Episode 391: Gestalt Lineage—Wholeness Before Parts and Positivism
Today’s episode offers an extensive overview of a Gestalt-informed lineage in language study, which stands in opposition to positivism and behaviorism by prioritising meaning, wholeness, and relational context over measurement and segmented analysis. The core argument centers on the work of Ann Peters and her 1977 challenge to the idea that language learning is the sum of its parts, asserting instead that children begin with holistic gestalts (whole-before-parts). This tradition connects Peters to earlier Gestalt psychologists (Wertheimer, Köhler, Koffka) and later scholars like Michael Halliday, Roger Brown, Barry Prizant, and Marge Blanc, who continued to study language and communication as inherently coherent and embodied. Ultimately, the source article, authored by Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, advocates for an ethical and relational epistemology that views the refusal to use rigid, controlling methods—like randomised controlled trials—as an act of moral clarity in the human sciences.Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/before-the-parts-had-names-revisitingLet me know what you think.The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Get full access to The AutSide at autside.substack.com/subscribe
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Episode 390: Softness Before Speech—Safety, Resonance, and Language
Today’s episode argues that safety and regulation, which the author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, terms “softness” or “felt safety,” are absolute preconditions for language development, particularly for gestalt language processors (GLPs). Dr. Hoerricks contrasts this relational approach with the prevalent methods of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and Verbal Behaviour (ABA-VB), which are critiqued for focusing on compliance, technique, and control rather than physiological well-being. Referencing the work of Mona Delahooke and Barry Prizant, she posits that behaviourist models impose epistemic violence by demanding speech before attunement and dismissing non-quantifiable elements like resonance and trust. Ultimately, she advocates for an ethical pedagogy rooted in listening and co-regulation that allows language to emerge naturally when the nervous system feels secure.Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/softness-before-speech-on-safetyLet me know what you think. Get full access to The AutSide at autside.substack.com/subscribe
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Episode 389: The Shape of Language—Revisiting Prizant and Gestalt Processing
Today’s episode offers an in-depth discussion distinguishing Autism as a neurological way of being from Gestalt Language Processing (GLP) as a specific language pathway, clarifying that they frequently intersect but are not synonymous. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, advocates for a paradigm shift that recognises GLP—where language is acquired in holistic, tonal patterns—as a valid developmental architecture, contrasting it with the dominant, segmented Analytic Language Processing (ALP) model. Central to this argument is the historical importance of Barry Prizant’s 1983 work, which was revolutionary for interpreting echolalia not as a deficit but as communicative intelligence and a step in the process of unbundling meaning from whole gestalts. Ultimately, Dr. Hoerricks argues that the marginalisation of GLP within therapeutic and educational systems constitutes epistemic violence, advocating instead for an approach that views all forms of language acquisition as relational and embodied pathways to connection and self-regulation.Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/the-shape-of-language-revisitingLet me know what you think.The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Get full access to The AutSide at autside.substack.com/subscribe
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Episode 388: Becoming Seen, Becoming Sound—A Meditation on Gender and Time
Today’s episode serves as a meditation on gender, time, and the experience of becoming. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, frames her gender transition not as a transformation, but as an attunement or a return to an innate “hum” or frequency that existed before language, which she labels a “pulse of becoming.” Dr. Hoerricks uses concepts like retrocausality and coherence to explain how her body was always aligned with her feminine self, with dysphoria being the pain of an unreceived signal. She extensively contrasts the culture’s restrictive views on gender and sexuality with her personal experience of sensing truth through resonance and feeling, emphasising the power and grace of openly living as a trans woman despite societal hostility.Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/the-future-that-was-always-here-becomingLet me know what you think.The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Get full access to The AutSide at autside.substack.com/subscribe
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Episode 387: A Neurodivergent Critique of Data-Driven Psychiatry
Today’s episode presents a comprehensive neurodivergent critique of data-driven psychiatry, specifically targeting the reform efforts proposed by studies like Forbes et al. (2024), which seek to restructure the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) using quantitative data. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, argues that psychiatry’s ongoing “reconstructions,” cloaked in the language of progress and precision, merely refine mechanisms of surveillance and control rather than offering genuine liberation or systemic change. Through personal experience as an AuDHD, gestalt-processing transfemme academic, Dr. Hoerricks illustrates how these dimensional models reduce complex human experience to quantifiable deficits, leading to the erasure of nuanced needs for marginalised groups. Ultimately, she pivots to advocating for a socialist reconstruction of society, positing that true repair requires addressing systemic oppression and material conditions (e.g., universal care and income) rather than perpetually classifying individual differences as pathology.Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/reconstructing-the-reconstructorsLet me know what you think.The AutSide is a reader-supported publication. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Get full access to The AutSide at autside.substack.com/subscribe
AutSide: A podcast from an autistic trans woman that explores critical issues at the intersection of autism, neurodiversity, gender, and social justice. Dive deep into the realities of living as an autistic adult, critiques of education systems, and the power of storytelling to reshape public narratives. With a unique blend of snark, sharp analysis, and personal experience, each episode challenges societal norms, from the failures of standardized testing to the complexities of identity and revolution. Join the conversation on AutSide, where lived experience and critical theory meet for change. autside.substack.com
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