Summary & Study Guide - NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism

By Lee Tang

A Comprehensive View of Autism Past and Present

This book is a summary of "NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity" by Steve Silberman.

In NeuroTribes, the award-winning science journalist Steve Silberman changes the societal conversation about autism with a groundbreaking and comprehensive history of this much-talked-about but little-understood condition. The book reveals a perfect storm that led to the sudden increase in diagnosis beginning in the 1990s. It describes how parents were bombarded with conflicting and misleading information on the causes and potential cures of the disease. It also describes how to embrace the concept of neurodiversity to build a better world for autistic people rather than searching for potential causes and risk factors.

Read this summary and learn more about autism from multiple perspectives—parents, scientists, activists, and the autistic people themselves.

This guide includes:

• Book Summary—The summary helps you understand the key ideas and recommendations.
• Online Videos—On-demand replay of public lectures, and seminars on the topics covered in the chapter.

Value-added of this guide:

• Save time
• Understand key concepts
• Expand your knowledge

• Language: English
• Publisher: LMT Press
• Release date: Oct 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9780994764058

Lee Tang

Lee Tang is a retired executive of a major global insurance company. Prior to his retirement, he has worked as an actuary, a risk officer and a chief financial officer for several major insurance organizations in the United States, Canada, and Taiwan. To learn more about Lee and his work, visit his website and blog at https://lmtpress.wordpress.com. You can reach him by email at [e-mail].

Book preview

Comprehensive View of Autism Past and Present

This book is a summary of "NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity" by Steve Silberman.

In NeuroTribes, award-winning science journalist Steve Silberman changes the societal conversation about autism with a groundbreaking and comprehensive history of this much-talked-about but little-understood condition. The book reveals the perfect storm that led to the sudden increase in diagnosis beginning in the 1990s. It describes how parents were bombarded with conflicting and misleading information on the causes and potential cures of the disease. Rather than searching for potential causes and risk factors, we should embrace the concept of neurodiversity to build a better world for autistic people.

Read this book and learn more about autism from multiple perspectives—parents, scientists, activists, and the autistic people themselves.

This guide includes:

Book Summary—helps you understand the key concepts.

Online Videos—covers the concepts in more depth.

Value-added from this guide:

Save time

Understand key concepts

Expand your knowledge

Important Note About This Guide

This guide is a summary and not a critique/review of the book. The summary may not be organized chapter-wise but summarizes the book’s main ideas, viewpoints, and arguments. It is NOT meant to be a replacement, but a supplement to help you understand the book’s key ideas and recommendations.

Title: Summary & Study Guide - NeuroTribes

Subtitle: The Legacy of Autism

Author: Lee Tang

Publisher: LMT Press

Copyright © 2017 by Lee Tang

All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.

First Edition: March 2017

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 9780994764058 (ebook)

ISBN 9781544196374 (paperback)

ISBN 9781987063325 (paperback)

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and author make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy or completeness of these contents and disclaim all warranties such as warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. The website addresses in the book were correct at the time going to print. However, the publisher and author are not responsible for the content of third-party websites, which are subject to change.

To my wife, Lillian, who is the source of energy and love for everything I do, and to Andrew and Amanda: watching you grow up has been a privilege.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Beyond the Geek Syndrome

1. The Wizards of Clapham Common

2. The Boy Who Loves Green Straws

3. What Sister Viktorine Knew

4. Fascinating Peculiarities

5. The Invention of Toxic Parenting

6. Princes of the Air

7. Fighting the Monster

8. Nature’s Smudged Lines

9. The Rain Man Effect

10. Pandora’s Box

11. In Autistic Space

12. Building the Enterprise: Designs for a Neurodiverse World

Epilogue: The Mayor of Kensington

About the Author

Introduction

Beyond the Geek Syndrome

In May 2000, Steve Silberman, a science journalist and author of the book " NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity , attended a Geek Cruise"—a technology conference on board the ocean liner Volendam. He discovered his fellow passengers were not just a group of IT experts, but a tribe of digital natives who invented the modern digital world. Several also had children with autism, a rare neurological disorder portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the movie Rain Man. He soon learned there was an epidemic of autism in Silicon Valley.

***

THE AUTISM DISORDER

was first discovered in 1943 by a child psychiatrist named Leo Kanner in Baltimore. Kanner noted that eleven of his patients seemed to inhabit private worlds, ignoring the surrounding people. He named it autism - from the Greek word "autos, which means self. It describes the conditions in which a person becomes an isolated self."

Autism was also independently discovered by a Viennese pediatrician named Hans Asperger. In 1944, Asperger described four young patients who seemed strangely out of touch with other people. He used the term "autistic psychopathy to describe their conditions. Unlike Kanner's patients, these patients spoke eloquently and displayed precocious abilities with science and math. Asperger called them his little professors."

***

FOR DECADES, ESTIMATES

of the prevalence of autism have been around four or five kids in ten thousand. But that number has increased since the 1980s, especially in high-tech hot spots like Silicon Valley. One possible explanation for the surge of autism in tech-centric communities is that