philosophy
I have recently begun to explore the idea of the Autistic Rhizome as a futurist ideal of what the Autistic community could look like. In this concept, we explore communities that exist of networks with no single point of origin. They are interlinked but not dependent on one another for
Neuroqueering
"Mother is God in the eyes of a child" William Makepeace Tackery The above quote, whilst pertinent to this discussion, is only half of the picture. Adults control most aspects of a child's life, and whether or not we realise it, we do this by being
Society
Community is somewhat of an abstract concept. It is an adjective for a group that has a shared identity. It comes with rules and politics that dictate how one must carry themselves. There is a dichotomy of insider and outsider within communities, often dictated by agreement of the communities politics.
Neurodiversity
Before we start, I want to go over some terms that will be covered here. Neuro-anarchy: as conceptualised by Katie Munday, I use this to refer to to the decentralisation of hierarchy as it pertains to neurocultures such as that of the Autistic community. Munday and I co-authored an article
Neuroqueer Theory
In a previous article, I discussed the idea of verisimilitude. I discussed how we might never find an objective truth that explains neurodivergent experience. In fact, we might never find one for human experience on the whole. What we can do is seek a falsehood that is close enough to
Neurofuturism
I'd like to start with a word. Verisimilitude This word represents a concept within philosophical thought. It is the notion that some false ideas are closer to the truth than others. One might ask why this is an important concept to know in the realms of Autistic knowledge
Neuroqueering
In this latest issue of the Neuroqueer blog series, David Gray-Hammond and Katie Munday explore the relationship between neuro-anarchy and the Chaotic Self, considering how the two synergise and what this means for the growth of healthy neurocultures.
philosophy
For time immemorial the nature of human consciousness has been discussed and debated. I have spoken at length about neuronormativity and neuroqueer theory, positioning the Self as a moving target that grows and changes dependent on it's cultural and environmental context, socially constructed by those we interact with.
Neuroqueer Theory
There is a bitter irony as I begin to write this post. What many of you will not know is how I became a blogger. I wrote for an immensely popular outlet, I won't name them, but they support Autism Speaks. I think just based on that, you
philosophy
Identity is of importance to most people. It's how we describe and define our experiences and relationships with the wider environment. Some may argue that it is how we relate ourselves to the world, I would argue that it is the visible surface of deep metaphysical structures within
Neurofuturism
Three years ago, I asked the question What does it feel like to be Autistic? By the time I wrote that article, I was quite confident in both my Autistic identity and my blossoming advocacy work, but in the time since writing it, I have learned and grown at an
Neuroqueer Theory
In some of my recent articles, I have referred to something called neurofuturism. While neurofuturism itself is not a new word (although weirdly, I didn't know this when I first used it), I do believe that reconceptualising it may allow for a new discourse in the Neurodivergent community.