Show threadDouglas Edwards 3h ago

An example of the "just point it at anything" aspect of #kaleidotropy: I'm an inpatient pharmacist licensed in four states of the #USA, and all of my licensing boards have continuing pharmacy education (CPE) requirements. When not actively engaged in accumulating CPE hours, I usually dread an upcoming CPE license renewal cycle as an annoying chore — because it will require me to divert effort from the many, many other things I'd rather be doing. But once I'm past the initial hurdle of getting started — and especially once I start searching for suitable CPEs and selecting them from various possibilities — my #kaleidotropic interest system is engaged, and the same activity that had so recently seemed like a dismal chore quickly takes on the aspect first of a hobby, and then of an addiction. There are so many fascinating topics to choose from. I just have to have THAT one — and THAT one — and THAT one! (A professor in office hours once told me: "You're like a kid in a candy store!")

I usually end up doing far more CPE hours than my licensing boards require — and having to remind myself that I need to get back to all the OTHER activities I've been neglecting.

Douglas Edwards 3h ago

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Bubotomy/116298161908114314

Note that people who work VERY hard may still need to hear this message. You can still be a #spoonie even if you have a seemingly generous supply of spoons, especially if you routinely use them up at a furious pace. I work 12-hour night shifts on a 7-on-7-off schedule, and my #kaleidotropic neurotype can easily overload me with ambitious self-assigned tasks on the off weeks, since I can easily develop a "special interest" level of focus on just about anything, if I let myself. I have to remind myself that it’s OK just to relax with my wife and my cats.

Show threadDouglas Edwards 11h ago
@alice A sign that you might be #kaleidotropic. A #kaleidotropic intellect is Kryptonite to boredom.
🌈 breaking ranks.Jan 8

@dedicto Still thinking lots about your thoughts on autism's cognitive patterns. Currently I'm reading books by Dr Mark Benecke, he is a forensics specialist and also holds a PhD in [I think it's] biology - I really would claim #kaleidotropic thinking is his thing, too. I would recommend to read his kind of-autobiography of how he became who he is today:

My Life after Death: How it all began

[DE Original:
Mein Leben nach dem Tod: Wie alles begann]

#rebcommendations #actuallyAutistic

Show thread🌈 breaking ranks.Jan 4

@dedicto @pathfinder wow. Love this concept and confess to it myself!!

#kaleidotropic

Douglas Edwards Dec 10

Starting to read "ADHD 2.0" (#Hallowell and #Ratey 2021). At first it seemed perfect, a real breath of fresh air after "Taking Charge of Adult ADHD" (2nd edition, #Barkley 2022). Both authors of "ADHD 2.0" are ADHDers themselves. There was great emphasis on the positive potential of #ADHD — especially welcome after Barkley's relentless pathologizing. They even write:

"A person with ADHD has the power of a Ferrari engine but with bicycle-strength brakes. It's the mismatch of engine power to braking capability that causes the problems."

I was immediately reminded of my own mismatch analogy for #kaleidotropic autism: trying to fly an F-16 with a control system designed for a Cessna — with #AuDHD as an almost inevitable consequence. Not quite the same thing — "control" is much more general than "braking" — but much closer than anything I've ever seen before from any source other than myself. I was thinking: this book is going to be fantastic.

Then I skimmed ahead, into a part of the book I hadn't yet read continuously — and found FAVORABLE references to Applied Behavior Analysis (#ABA). I'm assuming that for most adult autistics, THAT practice needs no introduction.

😱 🤯 🤢 🤮

And, unfortunately, advocacy of #ABA isn't the only example of drill-sergeant thinking that I found. The emphasis on discipline isn't anywhere near as extreme as in Barkley, but it's definitely there. Given the appreciable overlap between ADHD and literal juvenile delinquency, I can understand the temptation to go that route, but it's a very dangerous path to traverse — and it definitely isn't for me. Probably not for anyone with #AuDHD as opposed to standalone #ADHD.

Of course, I admit — and even emphasize — that this is just a first impression from skimming material I haven't yet read continuously. I definitely hope that my final impression is different.

@autistics

Show threadDouglas Edwards Nov 24

@pathfinder @MOULE @autistics The importance of appreciating that variety is hard to overstate. Believing autistics have to be as similar to each other as neurotypicals are, can inhibit self-diagnosis. I used to think I couldn't be autistic because I didn't think I was particularly similar to Temple Grandin. But someone on here pointed out that even though we are far fewer in number than neurotypicals, we are MORE diverse than they are. That was a critical insight for me. And C.L. Lynch's '"Autism is a spectrum" doesn't mean what you think' gave examples of how the diversity can work.

