Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

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

3 reviews

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

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

annapox's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Transphobia, Antisemitism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Islamophobia, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury