The subtitle of this copy is “The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity.” An alternate subtitle I’ve seen is “The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently.” But I see the book as being more of a history of autism and less of a prophecy or practical manual. That being said, it was fascinating. It’s no wonder the book won an award (the 2015 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, now known as the Baillie Gifford Prize).
I bought this book in 2018; I’m glad to have finally read it.
What Stood Out
Journalist Steve Silberman takes readers on a chronological journey from Henry Cavendish, the eccentric (possibly autistic) scientist who published his discovery of hydrogen in 1766, to the contemporary world of autism, which is shaped largely by autistic adults and parents of autistic children, rather than, as in times past, largely by ivory-tower psychiatrists—one in particular.
The figure of psychiatrist and physician Leo Kanner looms large in the history of autism. His definition of autism restricted the diagnosis to children, and to children with certain combinations of symptoms only. Sadly, he tended to blame parents, especially mothers, for causing their children’s autism (through neglect or even resentment of their autistic children). Due to Kanner’s extremely restricted and stigmatized characterization of autism, diagnoses of autism were rare.
Kanner ignored the research—and seemingly even the existence—of his European counterpart, Hans Asperger, whose name has been attached to a less stigmatized type of autism diagnosis, but is now associated with the Nazis.
Lorna Wing, British cognitive scientist and parent of an autistic child, conducted a local study to determine whether autism was as rare as Kanner claimed (conclusion: nope!). She also unearthed Asperger’s work and successfully advocated for recognition of his characterization of autism as a spectrum and as not particularly rare.
Indeed, dedicated parents feature prominently in the history of autism. Some looked for a cure; others looked for someone or something to blame, and came to believe the claim made by Andrew Wakeman—which is described by Silberman as distinctly unscientific, but which still echoes today—that vaccines might be the cause of rising rates of autism. What seems more likely to me, especially now that I’ve read this book, is that autism isn’t necessarily more common than before just because autism diagnoses are.
That’s the gist of Silberman’s anti-Antivaxxer TED Talk, “The forgotten history of autism.”
Autism became much better known among members of the general public for many reasons, including the 1988 Dustin Hoffman/Tom Cruise movie Rain Man. It also became much broader in scope, as defined in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), a handbook published by the American Psychiatric Association that has grown drastically in both length and importance since its first edition. Moreover, autism has gradually become less stigmatized, in part due to the professional success of spokeswoman Temple Grandin, an articulate autistic engineer and author. Meanwhile, governments have been persuaded to offer support to families facing autism-related challenges. A diagnosis of autism is now therefore a much more psychologically and practically useful label. In short, it would be surprising if the number of autism diagnoses did not grow as a result of all these processes!
There are still other processes at work, some of which are increasing the prevalence of autism itself. In the article on autism Silberman wrote for Wired in 2001, “The Geek Syndrome,” which inspired his book on the history of autism, Silberman says increasing autism rates in Silicon Valley are due to an unprecedented increase in reproduction among people with the genes that cause it. In previous generations, geeks had less worldly and romantic success; now, geeks are rich, geeks are cool, and geeks are having children… sometimes with other geeks. Some of those children wind up with more marked autistic traits than their parents as a result of the genetically driven developmental process. In other words, the increase isn’t solely an increase in the number of diagnoses.
So here we are, not necessarily understanding autism’s mysterious brain mechanisms or underlying genetic and developmental causes any better, but at least being more aware, and hopefully more accepting, of the variety of human experience.
When and Why I Read Neurotribes
I've been reading about brains and genetics.
Genre: psychology
Date started / date finished: 05-Feb-25 to 22-Feb-25
Length: 486 pages
ISBN: 9780399185618
Originally published in: 2015/2016
Amazon link: Neurotribes
