” is not safe for so many of us, why it is not the one size fits all solution.
#ActuallyAutistic #neurodivergent #queer
@autistics
[Edited a typo in the 7th paragraph]
