Neurotribes -- anybody reading it? (A book about autism.)

[Lecka]

So is anybody reading Neurotribes?  

 

I am interested, but I am not reading it yet, I don't want to be disappointed, and I really don't want to pay for it and then be disappointed.

 

http://www.amazon.com/NeuroTribes-Legacy-Autism-Future-Neurodiversity/dp/158333467X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441110669&sr=8-1&keywords=neurotribes

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Innisfree]

I wasn't aware of this, but it looks interesting. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

[Lecka]

Let me know what you think if you read it, lol.  At this point I am waiting for it to be available at the library.

 

The last "buzz" title like this was when The Autistic Brain by Temple Grandin was released, and my library did buy 3 copies.  I did go ahead and buy that book on Kindle and thought it was worth it, though, I didn't wait for the library.

[Lecka]

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/09/02/436742377/neurotribes-examines-the-history-and-myths-of-the-autism-spectrum

[Guest]

He seems to start from the history of autism and guide the topic towards the views and messages he wants to pass onto others. Not saying it's a bad thing, if that is what you're looking for. Reading about the history of autism is in my plans but I would be looking for a more unbiased source, personally. I also got the feeling from your second link that I may view neurodiversity quite differently than the author does, so this is most likely not a book I would personally get much out of. Well, just my opinion anyway ;)

[Lecka]

Yeah, I have not been able to tell, if I am going to think it is biased.  

 

I remember reading this article http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aspergers.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set= a while back, when it was a popular idea that autism was increasing because of Silicon Valley couples practicing "assortative mating" and marrying each other and concentrating the autism tendencies.

 

I guess that is out of favor now?  

 

It's hard to say.

 

I am getting pretty close to buying Neurotribes on kindle, though, I am almost done with a library book and I think I do want to go ahead and spend the money.  

 

I will update if I read it ;)

[Guest]

I would be interested in hearing your take on it if you read it :)

 

This would be more along the lines of what I am looking for:

 

http://www.amazon.com/History-Autism-Conversations-Pioneers/dp/1405186534/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1441225297&sr=8-2&keywords=history+of+autism

 

I'm juggling too much right though, including 4 books I'm back and forth with. I think I'll email a link to my hubby as a Christmas wish list. Yup, I'm weird that way ;)

[kbutton]

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/09/02/436742377/neurotribes-examines-the-history-and-myths-of-the-autism-spectrum

 

Ok, ,now I want to read the book. I also want a better word than functioning to describe the continuum. I feel as though I have a lot to learn from parents of other kids whose autism looks very different from my son's, but it's hard to describe and talk about without trotting out a laundry list of the particular problems and strengths we are dealing with. Maybe that is best, but it sounds too much like a comparison. And the word functioning doesn't quite hit it either.

[Lecka]

So, I am reading it, and I have liked some parts.  I haven't disliked anything -- but there are parts I have just skipped b/c I was not particularly interested.  

 

It is a well-written non-fiction book on the whole, though.  

 

There is some new information to me, that is of interest.  

 

But I am coming to it from a different place?  

 

For example -- he profiles in his book the son of a blogger.  http://www.squidalicious.com/ I really, really like this blog.  When my son was first diagnosed, I used to stay up in the night and read back posts from it.  She is a very dignified person and her family is dignified.  I consider her a role model in many ways.  She was very influential to me in a good way at that time.  But I am already familiar with that content I guess.

 

He also mentions Susan Senator.  I have already read her book, too.  I agree it is good.  I liked it a lot, too.  But, I've already read it.  She is also a blogger who will get linked on Huffington Post and I have read a lot of blog posts by her from following links and also from knowing her name from having read her book.

 

But none of that, that might be more interesting or new to me, is new information for me.  That is the part of the book I might otherwise be most interested in.  

 

Then -- for myself personally, my son was diagnosed about 3 years ago (it is an easy anniversary b/c his appointment was on Halloween, we got a cancellation on Halloween morning and took it).  So -- 3 years ago, Andrew Wakefield was already a fraud, and when I read Temple Grandin, my understanding was that she said she thought about 20% of people would benefit from GF/CF.  She was very eloquent in talking about how things she did benefited her health and her functioning.  But 3 years ago the vaccination stuff was already kind-of dying down, and while I saw some very pro-biomedical books, I also saw a lot that was much more measured in saying who was likely to benefit and the amount of benefit to be likely.  But anyway -- that is before my era, I feel like.  I think his take on that side is interesting, but I am not super-interested in it.  Oh, I also have checked out and skimmed through a book in the library that was about how Andrew Wakefield was a fraud, and didn't think it was that interesting, either.  

 

But I think (though keep in mind I have skipped sections) that the author's take is that we know *now* that Andrew Wakefield is a fraud, but at the time, it made a lot of sense, and at the time, people were not getting answers at all from mainstream doctors (has this changed in particular for some of this lol?).  But it is not that interesting to me.  

