18d • PSYCLOLOGY/MENTAL HEALTH
Autismal Being
Autismal Being: Integrating Lived Experience and Scientific Evidence in Autism as Neurocognitive Equilibrium
By Kenneth Parrott
Abstract
Autism has traditionally been framed as a disorder characterized by deficits in communication, social interaction, and executive functioning. Recent shifts in neuroscience and neurodiversity scholarship challenge this deficit-based model, emphasizing strengths in pattern recognition, sensory processing, and focused cognition. Drawing on first-person lived experience and interdisciplinary research, this paper introduces the concept of Autimal Being: a neurocognitive equilibrium that manifests as fractal perception, monotropic focus, and rhythmic interoception/exteroception. This framework integrates autobiographical narrative with empirical findings in autism research, sensory neuroscience, and dynamical systems theory. Rather than deficit, Autimal Being reflects a mode of human genius with evolutionary, cultural, and creative significance.
1. Introduction
Autism spectrum conditions are commonly situated within medicalized frameworks (APA, 2013). However, neurodiversity scholarship (Singer, 1999; Kapp et al., 2013) has reframed autism as part of natural human variation. This paper extends that reframing through the lens of lived experience: the author’s late-life unmasking at age 57 revealed heightened rhythmic stimming, sensory awareness, and fractal pattern recognition. These experiences form the basis for theorizing autism not as dysfunction, but as Autimal Being, a state of neurocognitive equilibrium that integrates stimulation and regulation, detail and depth, focus and flow.
2. Lived Experience as Data
Autoethnographic evidence provides valuable insight into autistic cognition (Davidson, 2007; Chamak et al., 2008). The author’s transformation included:
- Rhythmic stimming: repetitive body movements producing balance and flow.
- Enhanced interoception and exteroception: heightened awareness of bodily states and environmental stimuli.
- Altered speech and executive functioning: regressions coexisting with expanded creativity.
- Fractal pattern recognition: the perception of self-similar structures across scales, linking cosmology, geology, and archaeology.
These phenomena are interpreted not as breakdown, but as the unveiling of a neurocognitive equilibrium latent throughout life.
3. Scientific Correlates of Autimal Being
3.1 Pattern Recognition and Fractal Perception
Autistic cognition is characterized by enhanced local processing and reduced global filtering (Happé & Frith, 2006). This enables superior detection of patterns and anomalies. Fractal geometry has been shown to align with perceptual aesthetics and neural efficiency (Taylor et al., 2011), supporting the author’s lived “fractal vision.”
3.2 Monotropism and Cognitive Flow
Monotropism theory (Murray et al., 2005) describes autistic attention as narrowed into deep channels of interest. This aligns with Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) concept of flow, wherein immersion in meaningful challenges fosters creativity and innovation. Autimal Being emerges when monotropism and flow coalesce, producing sustained breakthroughs.
3.3 Interoception, Exteroception, and Rhythm
Research indicates autistic individuals often exhibit atypical interoceptive accuracy (Garfinkel et al., 2016) and distinct sensory cortex activity (Robertson & Baron-Cohen, 2017). Rhythmic stimming functions as a homeostatic regulator, akin to entrainment in biological systems (Levitin et al., 2018). This reframes stimming as equilibrium behavior rather than pathology.
3.4 Neuroequilibria and Systems Theory
Brains are complex adaptive systems (Kelso, 1995). Autism can be modeled as a self-organizing equilibrium balancing opposing forces: stimulation vs. regulation, focus vs. plurality, sensory overload vs. rhythmic release. Autimal Being represents a stable attractor state within this dynamic system.
4. Evolutionary and Cultural Context
Genetic studies demonstrate high heritability of autism (Tick et al., 2016; Sandin et al., 2017), suggesting persistent adaptive value. Autistic traits—detail focus, pattern seeking, intense interest—would have enhanced innovation, tool-making, and ecological awareness. Anthropological records reveal neurodivergent individuals as shamans, sages, and inventors across cultures (Silberman, 2015). Autimal Being thus represents an ancient cognitive phenotype woven into human survival and creativity.
5. Discussion
Autism as Autimal Being reframes deficits as equilibria:
- Stimming → rhythmic regulation.
- Monotropism → cognitive flow.
- Sensory intensity → enhanced intero/exteroception.
- Pattern recognition → fractal perception of reality.
By integrating lived experience and empirical findings, this framework resists deficit narratives. Instead, it positions autism as a genius mode of cognition with contributions spanning science, art, and philosophy.
6. Conclusion
Autimal Being is not dysfunction. It is a neurocognitive equilibrium rooted in pattern recognition, monotropism, and rhythmic regulation. Backed by neuroscience and lived testimony, it deserves recognition as a valid dimension of neurodiversity. Embracing Autimal Being enables science and society to move beyond pathologizing difference, towards honoring autism as a vital expression of human intelligence.
References
- American Psychiatric Association. (2013). DSM-5.
- Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.
- Davidson, J. (2007). Autistic culture online. Social & Cultural Geography.
- Garfinkel, S. N., et al. (2016). Interoceptive dimensions across psychiatric conditions. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B.
- Happé, F., & Frith, U. (2006). The weak coherence account: detail-focused cognitive style in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
- Kelso, J. A. S. (1995). Dynamic Patterns: The Self-Organization of Brain and Behavior.
- Murray, D., Lesser, M., & Lawson, W. (2005). Attention, monotropism and the diagnostic criteria for autism. Autism.
- Robertson, C. E., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2017). Sensory perception in autism. Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
- Sandin, S., et al. (2017). The heritability of autism spectrum disorder. JAMA.
- Silberman, S. (2015). NeuroTribes.
- Tick, B., et al. (2016). Heritability of autism. JAMA Psychiatry.
- Taylor, R. P., et al. (2011). Perceptual and physiological responses to fractals. Journal of Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences.
- Levitin, D. J., et al. (2018). The neurochemistry of music. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
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