Is executive function “a set of capitalist values masquerading as skills”? Neurodivergent educator and artist Marta Rose thinks so!

We sat down with her to talk about:

* her journey from diagnosis to critical disability theory

* how creativity research and design thinking can offer us alternatives to the pathologizing framework of executive function

* The ADHD Industrial Complex!!!

* how much of our “symptoms” are actually just shame & trauma

* what it’s like to build community on the internet

Plus: a new segment we’re calling What’s Hot in Disorderland, where we talk a little shit about the latest psych news! This week, we discuss a survey that found the richest countries have the worst mental health, take the world’s most depressing personality quiz, and Ayesha explains why the DSM continues to be so damn vague. 

Timestamps:

2:28 Mad in America report about mental state of the world

4:56 The Mental Well-being Test

12:47 New DSM version

25:09 The vagueness of diagnoses is on purpose

31:00 Interview with Marta

34:30 Creativity research vs executive dysfunction

45:30 Marta’s diagnosis story

53:04 Design thinking

1:02:00 How shame gets pathologized

1:11:00 The ADHD Industrial Complex

1:18:10 Marta’s digital peer support work

1:25:00 The perils of parasocial relationships

1:29:00 Social media is for finding each other

Connect With Us:

Check out Marta’s livestreams on The Spiral Lab

Join Marta’s digital peer support group Divergent Design Studios

Subscribe to get Disorderland in your inbox

Follow Ayesha (@wokescientist / Cosmic Anarchy) and Jesse (@queervengeance / Sluggish)

Follow the pod on IG or email us at disorderland@gmail.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit disorderland.substack.com