Farahar three dimension Autistic space
The Farahar (2018/9) three-dimensional Autistic space framework places all Autistic people (discovered and undiscovered) in a humanising space away from the binary spectrum/continuum that has become so misrepresentative of what it was supposed to depict – the spiky profile of abilities of an Autistic individual that fluctuate across time.
The diagnostic manuals do not contain “high/low functioning” language; severity levels only relate to the degree of support needed – not how “severely Autistic” someone is; and there’s no such thing (scientifically) as “male” or “female autism” – only Autistic girls, women, boys, men, non-binary, and trans people who are impacted by different prejudices, and often minoritised Autistic people are blamed for “hiding their autism”.
The Farahar (2018/9) three-dimensional Autistic space framework is a means of depicting how our Autistic-ness – how observably Autistic we seem – fluctuates across time due to influences such as:
- Physical environment
- Family dynamics
- Physical and/or mental well-being (which can create a feedback loop, e.g. poor mental well-being affects Autistic presentation and experience, and Autistic presentation and experience affects mental well-being)
- Culture/society – social norms and pressures
- Adequate or inadequate support
- Gender (and social norms pertaining to such, not necessarily biological sex)
- Socio-economic-status (SES)
- Genetic factors (to a lesser extent than literature would maintain)
- Co-occurring experiences, both physical (e.g. ME; epilepsy; IBS; Ehlers-Danlos syndrome; etc.), and neurological (e.g. learning disabilities/differences; other neuro-developmental differences, e.g. dyslexia, dyspraxia, Polyennism ‘ADD/ADHD’; etc.)
Historically, non-autistic outsiders have been looking into the Autistic space, and only seeing the more apparent/observable satellites (Autistic people), the “classically Autistic” individuals, missing, misdiagnosing, and invalidating Autistic people with different experiences, different genders, and those who are not white.
Farahar wanted to depict the individual Autistic spiky profile in three-dimensional space, and aimed to:
- De-biologically sex the Autistic experience;
- More accurately represent the diversity of Autistic experience and our population;
- Represent the reality of Autistic development and growth across time (as a means of countering attempts to subtype Autistic humans)
Hypothetical lifetime of an Autistic individual in the three-dimensional Autistic space. E.g., at age 5 the person was observably Autistic (obvious stims; minimally speaking; meltdowns).
By age 15 they had unconsciously learnt to mask as a trauma response, and internalised many of their experiences (unnoticeable/minimal stims; shutdowns; mimicking how to act socially).
This masking only worked for so long – by age 35 they experienced numerous burnout periods; relationship breakdowns; and were more observably struggling.
By 55 they embraced their Autistic self and stimmed freely; communicated Autistically (See Cullen hypothesis); and set boundaries.
The Farahar three-dimensional Autistic space can also demonstrate different time-frames to help non-autistic people understand that we are always Autistic, and at times this is less observable if e.g., we are masking for safety, or if we are invisible to non-autistic people because of ethnicity or gender (i.e., racism and sexism in diagnostic practices and research blind non-autistic people to our Autistic-ness). For example, our space can demonstrate an individual’s observability in the space of a day – explaining to schools why they do not “see the autism” for students at school, but families are reporting meltdowns etc., when the student is safe with family at home and can no longer mask.
For more details about how the Autistic space works, see the video below: