The politics of existence and the regulation of Neurodivergent experience - Emergent Divergence
For a long time now, Autistic people have been fighting to have the contested title of Autism Spectrum Disorder removed from discourse of medicine. We feel that as an emerging culture, being Autistic is an identity rather than a medical matter. When considering one's identity, we have to consider all avenues of discourse surrounding it.
Reclaiming Neurofuturism: The identity problem - Emergent Divergence
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 our conscious being. The rise of social
What it feels like to be Autistic - Emergent Divergence
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 exponential rate. So now I
Reclaiming Neurofuturism: The disability question - Emergent Divergence
Throughout the neurodiversity movement and wider into parent-led autism communities, there has been one particular question that comes up time and again: Is autism (and neurodivergence in general, for that matter) a disability? The prevailing opinion of Autistic self-advocates and many people in neurodivergent-led communities is that, yes, it is a disability but only understandable
Reclaiming Neurofuturism: An introduction - Emergent Divergence
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. Namely, a discourse around what the future
Defining and emancipating weirdness: A reflection for Weird Pride - Emergent Divergence
With Weird Pride Day coming up on the 4th of March, I have been considering the way I embody my identity, and how I can use my Self-expression to reclaim neurofuturism from the tech industry and use it to drive us into a post-normal society. It seems to me that post-normal thinking is growing throughout
Bigots keep trying to tell us the meaning of words, I have bad news for them - Emergent Divergence
I have repeatedly seen bigots use the "correct" meaning of words in order to try and invalidate and oppress minority groups. An immediate example is the use of singular "they/them" pronouns. Ignoring the fact that the singular use of these pronouns outdates the use of the word "you", there is further discussion that needs to
Mental health and the diagnostic process: A neurofuturist perspective - Emergent Divergence
As I discussed in my recent article about co-occurring conditions, the diagnostic process in psychiatry is inherently flawed on the basis that we have failed to find any meaningful relationship between the so-called "symptoms" of psychiatric conditions, and physical biomarkers which can be measured. Despite this lack of physiological cause, we are still diagnosing people
Autism and ADHD: The myth of co-occurring conditions - Emergent Divergence
It's a very poorly kept secret that many people who are given a diagnosis of autism also meet the criteria for a diagnosis of ADHD. One could be forgiven for assuming this means that people who meet the criteria for both (often termed AuDHD) have two co-occurring conditions. Unfortunately, nothing in life is simple, and
Neurodivergence and Normality: The meaning of words - Emergent Divergence
"I understand now that boundaries between noise and sound are conventions. All boundaries are conventions, waiting to be transcended. One may transcend any convention if only one can first conceive of doing so." Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell The neurodiversity movement is predicated on three deceptively simple ideas: There are as many variations of the
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