Book Review
Title: The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum by Temple Grandin
Genre: Non-Fiction, Science, Psychology
Rating: 3.5 Stars
The first thing I loved about this book was that the author was autistic and was speaking from their own lived experiences and tests which is more uncommon that you might think. Grandin first explains how they came to be diagnosed and the various issues with the definition and criteria someone has to meet in order to be diagnosed over the years. As someone who has personally debated for years about whether to get tested this really highlighted for me the challenges that I might come up against in the medical system. However, they do explain that parts of the testing was intriguing and delightful to go through and actually learned several things about their physiology that set them apart from neurotypical people and it really makes you think how something as small as a minute difference in brain structure can change how a person develops on the outside.
After this Grandin spends a lot of time discussing sensitivities and how they vary from person to person depending on the type of autism they have and breaks down how each type and some of these variations. I was fascinated by this as a self-diagnosed autistic with tactile and fabric sensitivities and how others express these issues. Grandin also draws attention to the fact that sensory issues were reported in scientific literature for a long time and even dismissed by professionals which is insane to think about in this modern age but these types of issues are very subjective and change from person to person. While I was enjoying the book and related to a lot of what Grandin discusses it was at times very dry to read which meant I couldn’t read large chunks of it in a single sitting. Grandin takes this even further as we break down the negative and positive traits associated with autism with emphasis on the positive as these tend to get overlooked by the medical community.
Grandin uses a lot of their own experiences and the experiences of other well known autistic to emphasise that we aren’t really that different from everyone else we just view the world slightly differently. This is something I strongly identified with since I have always been labelled as mature for my age and praised for my unnatural ability to keep calm under extreme amounts of pressure and I believe this is due to some autistic trait so I don’t view the situations the same as others and can react more calmly or without certain emotions. I also believe I was called mature because I saw details and causes for things that most children couldn’t even conceive of at that age.
Grandin then moves onto the flaws in the education and employment systems for people with conditions like ASD and while some people and companies champion the cause, many are still lacking understanding for these conditions. I completely agree with her views on how the education system should be changed in order to better accommodate children with these kinds of disorders. In my own experience, I was moved ahead a few times in my early years of education because I was so much more advanced than the other children in terms of reading and writing and yet severely lacking in social awareness and social skills in general. In contrast, my younger brother by 16 months was average academically but excelled socially, the direct opposite to me. In terms of the employment system I find it difficult to function in most jobs because they don’t meet the balance of stimulation I need, they either under stimulate me (repetitive jobs) or overstimulate me (social jobs) making it very difficult for me to find a place in society where I can be productive. This means I often bounce from job to job never staying long in one place which looks bad to prospective employers, it looks unreliable, when in reality I can be a productive and reliable employee if my needs are met in the correct way. However, that being said changes like these will probably never happen in my lifetime and I am learning to adapt the best that I can given the situation and I hope that I can find a place just like Grandin did.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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