If you think a question like, “Conscious of the preconcious or unconscious?” is obscure and confusing, imagine the chaos added by including the vague and commonly used term subconscious. You can’t have them all or else you’re stuck with the problem of deciding whether the subconscious refers to the preconscious, unconscious, or both.
We can safely throw out the use of subconscious and stick with the words conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. We’re fine with those terms when restricting them to the way the neurotypical brain works.
NTs are known for their multi-tasking (multi-tracking or polytropism, if you’d prefer) abilities. I shall now attempt to explain how complex things get when comparing how the conscious and unconscious are affected by the difference between the way a neuro-A-typical mind processes information versus a NT one.
So far, there is no disagreement by stating that the Asperger brain is not hard-wired to function the same way as a NT’s is. Aspies are ‘one channel at a time’ people; also referred to as: mono-tasking, mono-processing, or monotropism. To the neurotypical mind, that probably comes across as being a disorder that needs to be fixed. The only reason it would be perceived that way would be because it’s being filtered through the NT brain, along with NTs lacking the theory of mind to comprehend what it’s like living with an Asperger brain. An analogy would be looking at things through rose colored glasses (which is what the mental health profession does when believing it would be wonderful if Aspergers could be eliminated by using their treatment plans).
I believe only Aspies have the potential to comprehend how valuable an asset mono-processing can be. Most of us Aspies already know and admit that there is use in this world for multi-trackers (NTs). We realize the need society has for most of its citizens to be able to use their senses simultaneously. Unfortunately, few Aspies are aware of how vital it is for the world to have some mono-taskers scattered around.
NTs apparently are not able (or is it that they’re not willing?) to perceive what it means to have the different type of central coherence Aspies have. To them, it seems extreme because they always receive their sensory input (i.e., externally incoming data) all at once. That may sound good on the surface, but it’s doubtful their unconscious mind has as much information as a neuro-A-typical one does. How can such an extremely unheard of claim be considered? …because of noticing a peculiar pattern in the different way my mind works as compared to how a NT’s generally functions.
By no means am I saying that one way is superior over another, BUT, at the same time, I think I’ve reached my limit of what I can take from reading the biased and hypocritical statements that the medical profession continually publishes about Aspergers! Clearly, there is NO WAY the ‘experts’ will tolerate any concept that may suggest they’re wrong about Aspergers needing to be treated — that it’s not something a person has, but rather describes who one could be.
I feel like I’m in a catch-22 situation in regard to studying what’s being said about Aspergers. Reading what the ‘experts’ will present (and already have presented) to the public has me to know how increasingly more distorted others (who don’t know me like my immediate family does) may perceive (negatively judge) me (and other Aspies). Even though the medical profession has gone amuck over Aspergers (they want to eliminate the term Aspergers by referring to it as ‘high-functioning autism’ because ‘Aspergers’ is ‘too vague and confusing’ for them, but yet they admit genetic evidence points to Aspergers as not being a form of autism!), society foolishly accepts what’s said because they don’t know how to deal with what they can’t understand.
For those who don’t know what central coherence means, it is the ability to draw connections together from the ‘big picture’. Wendy Lawson claims (in Olga Bogdashina’s article Mono-Processing in Autism: Using one channel at a time) central coherence, “…can only occur with least effort, when one has access to the big picture via many different channels (polytropism).” She also says, “…in monotropism where all the attention is gathered into one place, there is an extreme¹ central coherence but of different type. ‘Monotropic central coherence’ excludes information from outside the attention channel.”
How is it possible for Wendy Lawson to know that monotropic central coherence totally excludes information from outside the attention channel? I understand its excluding information from outside the attention channel on a conscious level, but outside information can still seep in unawares at a lower level of consciousness. She (or anyone else for that matter) has no way to measure how much information is possibly stored in the preconscious (and especially the unconscious) mind of Aspies.
I gave an example of my mind including information from outside of my attention channel in my post That’s a new one for me… In it I mentioned an odd experience I had one night when typing a message on my computer to someone. While I was at this task, there were two viewers in the same room listening and watching something on the television. I had no way to block out the auditory input coming to my brain. Consciously my mind was busy producing the words to express my thoughts, but unconsciously (or was it preconsciously?) my brain was typing what I wasn’t consciously thinking. Instead of me seeing the text revealing what I was thinking, I noticed that I had typed word-for-word (without any mistakes) what was coming from the tv! There was no connection, between what my conscious thoughts contained versus what unconsciously seeped into my mind, to draw together for a ‘big picture’ (unless maybe the main point of this post is forming a ‘big picture’?) …but, I’m not done explaining yet.
A few years ago, while taking a particular Mensa IQ test, I noticed another odd occurrence. I had no clue how I was able to ‘fill in the blanks’ of every question in that test like I did. It was as if someone else was taking the test instead of me. I was dumbfounded over where I could possibly have gotten some of the information I came up with, especially since I know myself well enough to know that I could not have consciously acquired knowledge about the rules of certain sports like rugby, football, or cricket (I was never interested in competitive team sports)! The only explanation I can think of for how those answers could have surfaced to my conscious mind would be that monotropic central coherence does include information from outside the attention channel. A thing I noticed even more strange while answering those questions was that I had to ’shut off’ my mind in order for the answers to ‘pop’ out. As soon as I allowed myself to ‘think’, my mind would go blank and not ‘give me’ the answer. Only when my conscious thoughts were turned off, did I get the answers to the questions.
If what I’m perceiving is true, then that would explain why I often feel like I’m seeing a ‘bigger picture’ than what it seems others are seeing. It could also be the reason why I’ve developed a habit of explaining myself as much as I do to those who want to know why my thoughts are usually radically different. Plus, monotropism can explain why there are some people (especially the artistic/creative/inventor types) historically known to isolate themselves (i.e., the eccentrics) from mainstream society and why those in the mainstream are usually unable to fathom the reason for their weird behavior.
There is no logic behind wanting to get rid of (Aspergers, for example) what mainstream society doesn’t understand (other than its possibly being too unnerving?). That’s like thinking you can get rid of the cause by getting rid of the visible effects without knowing what’s going on invisibly.
Just because most people can develop a ‘big picture’ by conscious attention to multiple channels does not mean that those who gather all their conscious attention into one place cannot develop an even ‘bigger picture’ if it is true that monotropic minds do (unconsciously and/or preconsciously) include information from outside of the attention channel.
My theory of polytropism is that it renders the mind incapable of unconsciously (or preconsciously?) storing what’s coming in from multiple channels, because it’s paying conscious attention to the incoming information. To lack the ability to control awareness (i.e., consciousness) of incoming sensory stimuli would result in making multi-tasking easier. It also explains why NTs would hear someone calling their name while they’re involved in a task.
An Aspie involved in a task typically hates to be disturbed and unconsciously (or preconsciously?) will not hear their name being called (at least as quickly as a NT might). Is it any wonder then that Aspies need their time to be left alone after being in an environment that bombards their senses? …so that they can ’sort out’, ‘connect’, and ‘make sense out of’, the sensory dots which crept in from the multiple channels blaring simultaneously?
Computers freeze up from being overloaded by too much incoming data brought by multiple software running. Not not expect a meltdown from Aspies running on overload is no different.
¹Does extreme mean too much of an ability to draw connections together from the ‘big picture’?… that there is a limit decided by those with polytropic central coherence?
