Neurosupremacy is the belief that certain neurodivergent people are superior to others, including other neurodivergent people. It operates internally, within neurodivergent communities and it echoes similar dynamics to ‘aspie supremacy but extends to supremacy over other forms of neurodivergence. Neurosupremacy ranks certain forms of neurodivergence as more legitimate, acceptable or valuable than others.
It shows up as:
- excluding people with mental health conditions from the neurodivergent umbrella
- claiming that neurodivergent means something you’re born with
- deciding some forms of neurodivergence should be medicated, controlled or cured over others
- using terms like narcissistic abuse that generalise and stigmatise a whole community of neurodivergent people
- making statements that explicitly or implicitly say that neurodivergent people are better than neurotypical people
- assigning moral value to certain forms of neurodivergence e.g those who experience high empathy
I wrote a long form essay of this which you can read here on Substack: https://lnkd.in/gV8eMJKD or my website: https://lnkd.in/g6UVtkqF
Neurosupremacy is the belief that certain neurodivergent people are superior to others, including other neurodivergent people. Neurosupremacy operates internally, within neurodivergent communities and it echoes similar dynamics to ‘aspie supremacy’ but extends to supremacy over other forms of neurodivergence. Neurosupremacy ranks certain forms of neurodivergence as more legitimate, acceptable, valuable and natural than others.
Neurosupremacy asks: which minds count? Which minds are better? Which minds are deserving of acceptance? Which minds are too much? Which minds are too threatening? Which minds should be cured? Which minds are mentally ill? These are the same questions that produced the categories of disordered, abnormal and mentally ill – the same categories we are supposed to be fighting against.
One of the clearest manifestations of neurosupremacy is the policing of who is allowed to identify as neurodivergent. Despite Kassiane Asasumasu (who coined neurodivergent) explicitly including all mental health conditions from the beginning, some people within the neurodivergent community attempt to narrow its definition to those who are ‘born this way’ or those who they deem to have a socially acceptable form of neurodivergence. More often than not, Autism and ADHD are framed as ‘natural differences’ while experiences like altered states such as mania or psychosis, plurality or hearing voices are framed as inherently pathological and therefore, excluded from the neurodivergent umbrella. And this distinction and exclusion is rarely neutral – it reflects a hierarchy in thinking and sanist attitudes that many neurodivergent people are not exempt from.
Neurosupremacy and Hierarchies Within The Neurodivergent Community — Lived Experience Educator
If we don’t confront neurosupremacy within our own community, we are at risk of replicating the same hierarchical thinking, the same oppression, the same policing, the same exclusion and the same dehumanisation that we claim to oppose.
Neurosupremacy and Hierarchies Within The Neurodivergent Community — Lived Experience Educator
