Brain Equality
Graphics/Elín Edda Þorsteinsdóttir
In Act 3, Scene 2 of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, after outmaneuvering Guildenstern into avowing that he cannot play a pipe, Hamlet claims he is something more complex than a pipe, something that Guildenstern would need time to comprehend and prowess to play a trick on [1].
“Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me. You would seem to know my stops. You would pluck out the heart of my mystery. You would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass. And there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak? 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me.”
We humans are very complex, and the human brain is one of the most unfathomable mysteries, a sphinxlike object. The American systems scientist John N. Warfield defined complexity as the sensation of chagrin we experience when we observe a system and we lack comprehension [2]. In an attempt to reduce the complexity, we envisage people as belonging to social categories. We assign individuals to defined social groups.
This natural cognitive process is already in place in infancy [3] and allows people to grasp the characteristics of a social group at one glance and apply them to all the group members [4]. We depend upon this ability because we are deluged with too much information to process analytically, and so we are compelled to simplify. Social categorization profoundly influences human social lives, and one negative consequence of this fact is that we sometimes disregard people and place them into social categories just because we lack the motivation to deepen our understanding. Sometimes, we mistakenly treat all members of a category in the same way, ending up with prejudices. Hamlet was pointing out that Guildenstern was prejudiced towards him. Preconceived opinions are baseless, and they usually lead to discrimination and bullying.
In the workplace, diversity usually refers to factors of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, and mental or physical disability. These are the social categories that are protected by law against discrimination. Neurological differences like autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have always been considered mental disabilities. In recent years, along with the medical model of autism that classifies it as a disability, high-functioning autistic people have started to use a new paradigm to define themselves; they have embraced the concept of neurodiversity. According to this view, neurologically different minds should not belong to the social category of disability; rather, they are different categories, and they should be recognized and respected as other social categories.
The term “neurodiversity” was coined by the Australian social scientist Judy Singer, herself autistic, in her sociology honors thesis in 1998 [5] and subsequently used by the journalist Harvey Blume in a 1998 issue of The Atlantic [6]:
“Neurodiversity may be every bit as crucial for the human race as biodiversity is for life in general. Who can say what form of wiring will prove best at any given moment? Cybernetics and computer culture, for example, may favor a somewhat autistic cast of mind."
Neurodiversity is not just limited to autism; it also covers other neurological differences like dyspraxia, dyslexia, ADHD, dyscalculia, Tourette syndrome, and others. In his blog, John Elder Robison, Neurodiversity Scholar in Residence at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, considers neurological differences to simply be the result of normal, natural variation in the human genome [7]. Dr. Devon MacEachron argues that these natural variations in the human genome will continue to result in advancements for society [8].
Neurodiverse people need our support to discover their strengths and values and to find their place in society. Some companies are starting to envision the competitive advantage of running neurodiversity programs. Seventy-five percent of the staff at Ultranauts, a New York-based company founded by Rajesh Anandan and Art Schectman, are on the autism spectrum [9]. Hewlett Packard, Vodafone, and Microsoft are all running autism-focused employment programs, and they are committed to improving workplace diversity by hiring people who might have conditions such as dyslexia, autism, or ADHD [10].
However, neurodiversity remains controversial and is often contrasted with the medical model of autism. This is causing divisions within the autism community, but many researchers are confident that the medical model and the neurodiversity model are not mutually exclusive; on the contrary, they can be integrated.
References:
1. http://dontliedontspy.blogspot.com/p/symbol.html
2. J.N. Warfield, Understanding complexity: Thought and behavior, Ajar, Palm Harbor, 2002.
3. Zoe Liberman; Amanda L. Woodward and Katherine D. Kinzler, The origins of social categorization, Trends Cogn Sci. 2017 Jul; 21 (7): (p 556–568).
4. Y.-T. Lee, L. J. Jussim, & C. R. McCauley (Eds.), Stereotype accuracy: Toward appreciating group differences, American Psychological Association (p. 275–292).
5. Judy Singer, NeuroDiversity: The Birth of an Idea, 2017, ISBN-13: 978-0648154709
6. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/09/neurodiversity/305909/
7. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/my-life-aspergers/201310/what-is-neurodiversity
8. https://nowthisnews.com/videos/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-neurodiversity
9. http://ultranauts.co/meet-the-team/
10. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190719-neurodiversity