Autism: Its Foundation and Practical Implications

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Lawson, W. (2025). Autism: Its Foundation and Practical Implications. In IntechOpen eBooks. IntechOpen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.1008929

Journal or book title
IntechOpen eBooks
Publisher
IntechOpen
Publication date: 23 Jan 2025 Added to AutiHub: 6 Jul 2026 Type: Book chapter Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

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

Abstract

The following chapter explores and explains what ‘lies beneath’ the diagnosis of autism. The foundation for this chapter is based on original knowledge grounded in the theory of monotropism, heralded in the 2005 paper by Murray, Lesser and Lawson. The work on monotropism began in the 90’s and has been followed through until present times. Current research is supportive of the monotropism theory of autism which posits autism as ‘a matter of attention’, specifically ‘monotropic attention’. When attention is captured by interest (for whatever reason) it occupies the whole of one’s attention. This impacts concepts such as being literal (not reading between the lines), missing the subtle cues of social interaction and highlighting or underwhelming our sensory systems, challenges with object permanence and being misunderstood. But it also leads to incredible strengths and allows for one’s passion to be a source of joy, stability and an aid to mental fitness. When an individual’s autism is understood and accommodated, self-compassion can flourish and we can live life to the best of our ability. This chapter offers original knowledge to aid the understanding of autism that has not previously been accommodated.

Bibliography cited by this reference

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

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 17:07.

Cited references
37
With a DOI
33
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
4
13 / 37 (35.1%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
4 / 37 (10.8%)
References with detected author names
33 / 37 (89.2%)
Without detected author names
4
Without a structured title
4
Without a stable identifier
4
References with raw author names still to review
4
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
131
From DOI or external metadata
131
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
4
67 / 131 (51.1%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 64 / 131 (48.9%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
24 / 131 (18.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 24 / 67 (35.8%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 15 / 108 (13.9%).
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    Crossref OpenAlex OpenCitations
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