Today’s episode proposes that autistic memory and language, specifically Gestalt Language Processing (GLP), constitute a sophisticated and coherent “cognitive ecology” rather than a set of deficits. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, defines this framework as the autistic mnemotechnical tradition, arguing that meaning is generated holistically through sensory input, pattern recognition, and embodied, emplaced memory. This sensory architecture is metaphorically described as a “cathedral”—a complete structure that is frequently misinterpreted and deliberately disassembled by dominant clinical institutions focused on analytic, sequential methods. Dr. Hoerricks draws on research concerning sensorimotor cognition and episodic autobiographical structures to confirm that autistic methods of recall, scripting, and perceiving are functional and theory-generating. Ultimately, she advocates for recognising autistic ways of knowing as a legitimate epistemology, demanding that professionals cease treating these sophisticated cognitive practices as “rubble” in need of correction.

Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/cathedrals-against-the-clinic-autistic

Let me know what you think.

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