Neurodivergence

Neurodivergence is a collective term used to describe those of us whose mind/bodies work in different ways to what is considered typical. Neurodivergent peoples experience ourselves, others and our worlds in fundamentally different ways to people who would be considered neurotypical. Neurodivergent people tend to diverge from the social, systemic, cultural, spiritual expectations and norms we have of how people neurologically, developmentally, cognitively, perceptively, sensorially, emotionally, behaviourally, and interpersonally experience ourselves and the world around us.

In more diagnostic terms, neurodivergence would include those of us who meet the criteria (ICD-11 or DSM-5) for developmental conditions and/or learning disabilities, most commonly those of us with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, so-called conduct disorders, and under some definitions would include those of us experiencing complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), dissociative disorders, schizophrenias, bipolar, OCD, so-termed ‘personality' disorders, and dementias. That said, many neurodivergent communities are critical of psychiatric classification and diagnoses, and so formal diagnosis is not seen as a gateway to identification as neurodivergent. Rather, the emphasis is on people’s lived experience. The vast variation in human consciousness and experiencing (be it of a neurodivergent or neurotypical kind) is commonly referred to as human neurodiversity.

Historically neurodivergent people have been over-medicalised, pathologised, dehumanised and criminalised. In many Westernised contexts (and increasingly across the world) we have became seen as legitimate sites for intrusive compulsion to psychiatric, psychological and psychotherapeutic treatment. More broadly, neurodivergent people have experienced enforced disenfranchisement, marginalisation, institutionalisation, restraint, sterilisation and even historically euthanasia.

In response to these collective traumas, some neurodivergent people have created political and activists networks to challenge the dominance of neurotypicality. For some neurodivergent people the political element of the community is an important part of their identity, for others diagnosis or the idea of neurodivergency offers a starting place for deeper understanding about who they are and the experiences they have had.

As with any cultural and identity movement, there are now multiple widespread neurodivergent ideals, expectations and normativities. On social media you may have encountered neurodivergent politics, aesthetics and communities of support. Whilst popularised articulations of neurodivergent experiencing are sometimes helpful, it is important to understand that they do not accurately reflect or represent the true diversity and complexity of all neurodivergent peoples. In reality there are many neurodivergent forms of perception, sensorality, experience, sociality, (etc.) than those frequently given voice. Some experiences continue to be misrepresented and underrepresented in popularised accounts and aesthetics. These include more intersectional lives, where those of us who have multiple contexts and identities are marginalised or exoticised. Our racial, cultural or ethnic heritage, socio-economic status, queerness, sexuality or gender, age, and disability may result in us ending up on the edge of more mainstream descriptions of neurodivergency.

Existential approaches

In existential and phenomenological psychology we seek to explore the lived experiences of the phenomenon of neurodivergence. As existentialists we understand all humans as being confronted throughout their life with the givens of our existence. These givens include being born (our natality), into a context and time not of our choosing (our throwness), living in a relational world (our interdependence), and eventually dying (our finitude), amongst others.

A less frequently investigated existential given is that of liminality - or the ways we live at, or pass through, thresholds (limen) of our existence. In existential-phenomenological thinking, neurodivergency (alongside other experiences including of trauma, bereavement, and migration) confronts us with the liminality of our existence.

Many of what we might understand to be neurodivergent experiences are also encounters with, and immersions in, the liminality of human experiences. This might include the ways in which, as neurodivergent people, we experience the non-linearity of our felt time-space, or the ways we have to mask our experiences to move and exist-between-worlds. Many of us find ourselves becoming-outsiders and existing-at-the-edge or moving-at-the-edge of different personal, social, cultural, familial and systemic worlds. The liminality of our neurodivergency can be liberating for some of us, and deeply disorientating and isolating for others.

In existential psychotherapy and analysis we focus on understanding what it means to live a more liminal and neurodivergent existence. Through this, people are able to make more active decisions and choices about how they embrace their liminality, and experiment with more neurodivergent ways of existing in the world (what I term their modes of existence).

For more detailed descriptions see:

© Marc Boaz 2024