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A review by lizshayne
Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman
dark
hopeful
informative
sad
medium-paced
5.0
So, fun fact, I used to think I was not the kind of person who was triggered by the content of books. Apparently I just hadn't read anything viscerally upsetting enough. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Which is not a dig at this book, the history of autism and the treatment of children diagnosed with whatever name it was going by that decade is viscerally upsetting. It's a book filled with stories of well-meaning people torturing children and it sometimes feels like that fact is not given the space it needs to breathe.
Silberman's history is precisely that; although the future is about 30 pages at the end and the vast majority of the book is taken up with deeply nuanced and overall sympathetic portraits of the people who shaped 20th century autism research without either justifying or supporting so many of their factually incorrect and morally reprehensible conclusions. He's more interested in tracing the evolution of autism in scientific and cultural consciousness while mapping out attitudes towards it. It's only towards the end that autistic people come to the center of the conversation and get a chance to speak up. Which is also reflective of the history so that's not a surprise.
There's a usefulness to the book in understanding where we have come from and where we are going (and why we're so eager to get away from it). I wanted, I'll admit, more of a polemic about the need for support and services rather than curemongering. And yet that wasn't what Silberman set out to do. His goal was to tell the story. "Look at where we are. Look at where we started. The fact that we're alive is a miracle." Indeed.
Anyway, highly recommended for people trying to understand the history of autism as a diagnosis and the shift towards actually autistic people advocating for themselves and demanding a better world for all neurotypes.
(There's a persistent tendency to believe that the autistic people doing this advocacy work aren't "as" autistic or that "low-functioning" (a term the autistic community intensely dislikes because it often just means "needs alternative forms of communication" or "requires more care" as if needing more is somehow a bad thing) autistic people are not part of this new movement when it's clear that the broad slate of demands—access to communication devices, attention to the causes of sensory overload, and people willing to fight for their services—leads to better outcomes for autistics across the entire spectrum. To which I can only say - listen to non-speaking autistic voices and the short film <a href="https://youtu.be/H7dca7U7GI8">Listen</a> is a great place to start.)
Which is not a dig at this book, the history of autism and the treatment of children diagnosed with whatever name it was going by that decade is viscerally upsetting. It's a book filled with stories of well-meaning people torturing children and it sometimes feels like that fact is not given the space it needs to breathe.
Silberman's history is precisely that; although the future is about 30 pages at the end and the vast majority of the book is taken up with deeply nuanced and overall sympathetic portraits of the people who shaped 20th century autism research without either justifying or supporting so many of their factually incorrect and morally reprehensible conclusions. He's more interested in tracing the evolution of autism in scientific and cultural consciousness while mapping out attitudes towards it. It's only towards the end that autistic people come to the center of the conversation and get a chance to speak up. Which is also reflective of the history so that's not a surprise.
There's a usefulness to the book in understanding where we have come from and where we are going (and why we're so eager to get away from it). I wanted, I'll admit, more of a polemic about the need for support and services rather than curemongering. And yet that wasn't what Silberman set out to do. His goal was to tell the story. "Look at where we are. Look at where we started. The fact that we're alive is a miracle." Indeed.
Anyway, highly recommended for people trying to understand the history of autism as a diagnosis and the shift towards actually autistic people advocating for themselves and demanding a better world for all neurotypes.
(There's a persistent tendency to believe that the autistic people doing this advocacy work aren't "as" autistic or that "low-functioning" (a term the autistic community intensely dislikes because it often just means "needs alternative forms of communication" or "requires more care" as if needing more is somehow a bad thing) autistic people are not part of this new movement when it's clear that the broad slate of demands—access to communication devices, attention to the causes of sensory overload, and people willing to fight for their services—leads to better outcomes for autistics across the entire spectrum. To which I can only say - listen to non-speaking autistic voices and the short film <a href="https://youtu.be/H7dca7U7GI8">Listen</a> is a great place to start.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse and Child death