5.5. Self-Perception, Identity, and Communication Disconnects

Autistic individuals often experience chronic doubt around identity, authenticity, and self-worth. Monotropic cognition contributes to this not because it is faulty, but because it builds internal meaning through sustained coherence, making conflicting social input difficult to integrate or disregard.

Imposter syndrome, for example, can emerge when external recognition does not align with internal coherence. The individual may logically understand their success, but remain emotionally disconnected from it because the internal context has not anchored that experience as self-validating. Likewise, masking behaviors—often seen as deception or inauthenticity—may simply reflect incomplete anchoring or the temporary use of external scripts when natural navigation fails to materialize.

Communication challenges are often not the result of lacking empathy or awareness, but of a directionality mismatch. A monotropic individual may communicate from the inside out, expecting others to understand the context behind their statements, while others may expect communication to follow external cues or shared scripts. Misunderstandings emerge not from a lack of intent, but from incompatible anchoring assumptions.