I now believe that neurotypicals have a certain minimum level of similarity because they are all #ecotropic: bound to the social environment, and to socially relevant portions of the physical environment, by their built-in neurological #EnvironmentalYoke. #Allism is #ecotropy. We are #autotropic: we lack a functioning yoke, and our focus of attention is determined autonomously, by whatever internal mechanisms of attentional focus are unmasked by the absence of the yoke. And what are those internal mechanisms? Anything! Some of us are #monotropic, others #kaleidotropic / #hyperverbal, and still others will need other descriptive terms yet to be invented. We are more diverse because we lack the lowest common denominator of the #EnvironmentalYoke.

Incidentally, that does NOT mean we are somehow less complete than neurotypicals (although they may see it that way). The yoke does help in interacting with the environment in socially expected ways, but it subtracts as well as adds: in them, it suppresses a great deal of underlying neurological machinery that we have access to.

Show threadDouglas Edwards Oct 22
@PatternChaser Definitely planning to check it out! But "easily bored" (which so many seem to think fundamental to #ADHD) is the very opposite of my experience with my #kaleidotropic autism, even though I have most other characteristics of #ADHD.
Show threadDouglas Edwards Oct 11

@Troggie Check out my pinned post on #kaleidotropic autism. I, too, have many, many special interests, not just a few. The official DSM diagnostic criteria need to be revised to allow for this case. From my perspective, it's the interests of the "normals" that are narrow and restricted — not mine!

https://zeroes.ca/@dedicto/114024979306024802

Douglas Edwards :neurodiv: (@[email protected])

@[email protected] Several weeks ago, I undertook to post more about the concept of the #kaleidotropic mindset — a further development of the classic concept of the #monotropic mindset underlying autism. I'm continuing to develop my thoughts on these topics, but they are threatening to overrun even the 5000-character limit of the zeroes.ca Mastodon server — in fact, they're starting to look more like something I'd consider submitting to NeuroClastic than like a Mastodon post. Also, I've now realized that if I'm right, it's not just the theory of #monotropism that will need to be revised, but the formal diagnostic criteria for autism as well. So rather than try to wait until my thought process is complete, I'd like to share something of the current state of my thinking — especially what I consider to be most essential. The concept of #kaleidotropy was suggested to me as a consequence of my recent self-diagnosis in late 2024; while I appeared to be mostly a very good fit for C.L. Lynch's Person One (a classic "aspie"-type autist), there were a few important details that didn't fit. In particular, while I definitely shared the characteristic #monotropic intensity of attentional focus, I felt that the characterization of my interests as "narrow and restricted" was not merely untrue, it was the exact polar opposite of the truth. Intensity of focus and narrowness of focus don't necessarily correlate. Although my self-diagnosis and my familiarity with the concept of #monotropism are very recent, I've known for a very long time that my interests and my focus of attention were a departure from the norm, and in a very different way than the concept of #monotropism or the formal diagnostic criteria for autism would suggest. I've been aware that my interests were broader, AND deeper, AND more labile, than is typical for most people — the supposedly #polytropic neurotypicals emphatically included. To me, THEY are the ones whose interests are narrow and restricted! I realize that this assertion is likely to be challenged — and my attempts to anticipate and answer those challenges has been one of the principal reasons for the rapid growth in volume of this material. Unlike autism — which is so heavily stigmatized that a self-diagnosis on inadequate grounds is usually unlikely — CURIOSITY mostly has a very favorable reputation. Implying that someone's supply of it might fall short of the theoretically possible maximum can look like an accusation of stupidity, and tends to draw emphatic denials. But rather than present the considerable evidence available, to the effect that my interests really do exceed the norm along several different dimensions, I'd like that possibility to be at least taken seriously for the sake of argument — and consider how and why such a state of affairs could be consistent with a diagnosis of autism. In the theory of #monotropism, the characteristic social difficulties of autistics are explained in terms of an inability to allocate attentional focus optimally for social interaction. Social adroitness requires a myriad of things to be monitored in real time — a task calling for #polytropic breadth of attention. The formal diagnostic criteria for autism simply require social difficulties and a restricted range of interests both to be present, while remaining agnostic as to any potential causal relationship between the two. What I suggest is that the theory of #monotropism has the causal relationship backwards. The fundamental characteristic of the neurotypical mindset, that separates it from autistic cognition, is precisely the intense and constant, though diffuse, focus on the social world. For this reason, I propose that this mindset be given not the misleading label #polytropic, but a more accurately descriptive characterization as #ecotropic — yoked tightly to the social environment. An #ecotropic mind has a wider focus of attention than SOME autistic minds, not because it CAN, but because it MUST. The complementary autistic mindset I term #autotropic — responsive to its own internal logic, rather than to the environment. An #autotropic mind is thus under far weaker constraints than an #ecotropic one — and we would accordingly expect to see a much greater variety of subtypes within #autotropy. The classic, stereotypical #monotropic mindset is certainly one of these — the ability, for example, to focus exclusively on a single spinning object, oblivious to all else. But other subtypes of #autotropy can also exist. Attention can be given, not to fewer, but to MORE topics at once, than is likely for an #ecotropic intellect subservient to its social surroundings. Likewise, while an #ecotropic attentional set is limited by external reality in the speed with which it can undergo change, this subtype of #autotropic intellect — which I term #kaleidotropic — can refocus from one entire panoply of topics to another in an instant. Just about anything can have the effect of Proust's madeleine.

