Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

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

6 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.

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

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

kenzielireads's review against another edition

4.25

hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Antisemitism, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Colonisation, Classism

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