I recently finished NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman (Kindle version currently on sale for $1.99). I really enjoyed it, although it wasn’t quite what I expected. The description of the book sums it up this way: “NeuroTribes considers the idea that neurological differences such as autism, dyslexia, and ADHD are not errors of nature or products of the toxic modern world, but the result of natural variations in the human genome.” In many ways, the book is more history of how neurodiversity has been recognized and treated than explanation, although Silberman does walk readers through what it all means.
For me it was shocking to read the horrific ways people with autism in particular have been treated over the generations. While things have improved, they are still not where they need to be. Silberman notes that people with autism compared notes and “discovered that many of the challenges they face daily are not ‘symptoms’ of their autism, but hardships imposed by a society that refuses to make basic accommodations for people with cognitive disabilities as it does for people with physical disabilities such as blindness and deafness.”
One particularly jarring passage said this: “The Nazis were also escalating their propaganda war against the residents of Austria’s mental institutions. The official newspaper of the NSDAP, the Nazi party, featured full-page spreads of grinning ‘idiots,’ zombielike ‘lunatics,’ and dysmorphic babies under headlines about the ‘cruelty of compassion’ and the blessings of forced sterilization.” The idea that compassion could be labeled cruelty was far too similar to today’s warnings of “the sin of empathy.”
Ultimately, Silberman challenges readers to find ways to be supportive, writing, “The notion that the cure for the most disabling aspects of autism will never be found in a pill, but in supportive communities, is one that parents have been coming to on their own for generations.” His book is definitely a great tool in educating readers and giving tools for becoming supportive communities. It’s definitely worth reading!
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