 

But this book is really not focused in any way on treatments of any kind.  He is not sharing info on possible treatments.  That is not what the book is about.  He does not make ABA sound good, either (when I have skimmed).  

 

I think he does a good job of revealing the biases that some psychologists have had that have impacted their own views, which have become mainstream views at times ----- that has been very interesting and worthwhile.  Like -- he has a part about Lovaas and he says something like "coincidentally, Lovaas thought that only people who had his own personality, temperament, and style could be successful in working with developmentally challenged children."  And it is written to come across like, "vain, much? egotistical, much? biased, much?"  So I liked that part!  I think it makes a good point.  

 

Then -- he talks about two scientists, one is Henry Cavendish, one is Dirac.  I think those parts are interesting.  But like "oh, I am reading an interesting non-fiction book."  Not like -- "oh, this is an amazing book about autism, I am getting some great ideas here."  It is, again, just not that kind of book.  

 

I also was intrigued by the chapter about Vienna.  He writes about eugenics, and there is a lot I didn't know about eugenics.  The clinic where Asperger worked sounds very nice to me and I think there are a lot of good ideas there, or just a good attitude that they have.  They are not jerks there.  Then it talks about how the Nazi ideology effected the community in Vienna and the clinic.  It is pretty gripping.  But it is, again, like reading a good, interesting non-fiction book.  It is (imo) getting pretty tangential in some ways.  But it is not actually tangential -- it is just that this kind of thing is the subject of the book.  I liked it, though, and feel like I have learned something new.  

 

I am not finished yet!  And I do like it, overall.  I think it is interesting.  I don't know that I recommend it more than other books, though.  But I think that may be b/c of what my interests are.

 

I also think it would be more interesting if my son was older and I was from what I consider a slightly earlier era.  For me -- when my son was diagnosed, these pioneering (imo) bloggers were already on the Internet and I could read them!  I am not from that "figuring it out from scratch" era.  People in my town were fighting the school district on things a few years ago, but when my son was diagnosed, there was already a program in place and teachers at his pre-school had already been getting specialized training in autism for a couple of years (not a long time, but still) and so my son has benefited from things like that, and I have had good experiences with school and I have felt like he has teachers who are knowledgeable, and our district has an autism coordinator who I think is really good and experienced ---- that infrastructure has existed from the time my son was diagnosed.  

 

Not that everything is perfect here, but things are better than they were 5 and 10 years ago I think.

 

I have read two other books, also, that are both addressing the question of "is the autism epidemic a real epidemic, or has it always been around, and if so, why does it seem new."  One is called Unstrange Minds.  http://www.amazon.com/Unstrange-Minds-Remapping-World-Autism/dp/0465027644/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441369238&sr=8-1&keywords=unstrange+minds I liked this book, it had a lot of new ideas to me.  But I think those ideas were, then, not new to me as I have read Neurotribes.  Then I have read a book called Bad Animals.   http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Animals-Fathers-Accidental-Education/dp/161145414X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1441369306&sr=8-2&keywords=bad+animals  I like this book, too.  Parts of it are maddening b/c the author makes himself come across like a jerk at times.  But then later it comes across like he is really not a jerk, he just doesn't want to come across like he is Mr. Perfect.  But he also talks about some of the same kinds of things, were were the people with autism, and I happen to like this book more, b/c he has a part where he talks about a movie that was made in a mental institution in the 1930s (or something near this time) and how when he watches it, he thinks a lot of the people are displaying symptoms of autism.  I just found that to be very interesting.  I also like his writing style.  

 

Both of these two books are also part-memoir, and I think I prefer memoirs, because I like the stories.  

 

So overall I think it is good, but I haven't found it earthshattering ----- but I think that may be because I have already read a lot of other books and blogs, and especially -- when I have read so many blog posts by the woman who is a focus for an entire chapter?  If that was all new to me -- I bet I would like it more!  But honestly I think she is a better writer than the man, though again, she is writing in a personal style, and he is writing in more of a "I'm a non-fiction writer, I am a journalist" style.  

[kbutton]

Thank you, Lecka! This will mostly be new information to me, so I think I might try to see if the library has the book. I am very interested in this kind of information. I think that kind of book would interest me even without having a child with ASD. 

[PeterPan]

Is there anything in it *beyond* history?  The guy sounds very rigid himself, and history doesn't interest me at all.

[Lecka]

Eh, I will let kbutton say?  It is not a memoir, it is not a book about how to do things.  It is just a book about some people who have autism and how autism has been viewed by different professionals in this century.  Eh.  It is hard to say though -- maybe you would get some insight from it that I haven't.  

[Lecka]

Okay, I am really liking chapter 11, and I also liked chapter 9 about Rain Man.

 

Chapter 11 is finally a chapter with Temple Grandin, and I think it is very good. That is even though I have read several of her books and I have read the Oliver Sacks book with a long section about her, that is also referenced.