The Dysfunction Is Coming From Outside The House

Executive functioning is something that is discussed a lot in neurodiversity discourse.

‘My executive dysfunction’ gets blamed for a whole host of things.

Colonial sciences describe executive functioning as a set of cognitive skills which includes; working memory, inhibition, planning, attention, self-control. Often they are grouped together and described as ‘goal oriented behaviours’. Medical assessments for several DSM-5 diagnoses include assessing ‘Executive Functioning Skills’. This includes but is not limited to assessments for Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

The majority of the conversation around executive ‘function’ and ‘dysfunction’ centres around the idea that it is ‘normal’ to have a certain level of executive functioning at all times, in all circumstances, and that to differ from this framework is to be ‘dysfunctional’. Here we are starting from the assumption that the construct of normal is not only something to aspire to but that it is the only ‘right’ way to be, and that we have to discuss divergence from this construct as disordered, broken or at the very least incorrect. What if we didn’t?

If we critically analyse the importance of ‘executive functions’, what happens? Working memory, for example. This is the temporary storing of information for a specific purpose. Like remembering a phone number you have been told, being able to recall a set of several directions you have just been given, or being able to do mental maths. Supposed dysfunction in this area includes ‘getting distracted’ and not storing the information, or storing the information in the wrong order. The thing is, we wouldn’t need to be able to do any of the things listed under working memory executive functioning in order to live a full, happy life if the pressure around it was removed. I don’t need to remember phone numbers, I can write them down. Given it is 2024, I can store them in myriad electronic devices. I don’t need to remember directions, I can write them down, I can use a Sat Nav. I don’t need to do mental maths, I can work it out on paper, or use a calculator, or software. Please note that I listed pre-modern technology solutions first in each instance, we have always been able to accommodate different ways of being. And so what if I forget something? What’s the big deal? It is not a moral failing, nor does it equate to how important one thinks something is, as is often inferred. This ‘skill’ is deemed necessary in order to exist within the construct of normal which was deliberately designed to uphold extractive capitalism and colonial relationship dynamics. ‘Working memory’ can also be linked to doing things quickly (often erroneously described as ‘efficiently’). Urgency, as discussed several times before in this newsletter, is a characteristic of white supremacy culture as well as a staple of extractive capitalism.

On inhibition and self-control - aren’t these important skills when it comes to navigating unequal power dynamics and taking steps to dismantle colonial systems? For example, being able to notice when you’re taking up space and stop doing it, to be able to notice when you’re causing harm and stop doing it, to be able to take steps to regulate your nervous system when feeling defensive and angry, to put aside individual wants for collective gains. The answer is yes, they are. They are really important. The thing is, I’ve witnessed neurodivergent folx display command over their inhibitions and self-control in situations where they need to reflect on their transphobia, their access to whiteness, their economic advantages, the ways they uphold and benefit from harmful systems. I’ve witnessed them find tools and methods for supporting their neuro normal while also participating in harm reduction. Perhaps then, what colonial science describes as inhibition and self-control, is actually about hiding who you are, performing colonial norms, and not advocating for your needs?

What about taking a different cultural lens? Planning and attention are conceptualised very differently in my village in India to the way they have been in my workplaces in London. This does not mean that there is anything dysfunctional about the way planning and attention are interpreted and applied in North East India. Proponents of the social model of Disability, favoured by the Neurodiversity Movement, might claim that ‘none of these skills are actually important’ and that they are only necessary within systems of harm. I think this is an oversimplification that stems from the white, Global North majority influence over Neurodiversity Movement discussions. Even though critical analysis of the importance of these skills in a decolonised reality is essential - we must also question whether these skills are actually what is being measured at all, and how the perception and application of these skills differs around the world.

Another aspect of this conversation is how ‘executive functioning’ is impacted by living in a colonised reality. Racism, misogyny, fatphobia, perfectionism, money worries, housing instability, abusive relationships, trauma - these are just a handful of the symptoms of harmful systems and they are all going to impact executive functioning, because they impact how our mindbodies function at a cellular level. How much more can you ‘achieve’ when you are well rested, well fed, when your rent is paid and you feel loved and safe? How about those who have never and will never experience that combination of things? Are they ‘dysfunctional’? No, they are deliberately and systemically underserved and neglected.

I spent years thinking I was broken. I swung from ‘excelling’ to ‘failing’ and back again so many times. In order to ‘excel’ I had to abandon my actual needs and this is evident in how ill I have been for much of my life. When something happened that made my needs impossible to ignore, everything came crashing down. By the time I reached my early thirties I was in perpetual burnout. Colonial systems demand executive functioning from us while putting obstacle after obstacle in the way of us functioning for ourselves, our own needs and the true needs of our environments and communities.

What if we had universal basic income? What if safe, secure housing was provided as a human right? What if we were able to pursue work that was meaningful to us and contributed to our collective thriving, without ever having to worry about how profitable it was? What if we didn’t get traumatised by the systems that harmed our parents? What if we remembered how to be in right relationship with each other, with the land, with our earthly kin, with our spirits? What importance then, would executive functioning have? Would it mean anything in this new paradigm? Would we recognise that we do actually possess some of these skills, but we have been measuring them and describing them from a faulty framework? Would we realise that some of these skills are not needed? For colonial systems to convince us we are dysfunctional they have to operate on a premise of supremacy - if we dismantle hierarchies, they become dysfunctional. If I had no more power than you, and you no more than me, regardless of our identities and ways of functioning, perhaps then we could truly witness each other in our wholeness and fall in love with our own ways of being.

—AJ

Today’s Neuro-Embodiment Prompts:

Suggestions and questions to help you engage with mindbody decolonisation:

• Consider the skills that make up ‘executive functioning’ - how important would they be in a decolonised reality?

• Consider the skills that make up ‘executive functioning’ - are they being accurately described? What other language might be more useful to describe what is being observed here?

• In what ways does ‘executive functioning’ serve colonial systems? What might be alternative skills that could help dismantle these systems?

• How are you engaging with your own relationship with executive functioning? Where can you bring more compassion, curiosity and neutrality to this relationship?

• Pay attention to how you show up for anti-oppression, how does this interact with your ‘executive functioning’? How can you reframe your skills, your ways of existing, in a way that depathologises the features of your mindbody? How can you engage your agency to reduce harm?