Neurodiversity and social change
your dreams will be reduced down to breathing, and you will be grateful
The thing about not-being-a-person is: They will say those people and the price of being a person is to nod and agree that yes, those people aren’t people at all. They will have no idea who they are talking to. You yourself will start to forget, too. They will say a million small things that sow the seeds for violence done against you, and you will smile and let them. You will do math, constantly. How much do I want to be a person today? How much do I want this project to succeed? How much honesty can I afford? How much dishonesty will kill me? What is the cost of coming out? Is there a way to delay, soften, transmute? How long can I survive as half a person? Ever since the world ended ... I don't go out as much. People that I once befriended, just don't bother to stay in touch. Things that used to seem so splendid, don't really matter today. It's just as well the world ended -- it wasn't working anyway. Your dreams will be reduced down to breathing. [Read More]
Julia Bascom on 03/5/12 | 2 Comments | Read More
Reflections on Being Jewish and Autistic: Different Minorities, Same Critique
For almost two years now, I've become increasingly aware of how other people regard autistics. As you all know, the news is not altogether good. As I’ve waded my way through all manner of err...[Read More]
Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg on 09/30/10 | 5 Comments | Read More
If I may be forgiven a bit of motherly bragging, I'm quite proud of the mature way my daughter handled a recent social situation. As I mentioned in a previous post, she is a college freshman still a...[Read More]
Gwen McKay on 09/29/10 | 3 Comments | Read More
Wearing Masks, or, Thoughts on Foxes
Last October I wrote a short little blurb on passing, using the mythos of the kitsune as an allegory. Mark e-mailed me back in April about his newest essay on the Uncanny Valley. Long e-mail now s...[Read More]
Guest on 09/28/10 | No Comments | Read More
Opportunity, Possibility, and Community
I've been given an incredible opportunity. It's been two weeks since the opportunity was presented to me, and I'm still reeling from the possibilities it holds. I've already told you that Bud's ...[Read More]
Guest on 09/27/10 | No Comments | Read More
For all its charms, the weblog platform does also bury older content for no better reason than that newer material has come along. While we all like to feel we’re improving, whether you are writin...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/27/10 | 2 Comments | Read More
“Autism” the Word, as Glimpsed in the Wild
The autism wars will likely continue, I predict, for some time after the larger culture has rendered its own decision and moved on. Or so has run my thinking, anyway, since I stumbled onto Mom-NOS�...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/23/10 | 7 Comments | Read More
As I've mentioned, I'm currently reading Lev Grossman's latest book, The Magicians. I'm bringing it up again because in the last couple of chapters, I've twice come upon adverbs that made me stop re...[Read More]
Guest on 09/23/10 | 5 Comments | Read More
The cypress trees of Louisiana's bayous (to continue Shift Journal's venerable landscape metaphor tradition) are very well adapted to their natural habitat. They can get along just fine with most of...[Read More]
Gwen McKay on 09/22/10 | 3 Comments | Read More
For all its charms, the weblog platform does also bury older content for no better reason than that newer material has come along. While we all like to feel we’re improving, whether you are wri...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/20/10 | No Comments | Read More
The Unbroken Spectrum: The Shared Closet
Inveterate list maker Lili Marlene has carved out another instructive subset from her still growing referenced list of now “... 174 famous or important people diagnosed with an autism spectrum condi...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/17/10 | 1 Comment | Read More
Choosing How We View the World and Our Place In It
Here, in West Texas, the heat's still on. It's fair week here, so we've had the typical showers that everyone associates with fair week(never mind that we always forget when it doesn't rain). We a...[Read More]
KWombles on 09/16/10 | No Comments | Read More
Although the song "America the Beautiful" praises amber waves of grain, when I was a little girl I wasn't much impressed by that image and would have preferred a field of blooming thistles instead, wi...[Read More]
Gwen McKay on 09/15/10 | 3 Comments | Read More
"We fear it. We fear passion, and laugh at too much love and those who love too much. And still we long to feel.” -- Jeanette Winterson We long to feel. This is the irony of a child l...[Read More]
For all its charms, the weblog platform does also bury older content for no better reason than that newer material has come along. While we all like to feel we’re improving, whether you are writi...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/13/10 | No Comments | Read More
As those of her generation are able to do, my mother the other day—with just the slightest stern shake of her head—remarked at “How much has changed,” since I was a child, and even more since ...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/10/10 | No Comments | Read More
Horse-Assisted Therapy and Eye Contact
In the past couple of months, I’ve begun horse-assisted therapy at Miracles in Motion in Keene, NH. I decided to begin the work after reading about the story of Jaycee Lee Dugard, the California w...[Read More]
Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg on 09/9/10 | No Comments | Read More
My daughter, the newly minted freshman, came home from college over Labor Day weekend. The first thing she did when she got back here Friday evening was to go out to the high school football game wi...[Read More]
Gwen McKay on 09/8/10 | No Comments | Read More
Comments Policy (and Contributor Guidelines)
It is not an easy thing to turn down the burner on a successful alchemical setup, an opus contra naturam which has been known to actually produce gold out of base metals. Shift Journal has contribut...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/6/10 | 1 Comment | Read More
Imagine, just as an exercise, that beyond the one percent of the population diagnosable with autism, there is another four percent whose cognitive style is describable under the less rigorous category...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/3/10 | 2 Comments | Read More
Modern medical science, despite having some areas in which it could stand considerable improvement, is still quite amazing when contrasted with how little our ancestors knew about the workings of the ...[Read More]
Gwen McKay on 09/1/10 | 3 Comments | Read More
Autism has been here all along.
Considered as an evolutionary condition with far-reaching social implications, its full presence and impact remain hidden in plain sight, unrecognized and uncredited.
Part neurological mystery, part social construct, and part secret society unbeknownst even to its own members, autism does not lend itself to explanation by those who hold it apart from society, from themselves, or from consciousness itself. Definitions are revised, overhauled, and abandoned all while efforts to explore and examine this condition on its own terms are only now gaining momentum.
Shift Journal aims to showcase and encourage such efforts. Entertaining the notion of autistic as a legitimate way to be in the world, from the crossroads of theory, society, and personal experience, Shift welcomes relevant contributions from all comers.
Mark Stairwalt
Editor and Publisher
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Shift Journal founder Andrew Lehman's groundbreaking cross-disciplinary work Evolution, Autism, and Social Change draws from evolutionary biology, neuro-psychology and related fields to outline an evolutionary process complementary to natural selection that may explain some forms of autism as well as -- and perhaps more importantly -- long-term shifts in large-scale social structure. Download or purchase Evolution, Autism, and Social Change here.
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In a world which relentlessly demands practical advice for day-to-day, Shift Journal remains focused on promoting reflection and discovery. Readers however who are seeking useful information and how-to guidance assembled by a down-to-earth, conscientious and scientifically literate crew who once sought such information themselves and found it difficult to come by may find The Thinking Person's Guide to Autism to be just what they are looking for:
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New or established writers wishing to contribute original or previously published posts may use the submissions page or contact us directly.
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Autism and Empathy Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism Neurodivergent Sexuality Just Stimming Autistic Passing Project