AGXStarseed
Well-Known Member
(Not written by me)
Society’s failure to embrace the idea of neurodiversity and accept people who think differently might be limiting human potential, says a new book
Some people still believe they can find a “cure” for autism (Image: Allan Grant/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty)
THE “Wizard of Clapham Common” tinkers with copper conductors and wire rods, a socially awkward student creates the first amateur radio transmitter, a young boy solves logic problems in his head, but when tested formally jumps down from his desk and slaps the examiner.
The characters Steve Silberman introduces us to in Neuro Tribes are complicated, to say the least. But through their complex minds and behaviours, he carefully peels back the layers of medical history that have radically altered the diagnosis of autism and argues that widespread misconceptions about the condition are preventing our culture from reaching its full potential.
It doesn’t always make for a comfortable read. Silberman writes how scientists have long searched for a “cure” for autism. How, for example, in just a few sessions, two autistic boys, Mike and Marty, learned how to show affection, jumping into their examiners’ arms. That was, of course, to avoid painful electric shocks from the packs affixed to their buttocks and activated if they failed to show said affection.
Silberman gives a particularly moving account of Hans Asperger, one of the first clinicians to define aspects of the autism spectrum. Asperger cleverly presented a handful of high-functioning autistic children to his peers in Nazi-controlled Vienna. His “little professors”, as he called his young patients, had special gifts, he said, that were inextricable from their impairments and would end up benefiting society as a whole.
By focusing on the positives and hiding the negatives, Asperger prevented their forced sterilisation by those looking to extinguish society’s “weak” genes. He also gave the impression that autism was a rare condition associated with young genius, while revealing in papers translated decades later that he knew this was far from the truth.
Meanwhile, US psychiatrist Leo Kanner was simultaneously defining the condition as one that affected only young children, and was caused by cold-hearted “refrigerator parents”. This notion was widely received and much to blame for the long history of stigma and shame that became firmly attached to the condition.
Silberman uses the two men to make a provocative argument: had we not used Kanner’s “thin” definition of autism for so long, the autism “epidemic” that began when the definition was widened in the 1980s would not have occurred, and we would not have spent so much energy looking for environmental causes or pointing the finger at blameless parents.
Instead, we might have realised much earlier that autism is not a single entity, but a cluster of conditions. For most of the 20th century, Silberman writes, these conditions were hidden behind competing labels such as “feeble-minded”, “multiple personality”, or “childhood schizophrenia”. What’s clear now is that the rising numbers of diagnoses are not caused by some risk factor hidden in our modern world, but are what he calls “a strange gift from our deep past, passed down through millions of years of evolution”. Rather than viewing this gift as an error of nature, “a puzzle to be solved and eliminated”, it should be seen as incredibly valuable.
Although dispassionate at times, Silberman’s sweeping history is always sensitive and builds a persuasive argument that the ability to think differently is useful, necessary even, for the success of the modern world.
Early on, I was concerned that Silberman underplayed the controversial nature of some of the history, such as supposed links between vaccination and autism. It was only later that he weighed in, firmly emphasising the debunking of such research and the “insidious effect” it has had on society.
His cast of characters is so large, each with a long backstory, that the book can be a slow read; it could do with fewer chapters. And Silberman rarely covers autism’s most disabling aspects. That said, his tales neatly underline how our understanding of autism has been influenced as strongly by a single thinker as by a whole regime.
Where his account of autism’s complex history really shines is in the last third of the book, where we gain an insight into current issues from autistic people themselves. We are left admonished by Ari Ne’eman, an autism-rights activist appointed to the US National Council on Disability by President Barack Obama. Ne’eman says that while the core features of autism can be disabling, many of the difficulties are not to do with the symptoms of autism but with how society treats people who don’t meet expectations of “normal”.
The book gains momentum as we turn a page in history where we see autistic adults begin to rise up and form “tribes” after years of alienation. This growing alliance of autistic individuals, their parents and researchers, all of whom have embraced the concept of neurodiversity, proposes that autism be regarded as a valuable part of humanity’s genetic legacy and that society needs to accept and adapt to people who think differently. Only then, Silberman says, will we allow people to embrace their uniqueness and let society reach its dynamic potential.
