Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

This New York Times-bestselling book upends conventional thinking about autism and suggests a broader model for acceptance, understanding, and full participation in society for people who think differently.

What is autism? A lifelong disability, or a naturally occurring form of cognitive difference akin to certain forms of genius? In truth, it is all of these things and more--and the future of our society depends on our understanding it. Wired reporter Steve Silberman unearths the secret history of autism, long suppressed by the same clinicians who became famous for discovering it, and finds surprising answers to the crucial question of why the number of diagnoses has soared in recent years. Going back to the earliest days of autism research, Silberman offers a gripping narrative of Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger, the research pioneers who defined the scope of autism in profoundly different ways; he then goes on to explore the game-changing concept of neurodiversity. NeuroTribes considers the idea that neurological differences such as autism, dyslexia, and ADHD are not errors of nature or products of the toxic modern world, but the result of natural variations in the human genome. This groundbreaking book will reshape our understanding of the history, meaning, function, and implications of neurodiversity in our world.

ISBN-13: 9780399185618

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group

Publication Date: 08-23-2016

Pages: 560

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.60(d)

Steve Silberman has covered science and cultural affairs for Wired and other national magazines for more than twenty years. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Time, Nature, and Salon. He lives in San Francisco.

Read an Excerpt

In a room on a high ridge overlooking the Santa Cruz Mountains in California, Leo Rosa is waking up. The sun breaks through a bank of coastal fog, filling his window with streaks of orange and crimson. A cherubic eleven-year-old with hazel eyes under a tuft of russet curls, he climbs out of bed to give his father a hug.
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Neurotribes"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Steve Silberman.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Foreword Oliver Sacks ix

Introduction: Beyond the Geek Syndrome 1

1 The Wizard of Clapham Common 19

2 The Boy Who Loves Green Straws 44

3 What Sister Viktorine Knew 82

4 Fascinating Peculiarities 140

5 The Invention of Toxic Parenting 187

6 Princes of the Air 223

7 Fighting the Monster 261

8 Nature's Smudged Lines 335

9 The Rain Man Effect 354

10 Pandora's Box 381

11 In Autistic Space 424

12 Building the Enterprise: Designs for a Neurodiverse World 469

Epilogue: The Mayor of Kensington 475

Afterword 479

Acknowledgments 485

Notes 487

Index 531

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