Me and Monotropism: A unified theory of autism

Monotropism is a unified theory of autism created by autistic people that explains autistic traits in terms of "monotropic," or singularly and intensely focused, attention.

It was developed by Dr. Dinah Murray, Dr. Wenn Lawson, and Mike Lesser. This article about it was written by Dr. Murray's adult child, Fergus Murray, both of whom were/are autistic themselves.

Many people's understanding of autism is still extremely deficit-based. On the other hand, the theory of monotropism is one of the first, most prominent theories of autism that sees autistic traits primarily as differences, not deficiencies.

When I was still confused about whether I was autistic or not, reading this article was what made it all make sense. It does a shockingly cohesive job of tying seemingly disparate autistic traits together with the common thread of singular, intense focus.

I've recommended it to countless people since when trying to explain the root of what autism is all about, as I think it's a great starting point.

Fergus Murray also has a website called monotropism.org with more details on the history of the theory, its applications, and other articles and papers on monotropism.