Fergus Murray with Sonny Hallett (2023)
Monotropism was formulated as a theory of autism. It tries to explain the experiences and symptoms of autistic people in terms of a tendency to use resources such as focusing on very few things at a time, with little left for everything else. It is through this lens that we can understand the differences in autistic social, sensory, and executive functioning, as explained in monotropism.
As time has gone on, it has become clear that many people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) also identify strongly with many aspects of monotropism. I want to explore this by looking at the different approaches to autism and ADHD; Where symptoms associated with ADHD fit with monotropism in a clear way, and where they may appear to be in tension; And what it might mean for how we think about diagnosis and neurodiversity. What I have to say here is necessarily speculative, it all demands further research, and parts of it may be in tension with some of the ways in which many people are accustomed to talking about neurodivergence.
The way ADHD and autism are characterized in diagnostic manuals are completely different. ADHD is primarily thought of as an attentional deficit; Autism is primarily social in nature. Where the descriptions overlap, they may seem contradictory: autism is apparently characterized by rigid, restricted interests, while ADHD is thought to cause impulsive behavior and an inability to concentrate.
So the fact that 30% to 80% of autistic people fit the diagnostic criteria for ADHD, and both apparently run in the same families, may initially seem surprising. This demands explanation. One possibility is that autism and ADHD – or Kinetic Cognitive Style (KCS), as I prefer to call it – share an underlying cause. Monotropism has been put forward as a candidate for this, for example in Patrick Dwyer’s Revisiting Monotropism.
It is well established that autism can manifest in very different ways in different people, which may seem contradictory. We know that autism can come with hyperlexia, or severe language difficulties. We know it’s linked to sensory seeking and sensory avoidance. We understand that this may come with crystal clear memories, or amnesia. All these things can co-exist in one individual or only in one selection.
With this in mind, it is perhaps not such a stretch to suggest that impulsivity, inattention and hyperactivity might share cognitive or neurological roots with their apparent opposites, such as inflexibility, hyperfocus and inertia. When and how such symptoms appear may depend on a person’s interests and experiences, or may be related to innate neurocognitive differences. To fully understand this type of variation will require more research on the life experiences and psychological development of people with a variety of cognitive styles, without assuming that current diagnostic categories reflect objectively real categories of human beings.
Impulsivity can result from the monotropic tendency to lose awareness of things as soon as our attention is diverted from them. Inattention is a very familiar thing among autistic people – not paying attention lossWhich was never the right word, but there is a deep difficulty in directing attention in directions that do not align with our current interests. Hyperfocusing is common with KCS, as it is with autism.
Hyperactivity may refer to the need to keep going, which is similar to the autistic need to be stimulated. It can also refer to a cognitive tendency that is a little difficult to reconcile with the characteristic of monotropism: the habit of mentally switching from one thing to another. In contrast, the difficulty in transferring from one focus tunnel to another has been a central feature of methods to describe monotropism. This tension deserves a deeper understanding.
It may be that a kinetic cognitive style arises from a combination of a relatively monotropic processing style combined with other factors – For example, difficulty reaching flow conditions, as suggested by some recent research (Grootweil et al. 2022). There are all sorts of reasons why people won’t be able to get in’fluid focus tunnels‘, as Jamie Knight calls him. They may have too many distractions, or too much nervous energy; They may not feel safe enough to lose themselves in the flow; Maybe they felt bad for doing so, or they were humiliated many times. They may be too vulnerable to be able to connect deeply with their passion, something that also happens during autistic burnout.
We know that novelty seeking is a trait that varies greatly between people. It is also possible that some people’s attention spans are naturally very dynamic, which may compensate for the monotropic tendency to attend to one thing at a time. And some of that may be an obvious distraction inside a meditation tunnel Anyway, and other people can’t see the connection! KCS may be Look Sometimes like polymorphism, but I think that can be confusing. I delayed getting my own autism assessment for years because I mistook my serial monotropism for polytropism: I told myself I was multi-tasking, whereas it would probably be more accurate to say I frequently forgot what I was supposed to be doing.
Meanwhile, it is likely that monotropism does not occur. necessarily Give rise to autism in the sense expected by diagnostic manuals – but above a certain level of intensity, or in combination with other factors, it causes familiar social differences, immobility, etc. An early intense interest in other people and how they behave can equip someone with tools that will allow them to avoid appearing too awkward socially. The ability to present a ‘normal looking’ face to the world is probably a major factor in the under-recognition of autistic girls, who face even greater social pressure to fit in than boys. None of these change a person’s cognitive style; But then again, autism, like ADHD, has always been evaluated based on external presentation. One hope for monotropism as a theory is that it helps us understand these things from an internal perspective rather than just looking at the surface level.
I think it is too early to say with any confidence that autism and ADHD (or KCS) share a common root in monotropism, but the overlapping symptoms of people receiving each label clearly demands Some? Kind of interpretation, and preliminary results suggest that each is strongly correlated with monotropism – especially in combination. With a little luck, we’ll see a lot more research on this in the coming years.
