Notes on Monotropism
wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotropism
Monotropism is a person's tendency to focus their attention on a small number of interests at any time, tending to miss things outside of this attention tunnel. This cognitive strategy has been posited as the central underlying feature of autism. The theory of monotropism was developed by Dinah Murray, Wenn Lawson and Mike Lesser starting in the 1990s, and first published in 2005.[1] Lawson's further work on the theory formed the basis of his PhD, Single Attention and Associated Cognition in Autism, and book The Passionate Mind published in 2011.
A tendency to focus attention tightly has a number of psychological implications. While monotropism tends to cause people to miss things outside their attention tunnel, within it, their focused attention can lend itself to intense experiences, deep thinking and flow states.[2]
However, this hyperfocus makes it harder to redirect attention, including starting and stopping tasks, leading to what is often described as executive dysfunction in autism, and stereotypies or perseveration, where a person's attention is repeatedly drawn back to the same subject or activity.
1. Monotropism was added to this version of The sky pool , which was lacking in the original on substack.
In The sky pool I put forward the idea (as I would now describe it) that what can be seen as narcissistic elements of some peeps on an autism spectrum… —is just a massive focus on a special interest, a special project, with something that is very near at hand and fascinating, the mystery of themselves.
I am not saying autistic peeps cannot be narcissists, and surely monotropism may not help at all, but there is also something else going on; for the interest may shift over time.
I discovered this through a youtube channel’s youtube.com/@Autistic_AF first video last night at Is Monotropism the best theory of Autism?
I left a comment there:
i joke I am mildly not autistic (no diagnosis), my monotropic preferences are tempered by my divergent thinking style (Kolb), the result is i can multithread the monotropic powers not with allistic executive parallelist-style functions but with integrative creative weaving, (I mash them). It is a preference I have skilled-up in. My way in was in smaller groupwork is fine, i.e. playing with kids in the street, (being the oldest?) and being in noisy environments is fine, up to a point of course (it seems to be higher than for some extraverts if they have to concentrate on something)(the monotropism can help here). If I am near loved ones I have a thread that listens out for them, this threshold is low so they can interrupt me even if they are thinking aloud and not actually talking to me)(their POV may differ here…) I can move proportions of the threads to attend to subjects if deemed important, it can hurt to do this but less so as I get older and wiser. It can also be refreshing as I like the varigated input while I write essays/poetry/fiction for example, but doing my tax not so much, but I am not a procrestinator.
No doubt when I was young these skills were lacking.
eg i love writing in cafe watching people while monotropically working on a multivoice compositional poem, however, besides tax, it falls apart at the threshold of parties, dinner parties are fine they have more structure/are more contained. At party sized events (20-50) people it is too much for me, less than a dozen is fine, but at parties my monotropism make me loyal to peeps I have managed to have a conversation with, and this means that I end up doing the social work of looking after all the peeps who enjoy parties even less than me, this is VERY tiring and I leave ASAP. However once we pass through the party or pub or band level of groups, i find that i have no fear of public speaking
2 'Monotropism' also in regard to the last post immanence: what me-s me to I.
I read that short essay ‘Immanence: a life’ about 20 times now. I judge I am still unclear on one bit but can see what Deleuze is saying, and my gist of it on a first reading has not changed. If peeps have to read my writing that many times monotropically I am doomed.
For the record, reading that essay 20 times is much more enjoyable than going to any party or networking opportunity.