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A review by notnicolebrewer
NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman
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.
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: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis