Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

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

12 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

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

henrytinker's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

2.0

Overly long, factually incorrect, and not written by an autistic person. 

This book is predominantly a collection of biographical information about specific psychologists who contributed to the development of Autism as a diagnosis. It isn't very well written in my opinion, because the style is rather dry and without a clear narrative through line. It is also unclear why so much of it is devoted to certain people and topics adjacent to autism (e.g. speculating about famous historical men who could have been autistic, PKU, Ham Radio). Although there are some interesting parts, it could have done with rigorous editing. At best I would describe it as 'uneven'.

As an autistic person who is somewhat familiar with the history of the diagnosis already, it is worth pointing out that a lot of the information about Hans Asperger, whom Silberman seems determined to redeem, is incorrect. This book was published in 2015, and in 2018 new evidence came to light of Hans Asperger's collusion with Dr. Jekelius and other Nazis. Asperger is directly responsible for the deaths of numerous children, and as such those sections in the book were incredibly uncomfortable and frustrating to read. 

There really isn't much that humanises autistic people in this book, with the exception of the last chapter. There are lots of detailed descriptions of children suffering and being tortured, and a lot of focus placed on the narratives of the parents of autistic children. There is also very little mention of Autism Speaks and the harm that they have done and continue to do, which is an interesting omission for a book that seems so determined to present itself as thoroughly researched. I definitely expected better from this book, given all of the glowing reviews.

Please read books by people who are actually autistic! e.g. Unmasking Autism by Dr. Devon Price, Authoring Autism by Melanie Yergeau, The Autistic Brain by Temple Grandin, A Mismatch of Salience by Dr Damien E M Milton, Neuroqueer Heresies by Dr. Nick Walker. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Self harm, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Child abuse, Violence, Medical trauma, and Medical content

georgiasummer98's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Medical content, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Ableism

annapox's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Child death, Ableism, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Medical content, Physical abuse, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, and Murder

Moderate: Classism, Hate crime, Animal cruelty, Racism, Transphobia, Antisemitism, Animal death, Genocide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War

Minor: Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Islamophobia, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Abortion, and Fire/Fire injury

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

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. 

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Content Warnings

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