Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

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

33 reviews

batwinggoth's review against another edition

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Upon reaching the discussion regarding Hans Asperger in regards to autistic history,  the author breezed past how he supported the nazi regime. Stating Asperger wasn't a nazi, so basically don't worry about it. This was off-putting and the reason I stopped where I did. 

Previously to this point, I had begun to consider to dnf as the book was not sharing much at all from the perspective of actually autistic people and I was finding the information to be fairly surface level. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Antisemitism

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.

mbloudoff's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark hopeful informative sad slow-paced

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This book was incredibly detailed, and that is impressive. But it was too much. Every person got a bio and some imagery and it was just unnecessary. I found myself bored often and struggled to continue once I got halfway through. 

The detail of the terrible child abuse was also too much for me. It is 100% important to educate people about these horrors. I would have appreciated less haunting detail or perhaps a warning so I could choose a time to read it when I could have my feelings. (I read it before work and ended up crying the whole morning.) I’m glad I read this book but I wouldn’t recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Abandonment

Moderate: Chronic illness, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis

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

knunderb's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark funny informative slow-paced

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Extremely well researched and very informative. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Forced institutionalization

mintf4ng's review against another edition

4.0

hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Self harm

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

laura_et's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma

baileydot's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

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As long as you're reading it with the context that it was written in 2015, I think it's a very readable and informative broad overview of some western history of autism. I learned a lot of context of autism in psychology and society that I found useful, while knowing there's probably more complexity and nuance to learn about. It felt like a great jumping off point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization

Minor: Death

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