{"id":632,"date":"2025-09-10T21:20:58","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T04:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/?p=632"},"modified":"2025-09-10T21:21:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T04:21:02","slug":"attentional-disengagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/10\/attentional-disengagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Attentional Disengagement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thesis: the attentional disengagement family of predispositions is a healthy and strategic set of adaptations within a species or community with strong tendencies to cooperate.<\/strong> In a species adapted to function through tight coordination, the coordinated activity can become prioritized, causing those engaged to lose sight of the emergent reason for the activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a community centered around presence, or balance, (rather than productivity), attentional disengagement provides opportunities for reflection and reassessment, allowing coordinated activity to be fine-tuned to maintain balance in the collective body of the species relative to its environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In communities with a strong directional tendency, where coordinated activity is prioritized to achieve dominance over environmental conditions, the predisposition for attentional disengagement will become pathologized, given its function of maintaining balance within a community relative to its environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absent this balancing function, the coordinated activity of the community will effect changes in the environment, as resources are consumed to fulfill the requirements of the activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a social model where sensory differences are embraced and respected, the collective awareness of the scope of the phenomenal world is increased, as information is shared within a connected community. In a social model that is protective of adherence to a narrow range of views about the scope of the phenomenal world, difference is pathologized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case can be made that people with deeply different sensory, behavioral, and cognitive differences are aberrational, divergent, and that the choices for integration into the community are a) to shepherd them toward ability that supports collective coordinated activity where it is possible, and; b) to isolate and institutionalize them into cordoned-off care environments where medication and behavioral mediation manage their attempts to connect directly, as they are wired to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This being said, my thesis maintains that in attempting to modify behavior to increase functionality directed toward productivity, or in isolating people with deeply different sensory needs, and not caring for them collectively and unconditionally, we isolate ourselves from our capacity to care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a system of care where care means a 15-minute doctor visit paid for with every waking hour of labor, people with different sensory needs create friction. But when integrated into a caring co-regulating community, the quality of care they inspire enriches all of us and increases our capacity to respond to one another carefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anecdotal evidence, from parents and caregivers of children with deeply different cognitive, sensory, and behavioral experiences\u2013young and adult children, suggests that that connecting with people with deeply different experiences brings deep joy. Most of the difficulties come with the isolation, the obligation of one family alone to provide all care in one home with limited resources and no opportunities for collective co-regulation. Literally, no one has time to care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pathologizing of people with sensory differences is literally a product of our economic and societal model, which prioritizes coordinated activity directed toward productivity over presence and balance within our environment. I believe that studying other existing, historical, and theoretical economic and societal models, with different, non-pathologizing views toward people with sensory differences, will support my thesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you for your consideration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thesis: the attentional disengagement family of predispositions is a healthy and strategic set of adaptations within a species or community with strong tendencies to cooperate. In a species adapted to function through tight coordination, the coordinated activity can become prioritized, causing those engaged to lose sight of the emergent reason for the activity. In a … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,27,28,14,26,15,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicle","category-didactics","category-ethos","category-neurodiversity","category-personal-narrative","category-politics","category-reflection"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paor1p-ac","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":592,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/17\/everything-changes\/","url_meta":{"origin":632,"position":0},"title":"everything changes","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"August 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"My hut has a dirt floor, basically,(as I stopped runningthe vacuumat some point in recent time). If paper counts as leaves,the leaves make comforting driftsastride the pathwayfrom my hut to the outhouse. I think my style of housekeeping lately reflects my desire to live simply, in a natural environment. Spiders\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":623,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/29\/portrait-of-a-scientist-early-20th-century\/","url_meta":{"origin":632,"position":1},"title":"Portrait of a Scientist (early 20th century)","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"August 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"He was probably a university student, or a post-doc, or maybe already a professor. He was probably married and probably had a new child at home, (and might have even had an idea of what university he hoped his child would attend). He was probably an only child, or if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "didactics"","block_context":{"text":"didactics","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/didactics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":500,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/29\/connection-attraction-hyperfocus-community\/","url_meta":{"origin":632,"position":2},"title":"connection\/attraction\/hyperfocus\/community","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"July 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve been thinking for some time about certain dynamics and patterns in the spaces I move through, and having a difficult time finding the right framing to bring these ideas up in conversations with colleagues. I decided to see what the pattern-recognition community had to say. The result was quite\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "didactics"","block_context":{"text":"didactics","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/didactics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/img_0380.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/img_0380.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/img_0380.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/img_0380.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":494,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/28\/emotional-processing\/","url_meta":{"origin":632,"position":3},"title":"Emotional processing","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"July 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent conversation about emotional processing with my neurodiverse community got me thinking about putting language to my experience of my emotional ecosystem. I have realized for a long time that my emotions work differently from many people that I interact with, and it's only recently that I have had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/img_0376.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/img_0376.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/img_0376.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/img_0376.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/img_0376.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/img_0376.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":553,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/07\/operational-environments\/","url_meta":{"origin":632,"position":4},"title":"operational environments","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"August 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a bite-sized piece maybe someone can digest and apply across a spectrum of environments (if someone's mind is flexible enough): There are people sitting next to you (or maybe even you) for whom a click of a button on a website unleashes a host of unexpected sensory and cognitive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chronicle"","block_context":{"text":"chronicle","link":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/category\/chronicle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/img_0391.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/img_0391.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/img_0391.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/img_0391.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/img_0391.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":332,"url":"https:\/\/ryk.groetchen.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/28\/music-class-in-uncertain-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":632,"position":5},"title":"Music Class In Uncertain Times","author":"Ryk Groetchen","date":"March 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a post that I sent to my ukulele students. 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