Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently by Steve Silberman

34 reviews

shieldbearer's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

We have always been here. Everyone should read this book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Ableism, Antisemitism, Classism, Confinement, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Transphobia

superiour_medium's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

A comprehensive history of the history of neurodivergent people in society. Overall an excellent read if perhaps occasionally disjointed between the modern and the historical, as well as falling into the territory of biography in the cases of the numerous people the author described to have likely been autistic.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism

festiveconclave's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Ableism

Minor: Antisemitism and Suicide attempt

katiewhocanread's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Medical content, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Torture, Ableism, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Self harm, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Homophobia

Minor: Suicide, Death, and Grief

readingelli's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

5.0

A really detailed history of autism research. I learned a lot, and it was hard to read at times but it did end on a hopeful note. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Mental illness, Medical content, Suicide, Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

ashton_n's review against another edition

If I could give this negative stars, I would. 

Let’s get this straight, a neurotypical person should not be writing a history and guide about neurodiverse folks. The most important but ironically lacking in description are the following items.
- Asperger’s and Autism are not interchangeable, see below.  
- The use of Aspergers is totally outdated, and the guy it was named after tortured Autistic kids. 
-High and low functioning labels are damaging.
- Autism Speaks is a hate charity. 
- The introduction starts off with how terrible Autism is and how it needed to be eradicated. An intro should caveat and have disclaimers about current and past assumptions. Autism does not need to be eradicated. It isn’t a disease. 
- the whole thing, so freaking boring. Like does he ever stop rambling.
- This is a colonial whitewashed, classist, cis-heteropatriarchal ableist account of Autism. 

Follow the hashtags below or talk to real Autistic people. We don’t bite. 🙄
#actuallyautistic

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Ableism, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, and Medical trauma

Don’t read this garbage, talk to real autistic people.

buttermellow's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, and Child abuse

Moderate: Antisemitism, Homophobia, Bullying, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Suicide and Self harm

kpletscher's review

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Ableism and Child death

Minor: Antisemitism

notnicolebrewer's review against another edition

emotional informative fast-paced

5.0

I read this book as part of a deep dive into my own personal autism research as I pursued my diagnosis. In the time between realizing I was likely autistic and actually being diagnosed with autism, I wanted to learn everything I could about how autism actually manifests. TikTok was a great starting point for this, with stories from people living with autism, but obviously TikTok is not a *source* - I was glad to find this book, and I'm happy to have it now to recommend to my family.

Neurotribes is a carefully researched book that spans over a century to look closely at how autism came to be represented in medicine and society. It's largely horrific: until nearly the 2000s, an autism diagnosis would almost always resulted in either forced institutionalization, or "treatment" that closely resembled torture, all in an effort to "overcome" it. It is absolutely heartbreaking to hear about how children are studied, experimented on, tortured, and abandoned to institutions, and there are long sections of the book that detail arguments of the time for eugenics as they are relevant to autism research and history. Still, throughout the book, it is clear the author writes with a profound compassion and empathy for people and families managing autism now: the hideous and violent history of the condition and diagnosis are condemnable, and are condemned. 

The bulk of this book examines this difficult history, but it is sandwiched on either end by some speculation and observations around autism in the 21st century - it considers the "autism epidemic," a phenomenon not caused by an actual uptick in autism, but in a growth of diagnoses, as both the diagnostic criteria are expanded and better understood, and the diagnosis itself is not a sentence to a stilted life. The autism "epidemic" is simply the beautiful result of autistic individuals being allowed to exist in the whole, complex, and individual lives they have always had the capacity of enjoying - it is the beginning of an end of stigma, perhaps.

I highly recommend this book as a learning tool, for its breadth and scope, with the warning that within that scope is a long and horrible history of ableism.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Child death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Ableism, Antisemitism, Child abuse, and Medical trauma

stacy837's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Forced institutionalization