Could we view neurodiversity as a cultural exchange factor?

One could argue that the next natural step after increasing global awareness and acknowledging the existence of different neurological variations (neurodiversity), would be a new interest in understanding each others’ neurological culture, driven by genuine human curiosity, not unlike how it works with racial/ethnic diversity. Can the neurodivergents offer a cultural contribution to the rest of the population? Can neurotypicals see beyond ‘normal’ and learn from the neurodivergents and maybe adopt some of the traits that they choose to like and suit them? This could be a huge opportunity of a new form of cultural exchange hiding right under our nose.

It is not a secret that neurodivergents have been adopting the cultural norms of neurotypicals for ages, willingly or not, in order to survive and be successful in life. Unhealthy masking aside, adjusting or learning something useful is not a bad thing at all. For example autistic individuals that learn how to filter their thoughts more effectively in order to ask less intrusive questions. This could from now on happen as a conscious cultural decision rather than a desperate act for survival and acceptance. And what are the cultural traits neurotypicals could be interested in or benefit from? What can they learn from us that can make their lives better if they keep an open mind? In order to explore this possibility, I am describing some of the positive cultural traits of autistic individuals and how these could be beneficial for all. This doesn’t mean though that all autistic people share all of the bellow traits, neither that one cannot find these traits in neurotypical individuals.

Kind vs nice

Autistic individuals can be as kind as others, but they are often not as nice since they can have difficulties instinctively understanding and adapting to social niceties. Nice is not kind though, since genuine kindness could potentially be harsh or rude. For example, people are thought to be nice when they are not correcting your grammar mistakes but it could be considered both kind and rude if someone constructively does so. Being willing to look beyond the superficial rudeness and the growing tendency to be easily offended, one could discover an unlikely friendship or receive unexpected kindness when open-minded. This attitude is closely related to the ability of autistic people to reject painful and superficial social norms. Being able to look beyond personal or cultural prejudices and maintain a fresh and detached prospective could help people be more true to themselves and build genuine and solid relationships.

In your face?

Autistic people often have this type of transparent thinking and honesty that sometimes gets them into trouble. This form of directness is not without the positive consequences though, since it often suggests that the individual also has integrity and is loyal to the truth (or to a person) and committed to a cause or an ideal. With many of as being very logical and evidence based- thinkers the benefits of this trait can also be extended to the field of knowledge and teaching. The strong sense of justice is also an autistic trait that could be extremely beneficial for the well-being and functioning of any community.

Change the world

The autistic individual’s fresh and cultural detached prospective makes them be more open to new and potentially difficult to accept ideas. They challenge those with a genuine curiosity and without prejudice. This trait in combination with the analytical thinking and inspiring resilience has often made them pioneers in discovering new things and implementing new ideas. This prejudice-free attitude and the unexpected persistence are values worth sharing with the rest of the world. The acceptance of the neurodiversity paradigm could for an example help in collaboration with other current social movements challenge patriarchy and eventually help achieve gender equality and mutual respect.

Similarities are also important

Some people think, however, that by pointing out positive or negative autistic traits we focus very much on what separates us, on what makes us different and that this can have a negative impact on people accepting each other. That is why there have been voices over the past years preaching the need to focus on the similarities rather than divide people by neurological type.

Some of them, like Dr Punit Shah, dispute the social orientation hypothesis (hypothesis of autism which had attributed various difficulties in autistic people to a supposed deficit in finding social relevant stimuli attention grabbing). We used to believe that autistic people have more difficulty recognising social expressions and patterns but according to the results of his team’s recent scientific study this assumption is now shown to be a myth.

The idea behind the argument is that understanding and celebrating similarities between “neurodivergent” and “neurotypical” people may be just as important as finding differences in improving the knowledge on neurodiversity but also in understanding how the human brain works and for people eventually becoming more accepting of each other. In order to focus on this, they encourage academic journals to prioritise null findings of autism traits research, especially since these are usually treated as a failure of identifying a trait and therefore of no significance. The strength of this approach would be the idea that the similarities between groups may help advance scientific research and the neurodiversity agendas in general.

We can do both

In my opinion both approaches are useful in overcoming the communication obstacles between people of different neuro-types. As with every other cultural exchange and interaction, recognising, acknowledging the differences and at the same time accepting one another’s background and neuro-culture are key ingredients to a harmonious co-existence based on tolerance. The willingness to communicate and the openness required here are really worth the effort.

2 thoughts on “Could we view neurodiversity as a cultural exchange factor?”

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