Research by autistic researchers: an “insider’s view” into autism. The autistic way of being

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Lawson, W. (2025). Research by autistic researchers: an “insider’s view” into autism. The autistic way of being. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 16, 1664507-1664507. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1664507

Publication date: 22 Oct 2025 Added to AutiHub: 6 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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Authors

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1
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 1 (100.0%)
  1. Wenn Lawson *

Abstract

This paper introduces us to an increasingly popular understanding of autism, but as understood and experienced by Autistic people: the descriptive theory of Monotropism. Initially this paper sets out the background to monotropism as the author briefly mentions various autism theories and highlights some reasons why such theories didn't resonate with Autistic people. Uncovering how monotropism explains autism and Autistic experience takes the reader into the very heart of Autistic experience in ways not previously shown. As well as discussing attention, interest and connections to the Autistic sensory experiences (external and internal) the author highlights the experience of Object Permanence (OP) and its impact upon Autistic lives. Current research is beginning to demonstrate that OP is experienced differently in Autistic lives to non-autistic lives. Initially though Autistic people were thought to relate to OP in similar ways to non-autistic people (e.g.), although there were hints that aspects of OP in Autistic people were experienced differently. The reasons for why monotropism has grown in popularity and how this theory explains the Autistic experience are set out below.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Bibliography inclusion overview

These indicators describe the cited bibliography imported for this publication. Cited-reference metrics use the cited-reference total as denominator. Cited-author metrics state whether they use all cited-author occurrences or only occurrences linked to authors already integrated in the AutiHub database. They use cached links between cited authors and authors integrated in the AutiHub database. Last computed: 16 Aug 2026 11:30.

Cited references
61
Total cited references integrated for this publication.
Cited references with an identified autistic author
14 / 61 (23.0%)
Cited author occurrences identified as autistic
32 / 146 (21.9%)
Among occurrences linked to AutiHub author records: 32 / 62 (51.6%). Distinct cited authors identified as autistic: 19 / 117 (16.2%).
Cited author occurrences linked to AutiHub author records
62 / 146 (42.5%)
Distinct linked cited authors: 40 / 117 (34.2%)
Linked cited-author occurrences not identified as autistic
30 / 62 (48.4%)
Among linked cited-author occurrences only. Across all cited-author occurrences: 30 / 146 (20.5%). Distinct linked cited authors not identified as autistic: 21 / 40 (52.5%).
6 cited bibliography entries could not be fully enriched from DOI metadata.
Crossref: not found (3) · DataCite: not found (3)
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