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What Is Monotropism?
What is monotropism?
Monotropism is a neurodiversity affirming theory of autism (Murray et al 2005).
Autistic / ADHD / AuDHD people are more likely to be monotropic (Garau et al., 2023).
Monotropic people have an interest based nervous system. This means they focus more of their attention resources on fewer things at any one time compared to other people who may be polytropic.
Things outside an attention tunnel may get missed and moving between attention tunnels can be difficult and take a lot of energy.
Monotropism can have a positive and negative impact on sensory, social and communication needs depending on the environment, support provided and how a person manages their mind and body.
Community input from various social media platforms to help define monotropism
Collected by Autistic Realms, January 2024
Monotropism is a theory of autism developed by autistic people…
Monotropism is a theory of autism developed by autistic people, initially by Dinah Murray and Wenn Lawson.
Welcome – Monotropism
Monotropic minds tend to have their attention pulled more strongly towards a smaller number of interests at any given time, leaving fewer resources for other processes. We argue that this can explain nearly all of the features commonly associated with autism, directly or indirectly. However, you do not need to accept it as a general theory of autism in order for it to be a useful description of common autistic experiences and how to work with them.
If we are right, then monotropism is one of the key ideas required for making sense of autism, along with the double empathy problem and neurodiversity. Monotropism makes sense of many autistic experiences at the individual level. The double empathy problem explains the misunderstandings that occur between people who process the world differently, often mistaken for a lack of empathy on the autistic side. Neurodiversity describes the place of autistic people and other ‘neurominorities’ in society.
Monotropism – Welcome
I believe that the best way to understand autistic minds is in terms of a thinking style which tends to concentrate resources in a few interests and concerns at any time, rather than distributing them widely. This style of processing, monotropism, explains many features of autistic experience that may initially seem puzzling, and shows how they are connected.
Starting Points for Understanding Autism | by Ferrous, aka Oolong | Medium
Monotropism provides a far more comprehensive explanation for autistic cognition than any of its competitors, so it has been good to see it finally starting to get more recognition among psychologists (as in Sue Fletcher-Watson’s keynote talk at the 2018 Autistica conference). In a nutshell, monotropism is the tendency for our interests to pull us in more strongly than most people. It rests 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.
Me and Monotropism: A unified theory of autism | The Psychologist
This interest model of mind is ecological, embodied, and exploratory. Instead of applying emotionally charged values to categorize humans, it offers a more objective way of thinking about autistic and other human variations: it does not pathologize them. This is not just semantics, current diagnostic practice stamps “Rejected!” on the core nature of a large part of the human race, with profound repercussions, as history relates if we attend to it.
Monotropism: An Interest-Based Account of Autism
Think you might be monotropic? Try this “Monotropism Questionnaire”.
Monotropism seeks to explain autism in terms of attention distribution and interests. Despite having strong subjective validity to autistic people, and potential to explain the overlap between autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), it has been little investigated formally. This is in large part due to lack of reliable and valid measures to capture the construct. In this study, we aimed to develop and validate a novel self-report measure, the Monotropism Questionnaire (MQ), in autistic and non-autistic people. The MQ consists of 47 items, which were generated by a group of autistic adults based on their lived experience and academic expertise.
OSF Preprints | Development and Validation of a Novel Self-Report Measure of Monotropism in Autistic and Non-Autistic People: The Monotropism Questionnaire
Map of Monotropic Experiences
Areas of the Map of Monotropic Experiences
- Attention Tunnels
- Penguin Pebbling Cove of Friendship
- Tendril Theory (@EisforErin)
- Mountains of Ruminating Thoughts
- Cyclones of Unmet Needs
- Rabbit Holes of Research
- Infodump Canyon
- Rhizomatic Communities
- River of Monotropic Flow States
- Campsite of Cavendish Spaces
- Meerkat Mounds (Gray-Hammond & Adkin)
- Riverbanks of Monotropic Time
- Shark Infested Waters of Neuronormativity, Behaviourism & Double Empathy Problems (Milton, 2012)
- Beach of Body Doubling
- Burnout Whirlpools
- Panic Hills of Low-Object Permanence
- Forest of Joy Awe and Wonder
- Lake of Limerence
- Tides of the Sensory Sea
- Sudden Storms of Unexpected Events
Vocabulary of the Map of Monotropic Experiences
- Attention Tunnels – Entering flow states – or attention tunnels – is a necessary coping strategy for many of us. Flow states are the pinnacle of intrinsic motivation. (Murray)
- Penguin Pebbling – “Penguin pebbling” is a little exchange between two people to show that they care and want to build a meaningful connection. (Edgar)
- Tendril Theory – When I’m focused on something, my mind sends out a million tendrils of thought, expands into all of the thoughts & feelings. When I need to switch tasks, I must retract all of the tendrils of my mind. This takes some time. (@EisforErin)
- Rumination – When your thoughts are all swirly and you just keep chewing on the same thought over and over and you can’t stop thinking about it and it’s distracting you and sometimes even putting you in a really bad mood or making you irritable. (Chipura)
- Unmet Needs – Mismatch between the areas we actually receive support, compared to the areas we would ideally like support. (Cassidy, et al)
- Rabbit Hole – “Down the rabbit hole” is an English-language idiom or trope which refers to getting deep into something, or ending up somewhere strange. (Wikipedia)
- Infodumping – Talking a lot about a topic in great detail.
