Book SummaryNeuroTribes, by Steve Silberman

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of NeuroTribes

In NeuroTribes, Steve Silberman explores the history, characterization, and evolving societal perception of autism. He challenges the prevalent myths and misconceptions about autism, celebrates the unique strengths of autistic individuals, and advocates for a more inclusive society that recognizes and respects neurological differences.

Silberman is an award-winning writer who’s contributed to publications such as Wired, The New York Times, the _[MIT Technology...

NeuroTribes Summary What Is Autism?

Silberman explains that autism is a developmental disorder with a wide range of traits that impact different areas of a person’s functioning and experiences. These areas include social interaction and communication, sensory processing and sensitivities, and behavioral and cognitive patterns. In this section, we’ll explain some of the most common characteristics, grouped according to these areas.

Silberman emphasizes that no two autistic people are exactly alike and that all of the following characteristics exist on a spectrum, which means any given autistic person may demonstrate these traits to varying degrees (or not at all). This is also not a comprehensive list of autistic traits.

(Shortform note: While understanding autism as a spectrum can help people better grasp the varied nature of the condition, some experts and autistic people find this model overly simplistic. They argue that a linear spectrum model suggests that autism is either “severe,” “not severe,” or somewhere in between. They instead advocate for the [“wheel” or “pie chart” spectrum...

NeuroTribes Summary The Beginning of Our Clinical Understanding of Autism

While we now have a broad understanding of many aspects of autism, this understanding is relatively new—prior to the mid-20th century, autism wasn’t identified as its own distinct disorder, and little research had been done on it. In this section, we’ll look at the origins of our clinical understanding of autism.

Silberman writes that the history of autism research began with the work of Austrian physician Hans Asperger in the 1930s and 1940s. Asperger believed that disabled children weren’t defective—as most people believed at the time—but simply had unique needs and strengths. (Shortform note: Recently uncovered historical evidence may suggest that Asperger believed otherwise; we’ll cover that in more detail later in the guide.) He and the other staff at his clinic saw over 200 children, as well as many teenagers and adults, who demonstrated many of the traits of autism we described earlier.

(Shortform note: The sample size of autistic children that Asperger worked with may be statistically problematic. Estimates suggest that approximately 1% of the global population is autistic. Assuming these...

NeuroTribes Summary How Society Viewed Disabled People: The Eugenics Movement

While Asperger and many of his colleagues saw disabled people as valuable humans who deserved basic rights, many at the time believed otherwise, explains Silberman.

In the years following World War I, many people in America began to adopt eugenicist views. Eugenics was a pseudoscientific movement devoted to creating the ideal human by stamping out traits viewed as undesirable. Eugenicists believed that allowing certain groups of people to live and reproduce would cause a reverse natural selection process in which the worst elements of human nature would be passed on to successive generations while the best elements would be lost.

According to Silberman, eugenicists used a very strict definition of the “best” human qualities. Their idea of the “perfect” human was one who was white, of Northern European descent, physically and mentally able, and free of all disease. This excluded Black people, Native Americans, Jewish people, and disabled people, among many others. They viewed disabled people as defectives and moral degenerates unworthy of life. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, many US states allowed health officials to forcibly sterilize people in mental...

NeuroTribes Summary Leo Kanner: The Leading Autism Research in America

At the same time that Asperger was studying autistic children in Vienna and drafting his thesis, child psychiatrist Leo Kanner was studying autism in America. Silberman explains that Kanner was one of the most prominent psychiatrists in America, and his work on autism became the defining research for many years.

Though Kanner worked with some of Asperger’s colleagues (those who came to America to flee the Nazis), Kanner’s work never mentions Asperger’s. Silberman suggests that Kanner refrained from acknowledging Asperger’s research—as well as the research of others who’d studied autism under different names, like childhood schizophrenia—because he saw himself as the lone discoverer of autism.

(Shortform note: While Kanner never mentioned Asperger’s work, Asperger did mention Kanner on multiple occasions. However, despite the overlap in their research, the two men never met. Some historians speculate that this was because Kanner was embarrassed for copying some of Asperger’s work, or jealous that Asperger discovered the syndrome first. Others contend that they didn’t meet because both men genuinely believed they were...

NeuroTribes Summary A New Perspective on Autism: The Work of Bernard Rimland

According to Silberman, the theory that poor parenting causes autism prevailed in the medical field until the 1960s, when Navy psychologist Bernard Rimland (who had an autistic son) published a book arguing that autism wasn’t caused by childhood trauma but was instead a genetic disorder.

Rimland’s book took the blame for autism off of the parents, Silberman explains. It also took the experiences of autistic children into account in a way that had rarely been done before: Rimland theorized about what it was like to exist in a world not built for them and sympathized with the frustration that must come from meeting all the seemingly arbitrary demands of adults whose brains worked differently. However, not all of his work holds up to modern scrutiny, as we’ll see next.

(Shortform note: As Silberman asserts, parents don’t cause autism. However, experts explain that with the right training, they can help improve their children’s lives. Research suggests that training parents in how to communicate with their autistic...

NeuroTribes Summary Applied Behavioral Analysis

Many today still believe that autism can be medically “cured” through biomedical interventions or by avoiding vaccines. In this section, we’ll explain another purported treatment of autism called applied behavior analysis (ABA): a type of therapy based on the psychological principles of behaviorism. Silberman explains how psychologist Ivar Lovaas developed this “therapy” as a means of ridding autistic children of their autistic traits so they would seem “normal.”

Lovaas’s treatment involved teaching children to perform certain behaviors to get a reward—for example, the therapist would instruct the child to give them a hug or a kiss, and they would reward the child with food when they did so. However, as his treatment proved ineffective with some children, Lovaas began implementing punishments for failing to perform the desired behavior, or for performing undesired behaviors like stimming and echolalia. These punishments included striking children, subjecting them to blasts of sound over 100 decibels, subjecting them to electric shocks, and withholding food and water.

Despite outcries from the public and the medical field about the use of ABA on autistic people, some...

NeuroTribes Summary The True Treatment for Autism

Silberman suggests that the only “cure” for autism is support and community: Autistic people need to be able to connect with people like them and have access to environments conducive to their needs and strengths. In this section, we’ll describe some ways autistic people have found to create their own spaces and communities throughout recent history, including fandoms, events designed for autistic people, and online communities. Then, we’ll explain Silberman’s suggestions for how society can create more inclusive environments for autistic people.

(Shortform note: As Silberman implies, an autistic person’s environment can heavily impact their functioning and well-being. This has led some people to argue that autism isn’t a disability—rather, society causes it to be disabling by failing to accommodate the unique needs it entails. This perspective is known as the social model of disability—as opposed to the medical model...

Shortform Exercise: Reflect on Your Understanding of Autism

Reflect on how this guide has influenced your understanding of autism.

Briefly, what was your understanding of autism before reading this guide?