Neurodiversity. Neuro diversity. Newrod, uh, Nero diversity?
Like the Roman emperor Nero. Ohhh, if you know your history, you’ll know that he was neuro diverse alright, and then some.
Welcome back to the Audacious Aspie. Today, we will look at an interesting topic that I heard about recently, with the intent to test it on, what else, college and university campuses. Before you ask, no, it is not another sexual activity. Those are tested every day. Rather, it is another way for people to learn to accept differences (before you say “ugh,another one?” Yes, another one). This topic has a neat name to, it's called nuerodiversity, nerodiversity, Brain Diversity! (yes, that's it).
So what is Brain Diversity!? (other than that's not it’s real name?) will, the article The Art of Autism takes us on a journey in time from the 80s (a time of big things: big hair, big planes, big possibility of nuclear war breaking out) to the the 90s (a time of medium-sized things: medium steaks, medium dessert storms, medium sexual intercourse with women in white houses) and the 2000s (small things: small phones, small-but powerful computers and even smaller minds). Feeling nostalgic yet?
Ahh, remember the year that was? When all things were supposedly better? Until you think too much about and then start remembering the bad times, and have to get a drink? (happily sighs).
In 1988, according to The Art of Autism, Judy Singer, who is autistic, coined the term in a thesis (mostly forgotten) in Australia. Literally a decade later, Harvey Blume, who popularized the term in a 1998 issue of The Atlantic, claiming that Brain diversity might be crucial for the human race, perhaps as crucial as biodiversity. Then there was Dr. Thomas Armstrong (no relation to Neil Armstrong, maybe) wrote that neurodiversity “includes an exploration” (third paragraph) of what we consider mental disorders, but might instead represent just a natural form human difference. Interesting stuff.
Now we get into the difficult terms of neurodiversity (hey! I’m getting the hang of spelling it right!), wouldn't be science unless there were terms that you had to learn another language just to begin to understand it. According to Nick Walker, who wrote a blog on his website Neurocosmopolitanism, there are three terms: neurodiversity (a human biological characteristic, not a viewpoint or perspective), neurodiversity paradigm (a perspective) and neurodiversity movement (social movement that promotes neurodiversity paradigm). Confused yet? You will be, because there are also the neurodiverse (mankind as a whole) and the neurodivergent (someone whose neurology is not the norm). Hope you got all that.
After reading this post, you will feel like you're running around a maze, lost forever. Don't bother looking for a way out, there is none.
We just started, there is more to neurodiversity (and all the other terms) that we will go into next post, perhaps from another source. Did not think this was going to hurt your brain? Neither did I.While your still trying to understand all the terms and their meanings, this continues to be the Audacious Aspie.
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Sources used:
http://the-art-of-autism.com/neurodiverse-a-person-a-perspective-a-movement/