User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
I wanted to like this book. I wanted to say that it was helpful in my life as a late-diagnosed autistic person. But it wasn't.
This book is geared towards late-diagnosed autistic women who are able to have a "normal" job, given sufficient sensory and social accommodations. (I'm not a woman, but since I spent my first 18 years of my life perceived in all my offline social spheres as a girl, my experiences from then are more like late-diagnosed autistic women's than late-diagnosed autistic men's.) I am unable to work, and so I found the suggestions largely irrelevant to my life.
I kept reading in hopes that the author might criticize the idea of productivity as one that harms disabled people whether they're like me or not, but such criticism never came. I found the author's treatment of the problems that undiagnosed autistic women experience at the hands of psychiatry lacking, especially with respect to race. Unmasking is something that has many more risks for autistic Black women and autistic women of color than for autistic white women.
The author's passing endorsement of training cops about ways autistic traits can look like disobedience feels especially ignorant, given the amount of young autistic Black men and women who have been arrested or assaulted by police who knew they were autistic. If this book were published prior to the Black Lives Matter movement's founding rather than in 2020, I might have let that slide. But it has become common knowledge in autistic advocacy that training cops about autism hasn't resulted in cops treating Black autistic people any better.
I'm frustrated by this book. It contains a lot of suggestions that are probably very helpful for autistic people who do work "normal" jobs, for making their workspace more comfortable. This book wasn't the book I thought it would be.
Rating: really liked it
I really wanted to like this but i found it remarkably tone deaf such as including examples that amazons all neurodivergent group is the most productive and its so much easier to discuss mental health since the royals are doing so or perhaps your sensory issues can be helped by changing neighborhoods. Also a large focus is on highly successful entrepreneurial individuals, further alienating the average high functioning autist. A bummer! I wanted some company. Reads as an extremely out of touch hr manual which is especially jarring considering how much passion the author clearly has for the topic.
Rating: really liked it
Many thanks to HarperOne for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review
YES! YES! YES!
I loved that. Every page! I know that most of my audience isn't as passionate about psychology as I am so I understand if you don't understand why I love this book which is totally fair.
I love this book because it really spoke to me and made me feel understood. I have, as the author put it, a divergent mind. The systems that the world uses don't work for me and why they don't work for most people.
I loved that Nerenberg explained all of the ways the brain functions out of the norm and how to deal with this. How to, as the title says, thrive in a world that isn't currently designed for thinkers like us.
If you ever think to yourself
Why do I struggle so much with... or
Why does everyone else... or
How come my brain does..., this book is for you!
Happy reading!
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Rating: really liked it
I agree with a lot of people who are slightly put off with this book because it doesn’t really dive deep enough into different types of neurodivergent women who fall into these spectrums. For example there are a lot of interviews about women who work in tech or academia who have found their niche within their company and it has brought out the best in them and their neurodivergencies. I feel that the author collected a lot of stories from women that were closer to her economic social circles, which is fine, but I’m very much a working class woman who was looking for more help navigating the struggles I have within my social class, which I didn’t find in this book. However, I take this book as the first crack in the ice and hopefully will expand general awareness and more research for authors to expand their knowledge and aid to all types of women who are neurodivergent. This book was a great first step into understanding women who are neurodivergent and how certain women have adapted and struggled because of their “differences”. This was a quick read and I’m glad to have come across it because it has opened my mind to more awareness and really gave me quite a few personal “ah ha!” moments. Worth the read but may make you crave for a deeper dive of a book which hopefully is on the way from Jenara or other authors.
Rating: really liked it
I was very much looking forward to reading this, as the premise is laudable/something I am selfishly interested in, and I was extremely disappointed afterward. I think this would be useful for someone who is completely new to any of the forms of neurodivergence contained within the book, but otherwise this isn’t that great.
The most interesting insight contained in the whole book is a couple (un-cited) paragraphs about the design of the environment/architecture as a function of European desires to demonstrate extreme restraint, and how that can be at odds with the optimal contexts for a woman of neurodivergence.
The writing is approachable (I read the whole thing in 2 hours) but it’s not thoroughly citing research, and in many cases obliquely mentions papers by year and journal without author or title, without listing in footnotes or endnotes. Mostly it’s an overgeneralization/simplifications of other, better books that the author herself mentions in the text and that I myself have read.
Rating: really liked it
Oh, a disappointment.
I am both neurodivergent (ADHD) and a therapist, I have so many criticisms. I'll start with the actual writing itself: definitely needed more editing, topics do not flow well into one another, and the surface level coverage of too many topics ends up feeling disorganized altogether. This title definitely was going for breadth not depth.
As other reviewers have complained, the author is way too generous with generalizations and focuses on highly successful women who are diagnosed later in life. What about the women who drop out of high school, unable to graduate? The women who struggle to care for their children because they are overwhelmed and have been given no answers? The woman who are simply average? What about non-binary individuals? What about women with ADHD or Autism who don't identify as a Highly Sensitive Person?
What about Women of color? Since the book is about Gender and neurodivergence, I don't expect a deep dive on Race and ADHD/Autism however given how recently this work was published I find the sparse mentioning of race to be inadequate. It ends up feeling really "White Feminist" to spend so much time speaking about gender and gender alone.
I also must criticize the amount of time that is spend grouping typical human behavior into neurodivergence. Mirror Neurons are a staple of bonding and evolution, if you don't have mirror neurons firing off you gonna have big problems. This isn't to say that there aren't people who experence mirroring so intense that it is distressing, however the author doesn't make this distinction clear. Another small example is "being moved by art or music." ???? Girl no, the reason art and music are so globally popular is that they move people. Stop.
I could go on, but must rest now (note: the book suggests that needing rest is a sign of neurodivergence. I posit here that it is actually a sign of being a living creature.)
Rating: really liked it
I was incredibly disappointed with Divergent Mind. This book is only for cishet white women working in white collar jobs.
To start, the author looked at neurodivergences with the most limited view: from the lens of a white cishet woman from a financially privileged background with pretty much no effort to look outside that narrow view.
Throughout the book the author mentions solutions that were not applicable to others. People that may be in a different socioeconomic group, differing sexualities or gender identities (those of us socialized as women, but no longer identifying as women), or women of color. This doesn't even begin to cover the blaring and obvious class dissonance in the author's mind. People can't just "move neighborhoods" or seek out every therapy that exists to help themselves.
Additionally, this book was released in 2020, which is enough time for the author and anyone else involved in this book to learn that terms like "high functioning" and "low functioning" are outdated and harmful. As well as the fact that Asperger's is no longer a diagnosis. This is the most disappointing part of the book to me. The author touts on about how much reasearch she conducted for the book and how much she enjoys researching, and then uses terms that are harmful and outdated.
Overall... Not worth the read. I've found better information on TikTok.
Rating: really liked it
This book left me wondering who exactly this book was written for, the individual neurodivergent, or for those who have the power to enact systemic change?
The first part of the book was good. Her inclusion of Samantha Craft's list of ways that autism can present in women was instrumental for me to recognize it in myself, and am now working to get psychological testing.
The section of the book about the workplace? Absolutely useless to the individual, and only addressed white collar corporate culture, completely ignoring blue and pink collar work, and offered absolutely no practical advice for the neurodivergent individual working in environments that are controlled at a level far higher than the individual location. What are reasonable accommodations for these people to ask for? The author certainly doesn't make any suggestions.
The author names problems, and gives systemic solutions, but no practical advice for the individual on the small scale.
Rating: really liked it
i wanted to learn more about sensory sensitivity as neurodivergence & some of the diagnoses that overlap with it. it’s a research area with lots of gaps & it’s hard to find practitioners & information about it so i was initially happy to find this.
the book has a bit of helpful introductory knowledge but was very corporate/career/productivity oriented & written from a very class-privileged perspective, unfortunately.
Rating: really liked it
a lot of privileged blahblablah
Rating: really liked it
Great book for foundations of understanding the implications of some types of neurodiversity in women. I especially liked the information on sensory things, how it's common in many different disorders, and how this can concretize in the day-to-day. I feel I learned a lot with this book about things I should watch out for. There's definitely a lot of things that I don't notice are causing me distress and this was great for becoming more aware.
However, it's a very bad book for offering solutions. I have the impression that the target audience of this book are people from highly privileged backgrounds who can do all sorts of therapies or career changes without financial worries, and have an ample network of support. While the many cases told about different women paint a positive picture of what is possible, it is rather frustrating to realize none of that is applicable to you. It's a great book if you got by in life somewhat, and is wondering why do you struggle with this or that aspect of life, but are not under intense suffering or in need of solutions, just looking for answers. It answers why the world is not designed for you, and sort of fails at the "thriving" part. But then again, pointing out problems is easy and offering solutions is hard. For that, I preferred the book "Journeys through ADDulthood".
