Neurotribes

Neurotribes

Author	Steve Silberman
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Narrative nonfiction
Publisher	Avery Publishing
Publication date	August 25, 2015
Media type	Hardcover
Pages	542 pp.
ISBN

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity is a book by Steve Silberman that discusses autism and neurodiversity.Neurotribes was awarded the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2015, and has received wide acclaim from both the scientific and the popular press. It was named to a number of "best books of 2015" lists, including The New York Times Book Review, and The Guardian.

In The New York Times Book Review, Jennifer Senior wrote that the book was "beautifully told, humanizing, important"; the Boston Globe called it "as emotionally resonant as any [book] this year"; and in Science, the cognitive neuroscientist Francesca Happé wrote, "It is a beautifully written and thoughtfully crafted book, a historical tour of autism, richly populated with fascinating and engaging characters, and a rallying call to respect difference." It was named one of the best books of 2015 by The New York Times,The Economist,Financial Times,The Guardian. Dr. James C. Harris of Johns Hopkins University criticized Neurotribes, saying that Silberman misrepresented Leo Kanner as somebody that had a negative view towards autistics and their parents, rather than, as Harris argued, an advocate for individualized treatment for every child. Professor Michael Sawyer of the University of Adelaide argued that Silberman discussed researchers according to the extent to which they supported his views and that he wanted his positive view of autism to be widely accepted in policy and practice, on the basis of what Sawyer believed to be weak evidence. Psychiatrist Lisa Conlan argued that retrospective diagnoses of historical figures, such as those made by Silberman in Neurotribes, are fraught with difficulties and that his portrayal of neurodiversity is based in identity politics.