Speaking from the in-between: Neurotypical perspectivelessness, neurodivergent authority, and the politics of knowledge

IF 2.9 3区心理学 Q2 PSYCHOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL

New Ideas in Psychology Pub Date : 2026-04-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-09 DOI:10.1016/j.newideapsych.2026.101237

Cole A. Denisen

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Abstract

This study examines how neurodivergent undergraduates navigate higher education by theorizing neurotypical perspectivelessness—the institutional erasure of neurotypicality as a cultural standpoint that allows its sensory, cognitive, and communicative norms to appear neutral and universally shared. Grounded in critical neurodiversity, disability studies, and the embodied theorizing of Anzaldúa, Okello, Walker, and other marginalized scholars, I conceptualize neurodiversity as a theory of flesh: an account of how power, knowledge, and resistance are lived through the bodymind. Drawing on critical narrative inquiry with ten neurodivergent students at a large Midwestern research university, I analyze how institutional structures, policies, and interpersonal interactions reproduce epistemic marginalization by naturalizing neurotypical modes of time, communication, affect, and executive functioning.

Findings demonstrate that students encountered a pervasive neutrality claim that positioned neurotypical interpretations as the only legitimate readings of behavior, knowledge, and presence. This perspectivelessness intersected with race, gender, sexuality, and class, shaping how neurodivergence was made hypervisible, invisible, or morally suspect. Yet participants also enacted neuroqueered praxes which reveal neurodivergent students as theorists and expert knowers whose embodied insights expose the limits of neurotypical common sense.

Overall, this study reframes neurodivergent struggle not as individual deficit but as the predictable outcome of perspectiveless institutional design. Meaningful inclusion requires moving beyond accommodations toward dismantling the epistemic frameworks that render neurotypicality invisible. Centering neurodivergent expertise reveals the borderlands of institutional life as generative spaces of critique, creativity, and resistance, offering pathways toward more just educational futures.

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从中间的角度来说：神经典型的透视性，神经发散性的权威，以及知识的政治

本研究考察了神经分化本科生如何通过将神经典型的无视角理论化来引导高等教育。神经典型的制度性消除作为一种文化立场，使其感觉、认知和交流规范显得中立和普遍共享。在批判性神经多样性、残疾研究以及Anzaldúa、Okello、Walker和其他边缘学者的具体化理论的基础上，我将神经多样性概念化为一种肉体理论：一种关于权力、知识和抵抗如何通过身心生存的描述。通过对中西部一所大型研究型大学的10名神经分化学生进行批判性叙事调查，我分析了制度结构、政策和人际互动如何通过自然化时间、沟通、影响和执行功能的神经典型模式来再现认知边缘化。研究结果表明，学生们遇到了一种普遍的中立性主张，将神经典型的解释定位为对行为、知识和存在的唯一合法解读。这种无透视性与种族、性别、性和阶级交织在一起，塑造了神经分化如何变得超可见、不可见或道德可疑。然而，参与者也制定了神经酷儿实践，这些实践揭示了神经发散学生作为理论家和专家的知识，他们的具体见解暴露了神经典型常识的局限性。总的来说，这项研究将神经分化斗争重新定义为个体缺陷，而不是无视角制度设计的可预测结果。有意义的包容需要超越适应，走向拆除使神经典型性不可见的认知框架。以神经发散性专业知识为中心，揭示了制度生活作为批判、创造力和抵抗的生成空间的边界，为更公正的教育未来提供了途径。

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来源期刊

New Ideas in Psychology Multiple-

CiteScore

4.80

自引率

3.80%

发文量

期刊介绍： New Ideas in Psychology is a journal for theoretical psychology in its broadest sense. We are looking for new and seminal ideas, from within Psychology and from other fields that have something to bring to Psychology. We welcome presentations and criticisms of theory, of background metaphysics, and of fundamental issues of method, both empirical and conceptual. We put special emphasis on the need for informed discussion of psychological theories to be interdisciplinary. Empirical papers are accepted at New Ideas in Psychology, but only as long as they focus on conceptual issues and are theoretically creative. We are also open to comments or debate, interviews, and book reviews.