@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.

@Ferrous @autoperipatetikos @actuallyautistic This is true; precursors of the changes you've made in the theory of #monotropism were already present in the original version. And I just finished Wenn Lawson's "The Passionate Mind" (the first, and so far only, book [as opposed to articles!] on autism I've read since my self-diagnosis), where he notes that #monotropic autistics CAN actually distribute attention effectively IF their interest is engaged.

But to me, that's an indication that the relevant factor is the #autotropic decoupling of attention from the social and physical environment — rather than restriction or narrowness or singleness of attention or interest in any sense, however liberally interpreted. Decoupling of attention and interest from the world should, so to speak, be treated as an axiom definitive of the subject matter, rather than a theorem to be derived.

And #monotropic attention is a special case, not a fully general theory. I felt it necessary to introduce the concept of #kaleidotropy because the phenomenology of my experience has been very different from what Wenn Lawson reports. It's much closer to what Kelter reports — except that what he experiences as a curse, to me is very much a blessing: "Every possible thought is instantly ten alternate thoughts that quickly grow to many more".

Kelter, M. Being hyperverbal is a real — and disabling — autistic experience. Thinking Person's Guide to Autism. 2019 July 11. Available from: https://thinkingautismguide.com/2019/07/being-hyper-verbal-is-realand.html

@autoperipatetikos @adelinej @Dianora @pathfinder @Tooden @filmfreak75 @actuallyautistic There's a great deal more to it. The later theory of #monotropism tends to draw distinctions between restriction of interests at a single time versus restriction of interests over a lifetime; the former can be restricted while the latter very much is not. And similar fine distinctions.

But my theory of #kaleidotropy, although an outgrowth and further development of #monotropism theory, goes beyond even these newer versions, primarily in two ways, both of which to my knowledge represent new departures:

(1) For at least some of us, the idea that our interests are in ANY way narrow or restricted — except transiently on SOME occasions — is not just in need of refinement or clarification, it's completely wrong, and even backwards. From our point of view, it is the interests of NEUROTYPICALS that are narrow and restricted! Note that this observation invalidates not only current versions of the theory of monotropism, but also the official DSM criteria for diagnosis of autism.

(2) The fundamental difference between neurotypical and autistic interest and focus of attention has nothing directly to do with wide or narrow focus. It is that neurotypical interest and attention is strongly yoked to the social and physical environment (#ecotropic), while autistic interest and attention is NOT yoked to the environment, but is autonomous (#autotropic). Classical monotropism theory acknowledges, and even emphasizes, this difference, but sees it not as fundamental, but rather as a downstream effect of restricted focus; autistics do not focus on the environment because they CANNOT — too much is going on for their restricted attentional focus to handle. But this #autotropic decoupling from the environment can occur even in the complete absence of any quantitative limitations on the amount of attention available. #Autotropism, not limited interest and attention, is fundamental. #Autotropic attention and interest is simply under far fewer constraints than #ecotropic attention and interest. It can indeed be more restricted (#monotropic), but it can also be LESS restricted — wider-ranging and more rapidly labile (#kaleidotropic).

@actuallyautistic 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.