| Overview | 1. Introduction | 2. Diagnostic fog | 3. Sensory processing | 4. Emergent patterns | 5. Research & therapy | 6. New model | 7. Conclusion |
Even if sensory sensitivity may be the common denominator – the reaction to it is by no means uniform. Even with very similar stimulus profiles, people develop completely different coping strategies: one withdraws, another becomes aggressive. One ritualizes their daily routine, another develops fixations on controllable content. Why?
The answer lies in emergence: Behavior is not directly derivable from an input (e.g., high stimulus level), but arises through interaction with other system factors:
All these factors act as filters, amplifiers, or dampeners – shaping different paths from the same starting point. Nevertheless, it’s striking: “Autistic” reaction patterns often strongly resemble each other. And that is actually remarkable.
Why is this? Two hypotheses:
There are evolutionarily robust standard strategies for dealing with sensory overload – such as withdrawal, stimulus control, repetition. These strategies establish themselves independently because they are functional.
The social environment forces selection: Only certain behaviors are tolerated or viable. For example, someone who regulates their sensory sensitivity through open stimulus avoidance becomes socially excluded – while “quiet withdrawal” remains as silent suffering and thus less noticeable.
This creates a picture of autism that systematically deceives us: The observed similarity is not the result of identical personalities, but the result of similar adaptation logic in a limited space of possible solutions.
| Back to Chapter 3: Sensory processing as the central key | Next to Chapter 5: Consequences for research and therapy |