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Neurodivergent Embodiment as Both a Site of Traumatic Stress and a Map Forward to Restructuring the World Public Deposited

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  • This project argues that contemporary society operates as a “C-PTSD society” (Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and that those most impacted by this stress are the neurodivergent. I use the diagnostic criteria of C-PTSD as a framework to understand the embodied experience of the neurodivergent, shaped by the combined forces of racialized ‘cannibal’ capitalism, heteropatriarchy, White Supremacy, ableism, and neuronormativity, and existing all alongside the ecological and existential pressures of the Anthropocene. This has resulted in widespread chronic dysregulation of individual and collective bodyminds. By integrating the neurodiversity paradigm, disability justice, and immanental and mystical theologies, I propose that trauma is not merely an individual psychological event but a systemic, relational, and spiritual crisis that restructures the very conditions of human life. Within this framework, neurodivergent and disabled embodiments—particularly late diagnosed autistic bodyminds assigned female at birth (AFAB) embodiments—serve not as pathologies but as diagnostic (this is what will happen with no intervention) and prophetic (this is what intervention can be) resources, that illuminate the depth of societal trauma and the possibilities for its transformation. I argue that healing requires a theological reorientation toward relationality, embodiment, and divine immanence, through which communities, and especially Unitarian Universalist congregations, can be reimagined as trauma healing collectives capable of metabolizing grief, restoring relational ecologies, and fostering collective liberation.
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Last modified
  • 06/08/2026

MLA citation style (9th ed.)

Salamone, Jennifer Lynn. Neurodivergent Embodiment As Both a Site of Traumatic Stress and a Map Forward to Restructuring the World. meadville.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/f02f96f5-4e9b-4a0b-a9a8-3c729353eb26.

APA citation style (7th ed.)

S. J. Lynn. Neurodivergent Embodiment as Both a Site of Traumatic Stress and a Map Forward to Restructuring the World. https://meadville.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/f02f96f5-4e9b-4a0b-a9a8-3c729353eb26

Chicago citation style (CMOS 17, author-date)

Salamone, Jennifer Lynn. Neurodivergent Embodiment As Both a Site of Traumatic Stress and a Map Forward to Restructuring the World. https://meadville.ir.atla.com/concern/etds/f02f96f5-4e9b-4a0b-a9a8-3c729353eb26.

Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.

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