Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

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

10 reviews

dwarrowdams's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

An amazing read that gave a clear overview of the history of autism and looked towards the future. Incredibly well-researched and important.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Medical trauma, and Child death

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Antisemitism, and Physical abuse

Minor: Homophobia, Suicide, and Transphobia

tinyplanet's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative slow-paced

3.5

Well-researched and well-written summary of the history of autism to ~2010. It was not a fun read. It unfortunately felt like a long account of how autistic people (and people with other developmental disabilities and mental illnesses) have been abused, stigmatized, imprisoned in institutions and mental asylums, denied education, infantilized, sterilized, tortured, and murdered, with some breaks to show autistic people in a symp thetic to positive light. Silberman did cover the history of the nascent autism self-advocacy movement in the United States and interviewed many autistic people and their families.

The book is white- and Western-centric, primarily focused on Austria, the UK, and the US, where most formal research on autism has been done. Silberman does include the voices of some girls and sometimes autistic mothers, plus Temple Grandin. There are some mentions of Japanese families, but very little said about minorities in the US or lower socioeconomic classes.

Silberman attempts to let the facts stand for themselves. In doing so, he does not take a strong stand against some of the figures who committed abuses. Asperger is presented as Nazi-lite. Electrocution is clearly bad, but the insidious frameworks that ins ired such a "treatment" are not fully confronted. Inference is required to identify all of the issues that Silberman presents.

This book may have the most content warnings of any book I have reviewed, although none of it is gratuitous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Bullying, Confinement, Physical abuse, Ableism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Antisemitism, Genocide, Grief, Self harm, Suicide attempt, War, Medical content, Transphobia, Violence, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Torture, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Miscarriage, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Addiction, Excrement, Panic attacks/disorders, Hate crime, Murder, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Vomit

changelingreader_adrian's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, Medical content, Medical trauma, Homophobia, Child abuse, Ableism, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Self harm

Moderate: Suicide, Violence, Classism, Antisemitism, Torture, Medical trauma, Hate crime, and Racial slurs

Minor: Xenophobia, War, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Religious bigotry, Miscarriage, and Transphobia

cassie7e's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Medical trauma, Child abuse, and Ableism

Moderate: Child death, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, and Physical abuse

Minor: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Suicide

mandkips's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Ableism

Moderate: Homophobia, Genocide, and Bullying

Minor: Suicide, Antisemitism, and Self harm

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. 

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Content Warnings

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

katiewhocanread's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

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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

buttermellow's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Antisemitism, Homophobia, Bullying, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Suicide and Self harm

flordemaga's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Antisemitism, Bullying, Genocide, and Self harm

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

scarecrow's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative slow-paced

4.75

It's almost perfect and I recommend it to anyone interested in Autistic History or psychology in general. It may be able to dispel some misconceptions you have about autistic people and debunk some myths you've no doubt heard (no, vaccination doesn't make kids autistic!)

It's a very well-rounded book and due to that it's hard to find much to say about it - the work speaks for itself. If you're autistic and on the fence about reading it, I recommend giving it a go - it's not a book that sets out to slander or pathologise us.

Good as the book is, supplement your reading with perspectives from a wide range of actual autistic people (never take allistic "autism experts" word as gospel, always consult people with actual lived experience of being autistic). 

Content warnings I've listed apply to discussions of the historical and current abuse of autistic people, not bigotry on the author's part.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Torture

Minor: Antisemitism, Genocide, and Homophobia