zeroes.ca
Douglas Edwards Oct 3

@KaCi Monotropic and #hyperverbal — or #kaleidotropic?

https://zeroes.ca/@dedicto/114024979306024802

Douglas Edwards :neurodiv: (@[email protected])

@[email protected] Several weeks ago, I undertook to post more about the concept of the #kaleidotropic mindset — a further development of the classic concept of the #monotropic mindset underlying autism. I'm continuing to develop my thoughts on these topics, but they are threatening to overrun even the 5000-character limit of the zeroes.ca Mastodon server — in fact, they're starting to look more like something I'd consider submitting to NeuroClastic than like a Mastodon post. Also, I've now realized that if I'm right, it's not just the theory of #monotropism that will need to be revised, but the formal diagnostic criteria for autism as well. So rather than try to wait until my thought process is complete, I'd like to share something of the current state of my thinking — especially what I consider to be most essential. The concept of #kaleidotropy was suggested to me as a consequence of my recent self-diagnosis in late 2024; while I appeared to be mostly a very good fit for C.L. Lynch's Person One (a classic "aspie"-type autist), there were a few important details that didn't fit. In particular, while I definitely shared the characteristic #monotropic intensity of attentional focus, I felt that the characterization of my interests as "narrow and restricted" was not merely untrue, it was the exact polar opposite of the truth. Intensity of focus and narrowness of focus don't necessarily correlate. Although my self-diagnosis and my familiarity with the concept of #monotropism are very recent, I've known for a very long time that my interests and my focus of attention were a departure from the norm, and in a very different way than the concept of #monotropism or the formal diagnostic criteria for autism would suggest. I've been aware that my interests were broader, AND deeper, AND more labile, than is typical for most people — the supposedly #polytropic neurotypicals emphatically included. To me, THEY are the ones whose interests are narrow and restricted! I realize that this assertion is likely to be challenged — and my attempts to anticipate and answer those challenges has been one of the principal reasons for the rapid growth in volume of this material. Unlike autism — which is so heavily stigmatized that a self-diagnosis on inadequate grounds is usually unlikely — CURIOSITY mostly has a very favorable reputation. Implying that someone's supply of it might fall short of the theoretically possible maximum can look like an accusation of stupidity, and tends to draw emphatic denials. But rather than present the considerable evidence available, to the effect that my interests really do exceed the norm along several different dimensions, I'd like that possibility to be at least taken seriously for the sake of argument — and consider how and why such a state of affairs could be consistent with a diagnosis of autism. In the theory of #monotropism, the characteristic social difficulties of autistics are explained in terms of an inability to allocate attentional focus optimally for social interaction. Social adroitness requires a myriad of things to be monitored in real time — a task calling for #polytropic breadth of attention. The formal diagnostic criteria for autism simply require social difficulties and a restricted range of interests both to be present, while remaining agnostic as to any potential causal relationship between the two. What I suggest is that the theory of #monotropism has the causal relationship backwards. The fundamental characteristic of the neurotypical mindset, that separates it from autistic cognition, is precisely the intense and constant, though diffuse, focus on the social world. For this reason, I propose that this mindset be given not the misleading label #polytropic, but a more accurately descriptive characterization as #ecotropic — yoked tightly to the social environment. An #ecotropic mind has a wider focus of attention than SOME autistic minds, not because it CAN, but because it MUST. The complementary autistic mindset I term #autotropic — responsive to its own internal logic, rather than to the environment. An #autotropic mind is thus under far weaker constraints than an #ecotropic one — and we would accordingly expect to see a much greater variety of subtypes within #autotropy. The classic, stereotypical #monotropic mindset is certainly one of these — the ability, for example, to focus exclusively on a single spinning object, oblivious to all else. But other subtypes of #autotropy can also exist. Attention can be given, not to fewer, but to MORE topics at once, than is likely for an #ecotropic intellect subservient to its social surroundings. Likewise, while an #ecotropic attentional set is limited by external reality in the speed with which it can undergo change, this subtype of #autotropic intellect — which I term #kaleidotropic — can refocus from one entire panoply of topics to another in an instant. Just about anything can have the effect of Proust's madeleine.

zeroes.ca