- Autistic Rhizome – A growing and evolving network of Autistic communities with no hierarchy or dependence on anothers existence. (Edgar)
- Flow States – Entering flow states – or attention tunnels – is a necessary coping strategy for many of us. Flow states are the pinnacle of intrinsic motivation. (Murray)
- Cavendish Space – Psychologically and sensory safe spaces suited to zone work, flow states, intermittent collaboration, and collaborative niche construction. (Boren)
- Meerkat Mode – Heightened state of vigilance and arousal that involves constantly looking for danger and threat. It is more than hyper-arousal, it is an overwhelmed monotropic person desperately looking for a hook into a monotropic flow-state. (Adkin)
- Monotropic Time – When absorbed in our special interests or passions it can feel like entering a portal. Normal time can feel like it is dissolving, the outside world may feel like it is melting away. This can be really rejuvenating for the sensory system and help to recharge the bodymind. (Edgar)
- Neuronormativity – Neurormativity is a set of norms, standards, expectations and ideals that centre a particular way of functioning as the right way to function. It is the assumption that there is a correct way to exist in this world; a correct way to think, feel, communicate, play, behave and more. (Wise)
- Behaviourism – Behaviorism is a dehumanizing mechanism of learning that reduces human beings to simple inputs and outputs. There is an ever-growing body of research suggesting that behaviorism is not only harmful to how we learn, but is also oppressive, ableist, and racist. (McNutt)
- Double Empathy Problem – The ‘double empathy problem’ refers to the mutual incomprehension that occurs between people of different dispositional outlooks and personal conceptual understandings when attempts are made to communicate meaning. (Milton)
- Body Doubling – A “body double” is a person or even pet who is present with us while we work. This provides a gentle form of accountability — their presence serves as a reminder of what we’re supposed to be doing so we’re less likely to get distracted. (McCabe)
- Burnout – Autistic burnout is a state of physical and mental fatigue, heightened stress, and diminished capacity to manage life skills, sensory input, and/or social interactions, which comes from years of being severely overtaxed by the strain of trying to live up to demands that are out of sync with our needs. (Raymaker)
- Object Permanence – Autistic children have difficulties with their understanding of: what’s here, what’s now, what is permanent, and so on. (Lawson)
- Autistic Joy – Autistic joy is one of our favorite things about being autistic. It can be intense as a meltdown, but filled with overwhelming happiness and excitement. When we experience joy, we feel the excited vibrations throughout our bodies. To release the energy, we do a “happy stim.” We will jump up and down, excitedly flap our hands, sometimes even dance. (Blackwater)
- Limerence – Limerence is a state of involuntary obsession with another person. The experience of limerence is different from love or lust in that it is based on the uncertainty that the person you desire also desires you. (Psychology Today)
- Sensory Experiences – Neurodivergent people are hypersensitive to mindset and environment due to a greater number of neuronal connections. They have both a higher risk for trauma and a large capacity for sensing safety. (Elisabeth)
- Unexpected Events – If an autistic person is pulled out of monotropic flow too quickly, it causes our sensory systems to dysregulate. This in turn triggers us into emotional dysregulation, and we quickly find ourselves in a state ranging from uncomfortable, to grumpy, to angry, or even triggered into a meltdown or a shutdown. (Rose)
6 Points of Monotropism
Credit: Fergus Murray,
Theories and Practice in Autism (2018)
Monotropism Umbrella
