What Is Neuronormativity?
Our society’s emphasis on and understanding of normal has never been about what is actually normal, it has always been about what is seen as socially acceptable as well as what traits are beneficial for capitalism.
Put simply, the concept of normal is a social construct with the aim of controlling individuals by enforcing a right way to function, a right way to be, a right way to exist as a human.
It’s not normal, it’s neuronormative.
“Normal was created, not discovered, by flawed, eccentric, self-interested, racist, ableist, homophobic, sexist humans. Normal is a statistical fiction, nothing less”
Neuronormativity 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.
Neuronormativity can look like:
Expecting individuals to learn or gain knowledge by reading or writing.
Associating low empathy with having low morals or values.
Expecting everyone to communicate using spoken communication.
Labelling hearing voices as a sign of illness.
Enforcing linear clock time through a 9 to 5 work schedule.
Labelling trauma and abuse survivors with personality disorders
Reinforcing a singular sense of self as the right way
Applying blanket rules on body language, facial expressions and tone
“Every classroom that sees the moving body as the distracted body is organized according to a neurotypical norm. Every classroom that teaches predominantly for one mode of perception is organizing its learning according to a norm. Every classroom that knows in advance what knowledge looks and sounds like is working to a norm.”
- Brad Evans, Histories of Violence: Neurodiversity and the Policing of the Norm
These neuronormative ideals, standards and expectations are enforced and normalised everywhere; from our relationships with each other and ourselves to our classrooms and our workplaces to especially, the mental health field.
In fact, it’s the mental health field, built upon the pathology paradigm, that really reinforces neuronormativity. Or as I like to say, forces us to eat the neuronormativity onion.
The Root of Neuronormativity
Just like cisnormativity believes there is a superior and right gender, just like heteronormativity believes there is a superior and right sexuality and just like white supremacy believes there is a superior and right race, neuronormativity believes there is a superior and right way to function.
Neuronormativity is about what Western society values just like every other system of oppression. It’s why whiteness, cisheteronormativity and neuronormativity aren’t merely separate systems but a singular system based upon the idea of a socially acceptable and superior human.
Neuronormativity is the toolkit of white supremacy, colonialism and capitalism with the DSM being the hammer that nails us into the coffin of conformity.
I think that’s why it’s really important to acknowledge that neuronormativity has never been and will never be attainable for the global majority because neuronormativity is rooted in whiteness; a standard the global majority, people of colour, can never meet.
For further reading, I recommend Mad World: The Politics of Mental Health by Micha Frazer-Carroll and Decolonizing Therapy by Dr. Jennifer Mullan.
We cannot understand or challenge neuronormativity without challenging white supremacy and whiteness because individualism, worship of the written word, perfectionism, one right way, sense of urgency, right to comfort and binary ways of thinking are all key features of neuronormativity.
It's evident in how neuronormativity emphasises the idea that there is one right way to function and punishes anyone who diverges from this one right way. There is one right way to perceive time; there is one right way to communicate; there is one right way to pay attention; there is one right way to learn; there is one right way to grieve, there is one right way to experience empathy; there is one right way to feel; there is one right way to respond to trauma.
If you don’t function according to this one right way, you’re labelled with deficits; you're labelled with a disorder; you're seen as mentally ill.
If you don’t function according to this one right way that must benefit capitalism, there must be something wrong with you.
I mean, the addition of prolonged grief disorder to the DSM is a key example of this. As soon as someone's grief goes against how Western society wants us and expects us to grieve, it becomes a disorder. As soon as grief impacts someone’s ability to contribute to capitalism because they cannot work during their period of grief, it becomes a disorder.
It isn't that grieving for too long is a sign of illness, it’s a sign that you’re no longer functioning according to how Western society wants you to function.
Neuronormativity and Privilege
I believe neuronormativity disadvantages everyone including neurotypical people. While neuronormativity may harm everyone, not every individual is neurodivergent.
We often see neurotypical people described as someone who has a brain that is typical but I think it’s much more complex than that. It isn’t about their brains, it’s about their social position and their proximity to neuronormativity. Neurotypical is a term to describe people who are rewarded a certain level of power and privilege for how closely their functioning aligns with neuronormativity.
“Neurotypicals live, act, and experience the world in a way that consistently falls within the boundaries of neuronormativity.”
— Dr. Nick Walker
As long as there is a system that pathologises and oppresses our mindbodies, our differences, our altered states, our needs and as long as there’s a system that reinforces a hierarchy on our functioning, on our mindbodies, there will be a need for terms like neurotypical and neurodivergent to name this particular social position and as @neuroabolition has said before, this axis of power.
We do, however, need to acknowledge how even neurodivergent people can be rewarded a certain amount of privilege for the way they function even when they are disadvantaged from diverging from neuronormativity. And we need to acknowledge how neurodivergent people can both perpetuate and reinforce neuronormativity through their actions, attitudes and ableism.
I am multiply neurodivergent.
I diverge in multiple ways and I have been labelled with a number of diagnoses.
There are many ways I am pathologised and disadvantaged because of the ways I don’t fit into neuronormativity but there are ways that I do still fit into neuronormativity.
I’m rewarded for my spoken communication more than I am disadvantaged by it.
I’m rewarded for my ability to write through my social media and other opportunities more than I am disadvantaged by my difficulty with reading and spelling.
I’m rewarded for the very fact that I am white so, regardless of being neurodivergent, my proximity to neuronormativity will always be much closer than Black, Brown and Indigenous neurodivergent people’s proximity.
This is why we need to discuss proximity to neuronormativity. This is also why we cannot leave neuronormativity out of the conversation when we talk about neurotypical people, neurodivergent people or neurodiversity. After all, we really can’t create a neurodiversity inclusive society or truly support neurodivergent people unless we challenge how we think about differences, altered states, distress and how we expect people to function.
I hope this article has provided a quick introduction into neuronormativity because we need to discuss it more; we need to acknowledge it more. Neuronormativity just like white supremacy and cisheteronormativity, are the default, oppressive settings of Western society.
We need to challenge the default settings.