My philosophy of neurofeedback embraces the notion that there is no such thing as a normal brain. There are optimally functioning brains and poorly functioning brains, but normal/abnormal is hard to nail down. Whose brain is normal–the electrical engineer or the novelist?  The accountant or the actor? Brains with very different patterns can still be functioning well.

This article in the AMA Journal of Ethics captures the point.  I think the concept of neurodiversity can go too far–it’s hard for me not understand how some of my non-verbal, marginally functional clients with autism can be seen as simply variant and not, instead, harmed by something in their environment, for example. In general, though, it’s an important point that makes sense to so many of us who don’t want to be seen as broken.

Read Thomas Armstrong’s fine article on the subject here.