Today at work in a Slack mental health channel someone posted this set of definitions to help discussions :-
Neurodiversity The idea that people’s brains work in different ways, and that these differences are natural and normal.
Neurotypical A term used to describe people whose brains function in the way that society expects.
Neurodivergent A term used to describe people whose brains function differently from what is considered typical.
Which is fine as far as it goes, but to me implies a linearity to ’neuro’. It reminded me of this paper(PDF) about the US Airforce trying to define an ‘average’ pilot to optimise cockpit design. The more dimensions you add, the less likely you are to find someone who is ‘average’ in all categories. Personalities are like that, it’s multi-dimensional and there is no ’normal’; there is no ’typical’ that anyone can actually fit to. We all diverge along the multiple axis’ that represent who we are and I hold that ’neurotypical’ should be considered shockingly rare and not ’normal’
As I get older, I recognize in myself more and more where I diverge from the middle of various ways of measuring who I am, and I’m getting comfortable with that. My superstitions, habits, food choices, moods, quirks all define me as a place in an n-dimensional system and you won’t find me (or anyone else) in the middle of it.