Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently by Steve Silberman

14 reviews

madamegorgon's review against another edition

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This book is not written for autistics, but for neurotypicals trying to understand the history of Autism.  Some extremely disturbing early “treatment” methods were included

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT HISTORY BOOK, just not really meant for autistics. The history of using violence and torture is important information for neurotypicals and supporters of ABA.

shannonscotteditorauthor's review against another edition

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I've read a few books now on autism, trauma, and other psychological differences that upend neurotypical expectations. NONE of them have spent so much page space basically performing fellatio on supposed medical professionals essentially torturing young children into "acting sanely." Once it got the Lovaas wiring floors with electric shock to "discourage" autistic children from stimming, I was done. I understand that research standards were pretty low 60 or 70 years ago, but I don't want to and won't read about it for 500+ pages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Antisemitism, Deportation

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide

didactylos's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

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I found this a very lengthy, comprehensive and highly accessible book. There were time I was enraged by the treatment and attitudes exposed. There were other times I was in tears as incidents triggered my own experiences with my grandson.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Forced institutionalization

panickedhonking's review against another edition

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You can't hide behind a journalistic neutrality when you're creating a historical narrative, particularly when the harms done to the people you're writing about are so profoundly horrible. Silberman makes some implications, and allows the reader to draw their own conclusions about wretched abuses which at times read as non-objecting or passively supportive. 
Praising Hans Asperger as an unbridled hero and treasure, and failing to comment on the harms of outpatient therapies in the 60s and 70s in parallel to the inpatient shows either an acute lack of understanding or deliberate ignorance, and after a few glaring omissions I don't feel like this is a great way to learn about my history.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation

tinyplanet's review against another edition

3.5

challenging emotional informative slow-paced

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Well-researched and well-written summary of the history of autism to ~2010. It was not a fun read. It unfortunately felt like a long account of how autistic people (and people with other developmental disabilities and mental illnesses) have been abused, stigmatized, imprisoned in institutions and mental asylums, denied education, infantilized, sterilized, tortured, and murdered, with some breaks to show autistic people in a symp thetic to positive light. Silberman did cover the history of the nascent autism self-advocacy movement in the United States and interviewed many autistic people and their families.

The book is white- and Western-centric, primarily focused on Austria, the UK, and the US, where most formal research on autism has been done. Silberman does include the voices of some girls and sometimes autistic mothers, plus Temple Grandin. There are some mentions of Japanese families, but very little said about minorities in the US or lower socioeconomic classes.

Silberman attempts to let the facts stand for themselves. In doing so, he does not take a strong stand against some of the figures who committed abuses. Asperger is presented as Nazi-lite. Electrocution is clearly bad, but the insidious frameworks that ins ired such a "treatment" are not fully confronted. Inference is required to identify all of the issues that Silberman presents.

This book may have the most content warnings of any book I have reviewed, although none of it is gratuitous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Excrement, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail

changelingreader_adrian's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abandonment

Moderate: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Antisemitism, Medical trauma, Classism

Minor: Gore, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War

ren_the_hobbit's review against another edition

2.75

dark informative sad medium-paced

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Honestly disappointed. For a book that promised both the history and future of neurodiversity, very little of the book was about the future. Only the last chapter which was one of the shortest. In addition, it mentions a few times that people of color, lower socioeconomic status and women are under-diagnosed and under represented but didn’t go into detail why or attempt to find their stories. Finally, it talks about how autism in the future will be lead by autistic people, but barely mentions their points of views or stories. The part about WWII and it’s affects on the spread of ideas were interesting. But then it went on and on naming every white autistic or possibly autistic man in the 1900s who invented something.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death

Moderate: Mental illness, War

ashklaass's review against another edition

5.0

hopeful informative medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis

georgiasummer98's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Gaslighting

cassie7e's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Mental illness, Medical trauma

Moderate: Child death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Forced institutionalization

Minor: Homophobia, Suicide, Transphobia