I also want to caution people about this book not being apropriate to be read by people who are suffering and wondering what is wrong with them. It has a lot of alternative takes on disorders not being disorders but "just different", which doesn't really apply if you are suffering, unsupported, and in a stage before diagnosis or medication. Self-acceptance is great, but is meant for a different stage. I can clearly see this book having the effect of encouraging people to white knuckle through serious issues instead of asking for medical support. Not that the medical support is great, it's certainly deeply fucked, but it's important to not absorb a mantra that you would be 100% fine if only the world was a bit better designed and that you are not in fact in need of help. Definitely get help for the big stuff first, and only then this book could be useful for fine-tuning upon that. I am glad I read other materials on this topic first because it could have had a deep negative effect on me had I read it earlier.
Rating: really liked it
[3.5 stars]
This book gives a great overview of different types of neurodivergence, such as ADHD, synesthesia, and autism, in womxn because they have been painfully neglected in medical research so far. On the one hand, it made me wonder where I'd fall on the neurodivergent spectrum because I could definitely see myself in some of the described symptoms. On the other hand, I bet almost everyone can relate to some of the symptoms which makes sense because we're talking about a spectrum here, but those missing boundaries also make me question why we should place ourselves on a spectrum at all (not seriously, I'm still trying to wrap my head around my own thoughts). Towards the end the book felt a little redundant, which is probably a good thing because my mind drifted off sometimes (I really shouldn't consume non-fiction like this via audio). Overall, a very accessible resource and a great step into a field that is in desperate need of more exploration and consideration.
Rating: really liked it
Has anyone ever judged you (or have you ever judged yourself) for being "too sensitive"? Divergent Mind takes a deep look at 5 neurotypes--ADHD, autism, SPD (sensory processing disorder), HSP (highly sensitive person--that's me, big time), and synesthesia--particularly in terms of sensory sensitivities, and specifically how these are experienced by women and girls. Nerenberg's view of people with these neurological traits (herself included) is a non-pathologizing celebration of diversity and the gifts that go with it, as well as offering helpful insights into improving one's life through understanding, practical strategies, and innovative therapies. A great resource for anyone who is (or has people in their lives who are) neurodivergent.
Rating: really liked it
First off with the lesser cons. There's a little too much "blog" style. Nerenberg seems to have been going for a narrative flow, but there was too much autobiographical content for me to see this as an investigative/research book. There were also a couple things that should have been picked up by an editor. In addition, I don't think the consequences of
not having diagnostic labels was explored enough. They don't exist simply for insurance purposes - it's a way to easily determine models of treatment that are likely to work.
Lastly, I'm not sold on the idea that there is nothing 'disabling' about certain neurological conditions. For example, my sister has autism, the only type of autism that fit the definition of autism in the beginning... classical / infantile / low-functioning (pick your term). There's no way to design our world where her neurological condition is not disabling. She will always need life-long support in order to live. I hope for an accepting world, a world that will work with her, and give her the help she needs. But she will always need help, and that's the idea of disability - being unable to function in some way (or in some cases, stay alive) - without extra aid.
I agree that we should not stigmatize differences and that we should not automatically consider differences as negative. But that is not the same thing as seeing no mental illness at all or considering everything an environmental issue. We need to discuss the issue with a bit more nuance. Having no legs is a disability. Having accompanying amazing upper body strength is an asset. Being unable to speak is a disability. Being able to communicate through body language is an asset.
All that being said, I do appreciate that Nerenberg is trying to alter our perspective to be more welcoming towards people who are neurologically different. I found fascinating the examples about how some people are changing the environment to make life both more comfortable and happier for others with neurological differences.
Rating: really liked it
Oof. This was yet another book by a well-meaning, cis-het, middle- to upper-class, white woman that just…totally missed the mark. For starters, the writer has no voice; I’ve read academic journals articles with more personality. This makes the book a dull read from the start. The writer tries to give small critiques of capitalism, systems of oppression, and their affect on mental health and neurodivergency, but the rest of her book points to just how uneducated she is in these areas. Her suggestions for advocating and accommodating for yourself include up and moving to quieter, less stressful neighborhoods; quitting your job; going to the doctor and therapist and psychiatrist and specialist regularly; how to make the offices of corporate America and Silicon Valley more accommodating…essentially, it’s some pretty “meh” advice for people who have money, access to healthcare, and work for companies like Verizon and other big tech companies or architecture firms or universities. The whole book came across, again, as well-meaning, but overall pretty oblivious to neurodivergency (and life in general) outside the bounds of cis-het, affluent whiteness. While some of the earlier chapters in the book gave helpful definitions for different neurodivergencies, I recommend looking into other sources like, you know, Google and Instagram for the same exact information that’s most likely presented in a less privileged manner.
