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 bookwill reshape our understanding of the history, meaning, function, and implications of neurodiversity in our world.

• Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism
• The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism
• The Autistic Brain
• Training Manual for Behavior Technicians Working with Individuals with Autism
• Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure
• Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism
• In a Different Key: The Story of Autism
• The Power of Neurodiversity: Unleashing the Advantages of Your Differently Wired Brain (published in hardcover as Neurodiversity)
• Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew: Updated and Expanded Edition
• The Journal of Best Practices: A Memoir of Marriage, Asperger Syndrome, and One Man's Quest to Be a Better Husband