Hello all and welcome to a new
installment of Aspie Book Club! Now, for those of you who have been
following my blog from day one, you may remember a section I started
back then with this name dedicated to profiling any and all books I
come across on the subject of Neurodiversity and Autism. Well, it has
been a few years since my last (and only) Aspie Book Club entry but
fear not dear readers, for the section has returned from the dead!
This time, I'll be focussing on a book which only came out a few
months ago called NeuroTribes, by Steve
Silberman of Wired Magazine.
NeuroTribes
chronicles the history of both Autism and the various movements and
initiatives which have risen around it throughout history. It is at
once both sobering and inspiring, and though long-winded at times, it
succeeds in presenting a chronicle of those on the spectrum
throughout the ages, along with the responses of the scientific
community to their existence. It is at times joyous and hopeful, at
others dark and touching, but one thing it always is is powerful. I
have always been a believer in Neurodiversity, but like most people I
haven't always been aware of the history behind it all. Reading
through NeuroTribes, I
felt as though I was for the first time coming face to face with the
history of my own people.
I can
safely say, dear reader, that there were moments where I wept while
reading this book, and yet others when I cheered proudly and
defiantly for even the smallest victories achieved by autistics,
aspies and those who advocated on our behalf. Perhaps one of the most
poignant moments for me while reading this book occurred while I was
working through the chapter on Hans Asperger. Silberman devotes much
of the early part of his book to discussing Asperger's work with the
children the author would come to refer to as “Asperger's lost
tribe,” and this is done for good reason, as the good professor was
working and discovering Autism during one of the darkest chapters of
human history; the Nazi eugenics programs of the 1930s and 40s. In
many way ways, Hans Asperger was to the Neurodivergent community what
Oscar Schindler was to the Jews; a hero who saved whoever he could
from the tyrannical hands of Hitler's National Socialist party.
The
book also gets far darker, discussing the pathologizing of Autism by
Leo Kanner in 1940s America, the cruel behaviourist experiments on
autistics during the 60s and 70s and the rise of the anti-vaccination
movement as a means of curing Autism during the 80s-2000s. It should
be noted, however, that the night is darkest just before the dawn,
and Silberman's book is no exception. The final chapters of his work
illustrate the rise of the concept of Neurodiversity through such
important figures as Temple Grandin and others who helped popularize
the idea that autistics are not 'broken,' they merely run a different
human operating system. As a result, this book is an emotional
rollercoaster and an absolute
page turner because of it.
NeuroTribes,
by Steve Silberman, is therefore one of the best books I've ever read
on the history of Autism and Neurodiversity. It was not only
thoughtful and thought-provoking, but it also treated its material
and the people being discussed with a sense of hope, love and respect
that is so hard to find among many others who write about autism.
Here is a book that, rather than portraying autism as a tragedy for
parents and caregivers, tells the untold story of autistics
themselves. While it's an emotional and at-times difficult book to
read because of it, it is also powerful
and optimistic. More than any
other book I've read on the subject, this one made me feel like I'd
come home. It was the story of my neurotribe, writ large for the
first time. Silberman's book is a masterpiece, and
has the potential to serve as the perfect manifesto for
Neurodiversity as a whole.
Well
done Steve! (Can I call you Steve? Mr. Silberman?)
Yours
in Diversity,
Adam
Michael
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