NeuroTribes: The legacy of autism and how to think smarter about people who think differently
Steve Silberman
Allen & Unwin
SOURCE: https://www.newscientist.com/articl...ibes-how-autism-has-been-badly-misunderstood/
Society’s failure to embrace the idea of neurodiversity and accept people who think differently might be limiting human potential, says a new book
Some people still believe they can find a “cure” for autism (Image: Allan Grant/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty)
THE “Wizard of Clapham Common” tinkers with copper conductors and wire rods, a socially awkward student creates the first amateur radio transmitter, a young boy solves logic problems in his head, but when tested formally jumps down from his desk and slaps the examiner.
The characters Steve Silberman introduces us to in Neuro Tribes are complicated, to say the least. But through their complex minds and behaviours, he carefully peels back the layers of medical history that have radically altered the diagnosis of autism and argues that widespread misconceptions about the condition are preventing our culture from reaching its full potential.
It doesn’t always make for a comfortable read. Silberman writes how scientists have long searched for a “cure” for autism. How, for example, in just a few sessions, two autistic boys, Mike and Marty, learned how to show affection, jumping into their examiners’ arms. That was, of course, to avoid painful electric shocks from the packs affixed to their buttocks and activated if they failed to show said affection.
Silberman gives a particularly moving account of Hans Asperger, one of the first clinicians to define aspects of the autism spectrum. Asperger cleverly presented a handful of high-functioning autistic children to his peers in Nazi-controlled Vienna. His “little professors”, as he called his young patients, had special gifts, he said, that were inextricable from their impairments and would end up benefiting society as a whole.
By focusing on the positives and hiding the negatives, Asperger prevented their forced sterilisation by those looking to extinguish society’s “weak” genes. He also gave the impression that autism was a rare condition associated with young genius, while revealing in papers translated decades later that he knew this was far from the truth.
Meanwhile, US psychiatrist Leo Kanner was simultaneously defining the condition as one that affected only young children, and was caused by cold-hearted “refrigerator parents”. This notion was widely received and much to blame for the long history of stigma and shame that became firmly attached to the condition.
Silberman uses the two men to make a provocative argument: had we not used Kanner’s “thin” definition of autism for so long, the autism “epidemic” that began when the definition was widened in the 1980s would not have occurred, and we would not have spent so much energy looking for environmental causes or pointing the finger at blameless parents.
Instead, we might have realised much earlier that autism is not a single entity, but a cluster of conditions. For most of the 20th century, Silberman writes, these conditions were hidden behind competing labels such as “feeble-minded”, “multiple personality”, or “childhood schizophrenia”. What’s clear now is that the rising numbers of diagnoses are not caused by some risk factor hidden in our modern world, but are what he calls “a strange gift from our deep past, passed down through millions of years of evolution”. Rather than viewing this gift as an error of nature, “a puzzle to be solved and eliminated”, it should be seen as incredibly valuable.
Although dispassionate at times, Silberman’s sweeping history is always sensitive and builds a persuasive argument that the ability to think differently is useful, necessary even, for the success of the modern world.
Early on, I was concerned that Silberman underplayed the controversial nature of some of the history, such as supposed links between vaccination and autism. It was only later that he weighed in, firmly emphasising the debunking of such research and the “insidious effect” it has had on society.
His cast of characters is so large, each with a long backstory, that the book can be a slow read; it could do with fewer chapters. And Silberman rarely covers autism’s most disabling aspects. That said, his tales neatly underline how our understanding of autism has been influenced as strongly by a single thinker as by a whole regime.
Where his account of autism’s complex history really shines is in the last third of the book, where we gain an insight into current issues from autistic people themselves. We are left admonished by Ari Ne’eman, an autism-rights activist appointed to the US National Council on Disability by President Barack Obama. Ne’eman says that while the core features of autism can be disabling, many of the difficulties are not to do with the symptoms of autism but with how society treats people who don’t meet expectations of “normal”.
The book gains momentum as we turn a page in history where we see autistic adults begin to rise up and form “tribes” after years of alienation. This growing alliance of autistic individuals, their parents and researchers, all of whom have embraced the concept of neurodiversity, proposes that autism be regarded as a valuable part of humanity’s genetic legacy and that society needs to accept and adapt to people who think differently. Only then, Silberman says, will we allow people to embrace their uniqueness and let society reach its dynamic potential.
NeuroTribes: The legacy of autism and how to think smarter about people who think differently
Steve Silberman
Allen & Unwin
SOURCE: https://www.newscientist.com/articl...ibes-how-autism-has-been-badly-misunderstood/
