I was a consultant, research associate, and co-author on this study by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), published in 2018 in the journal Psychopharmacology. Ada Hoffmann is best known so far for the Outside series, which so far includes her first novel The Outside and its sequel The Fallen. It’s going to be at least a trilogy; there’s a third book in the works already.

Perhaps to a degree, this is my own projection, maybe I wanted a more joyful book! One that did not focus so heavily on the harmful perceptions and treatment of autistic people.) But most of all, I wanted a book that would feel accessible and welcoming for non-autistic readers to gain an understanding. Unfortunately, this book does not achieve the latter. Our school aims to be inclusive of students who are Autistic, dyslexic, or otherwise neurodivergent, though there are some types of neurodivergence that we’re still seeking ways to accommodate.” The terms neurodivergent and neurodivergence were coined in the year 2000 by Kassiane Asasumasu, a multiply neurodivergent neurodiversity activist. What It Doesn’t Mean: To refer to neurominority groups or neurodivergent individuals as “neurodiverse” is incorrect grammatically, because diverse doesn’t mean different from the majority, it means made up of multiple different types. So an individual can never be diverse, by definition. And a group where everyone is neurodivergent in more or less the same way (e.g., a group composed entirely of Autistic people) wouldn’t be “neurodiverse,” either.Another crucial step is to produce more and more literature, art, educational material, and entertainment that decenters the neurotypical perspective and the neurotypical gaze––in other words, work which not only is grounded in non-neuronormative perspectives, but also refuses to assume that the default reader or viewer is neurotypical. Neurodiversity is not a political or social activist movement. That’s the Neurodiversity Movement (see below), not neurodiversity itself. Queer,” in any case, does not designate a class of already objectified pathologies or perversions; rather, it describes a horizon of possibility whose precise extent and heterogeneous scope cannot in principle be delimited in advance. Reply to @martianpudding #autism #neurodivergent #queer #genderfluid #gender #autistic ♬ Supermodel – Ru Paul

I’m going to try and be as even keeled as possible in my review. This book has so many great insights and has forced me to begin the work of undoing my internalized pathology paradigm. The author’s arguments against person-first language are eye opening and I am grateful to have been given this perspective. The early essays were flawed and frustrating to read, and I am disappointed that they were published without being edited significantly or rewritten. Walker instead writes an introduction instructing readers to look for any 'contradictions' themselves, and assume that any later argument takes precedence. I'm uncomfortable with this evasion of responsibility for what she's publishing, and I don't think this caveat will prevent harm caused by inadequately considered texts, given that they're intended to occupy the privileged position of teaching material. This isn’t a well-worded question because there are other possibilities. The daughter in question might be non-autistic, but might also not qualify as neurotypical – she might, for instance, be dyslexic or have Down Syndrome. NEUROMINORITY What It Means:

Example of Incorrect Usage:

I originally conceived of neuroqueeras a verb: neuroqueering as the practice of queering (subverting, defying, disrupting, liberating oneself from) neuronormativity and heteronormativity simultaneously. It was an extension of the way queeris used as a verb in Queer Theory; I was expanding the Queer Theory conceptualization of queering to encompass the queering of neurocognitive norms as well as gender norms––and, in the process, I was examining how socially-imposed neuronormativity and socially-imposed heteronormativity were entwined with one another, and how the queering of either of those two forms of normativity entwined with and blended into the queering of the other one.

And, as I increasingly find myself in the position of reviewing other people’s writing on neurodiversity – grading student papers, reviewing book submissions or submissions to journals, consulting on various projects, or even just deciding which pieces of writing I’m willing to recommend to people – I’m getting tired of running into the same basic errors over and over. The conceptualization of neurodiversity as diversity among bodyminds has been central to Neuroqueer Theory from the start.Thus, a family, the faculty or student body of a school, the population of a town, or the cast of characters of a TV show would be neurodiverse if some members had different neurocognitive styles from other members – for instance, if some members were neurotypical while others were Autistic. What It Doesn’t Mean: This premise remains integral to my conceptions of neuroqueer theory and the practice of neuroqueering.

The correct word here would be neurodivergence, rather than neurodiversity. An individual, by definition, cannot be “diverse” or “have diversity.” My orientation as a scholar is transdisciplinary, and part of what attracts me to transdisciplinarity is how generative it can be to look at a given concept or phenomenon through a variety of different disciplinary lenses. Another term you use a lot is “neurocosmopolitan” or “neurocosmopolitanism.” Where does Neuroqueer Theory fit into a neurocosmopolitan world? In addition to being incorrect, it’s also oppressive to misuse the word “diverse” to mean “minority,” because this misuse of “diverse” is based in the intrinsically oppressive assumption that there’s a default “normal” way of being and that “diversity” is about adding non-normative individuals into the “normal” default environment. This is the assumption that allows tokenization to pass for “diversity” in corporations, schools, and other social institutions.Neurotypical can be used as either an adjective (“He’s neurotypical”) or a noun (“He’s a neurotypical”).