executivefunctions

@autistics Since the end of the last off week of my 7-on-7-off work schedule, I've been reflecting on the responses to my theory that the essence of autism lies in the ABSENCE or INACTIVATION of the #EnvironmentalYoke, a hypothesized complex neurological structure that neurotypicals use to engage with the physical and social environment. I think there may have been some misunderstanding of what I meant.

Now that I'm off again, I've continued with reading Russell #Barkley's "Taking Charge of Adult ADHD" (2nd ed., 2022). I'm currently in Chapter 9, "Executive Functions". His relentless neuronormativity continues to grate on my sensibilities — and his application of it to the concept of #ExecutiveFunctions leads me to suspect that theorizing about #ADHD, as well as autism, could benefit from introduction of the concept of the environmental yoke. Essentially, it seems to me that Barkley is conflating the very general, domain-independent concept of executive functions with the very specific perceptual and attentional biases built into the environmental yoke — and is compounding his error by assuming that those specific biases must necessarily render neurotypical executive function and engagement with the environment superior to their non-neurotypical counterparts.

https://zeroes.ca/@dedicto/115457107590672323

@autistics I'm continuing to read Russell ⁨⁨#Barkley⁩⁩'s "Taking Charge of Adult ADHD" (2nd ed., 2022). His analysis continues to be marred by persistent failure to make two crucial distinctions:

(1) Between the effect of true deficits in #ExecutiveFunctions (impulsiveness, deficient short-term memory, etc.) vs. the effect of neurodivergent attentional focus that prevents certain topics from even entering consciousness with enough salience to engage executive functions in the first place;

(2) Between truly autonomous self-control that realizes the person's inner values vs. spurious self-control that amounts to internalized social coercion along the lines of the Freudian superego or Marxian false consciousness.

Given Barkley's prominence in the field of #ADHD research, I'm starting to suspect that these aren't just problems with his thinking in particular, but with the accepted theoretical framework throughout the field as a whole.