Embedded Files
Overview
The Theory of Monotropism
Autistic researchers, Dr Dinah Murray, Wenn Lawson and Mike Lesser published Attention, monotropism and the diagnostic criteria for autism, in 2005.
"At any one moment the amount of attention available to a conscious individual is limited.... The authors suggest competition between mental processes for scarce attention is an important factor in the shaping of the cognitive process.”(Murray et al., 2005).
In recent years, Monotropism has been gaining more traction as perhaps the most defining characteristic of Autism, particularly amongst Autistic and otherwise Neurodivergent communities. In 2018, Fergus Murray, Dinah's son, wrote Me and Monotropism: A unified theory (2018), and described Monotropism as
"resting on a model of the mind as an interest system’: we are all interested in many things, and our interests help direct our attention. Different interests are salient at different times. In a monotropic mind, fewer interests tend to be aroused at any time, and they attract more of our processing resources, making it harder to deal with things outside of our current attention tunnel"
Fergus created Monotropism.org to explain the theory and make available the growing body of research.
Monotropism.org
An Introduction to the Theory of Monotropism
This video was originally created by Kieran Rose, The Autistic Advocate and animator, Josh Knowles. to introduce the key ideas of Monotropism to mental health practitioners in the UK.
Try out the Monotropism Questionnaire
Autistic or not, you will find this questionnaire very helpful for understanding Monotropism.
"Other autism theories are often based on poor-quality evidence, have little explanatory value, and are pathologising. Many of us like monotropism as we think it is the strongest autism theory in terms of explanatory value and Dinah Murray was very popular among the community. Also,many autistic persons are social model neurodiversity supporters, so this study aligns with many of our values. However, we are aware of the lack of evidence for monotropism as a theory, so a study like this was always going to be of substantial interest to many of us."
- Richard Woods, autistic PhD student and activist
Factors impacting Monotropic thought patterns.
managing social situations
rumination and anxiety
struggle with decision making
anxiety-reducing effect of special interests
need for routines
special interests
losing track of other factors when focusing on special interests
environmental impact on the attention tunnel
Check Your Understanding:
For Digging Deeper:
Page updated
Report abuse