Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

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

23 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

crybabybea's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

2.0

I finished this out of spite because I wanted to DNF but was already 60% through. So overwrought and boring and dragged down by endless filler anecdotes and tangents from the author. I also really disliked the overall tone of the writing which seemed to paint problems that have plagued autism research as positive. The author also seemed to uplift stories from lower support needs autistics as inspiration porn while hand-waving away the cases of higher support needs autistics, which gave the book a voyeuristic, clinical tone that was hard to appreciate (I had similar issues to The Body Keeps the Score). 

Comes across as outdated and incredibly boring for little to no knowledge gained. This would be a good read if you know absolutely nothing about the history of autism, but I didn't feel like I gained enough knowledge for how long this book was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Forced institutionalization

melodywithbass's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

3.0

Out of date now (2023), overly long, and a bit emotionally manipulative. The ending was surprisingly brief and weak. Attempts to present Asperger as a good guy on tenuous interpretation of his words. Very much a snapshot of a moment - worth reading as a historical text but not as a primary source on autism, or even as your first pop-sci introduction.

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Content Warnings

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

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

maximauve's review against another edition

hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Antisemitism, Child abuse, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, Colonisation, Medical trauma, and Classism

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

melikeread's review

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

not absolutely perfect in all its takes, but pretty good

fantastic chronicling on the history, personalities, issues, and literature tho

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Sexism

missrosymaplemoth's review against another edition

5.0

A comprehensive history of autism as a diagnosis, condition and community. A must read for any parent/guardian, educator, caretaker or loved one of an autistic person. A great read for autistic people also; I learned a lot about myself and my disability from reading this book even when I already knew a lot. This book educates about the history of autism while staying consistently respectful and aware of autistic people’s humanity. I now understand why so many call this book “the autism bible.”

☀️16/20

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Forced institutionalization

ashklaass's review against another edition

hopeful informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Child abuse, Medical trauma, and Medical content

wy_woman's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Medical trauma

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

Minor: Confinement and Genocide