The best books to challenge perceptions of neurodiversity
One of the first books I read on the topic, The Power of Neurodiversity cogently reframes neurodiversity and neurodivergence as normal elements of humanity, with many overlooked positives and strengths.
Armstrong was careful not to cast neurodivergence as a “superpower”, or overlook challenges, but his chapters – such as “The Joy of the Hyperactive Brain” and “The Positive Side of Being Autistic” – represented a valuable and belated challenge to the stereotypes that to that time, in 2011, had cast neurodiversity only in a negative light.
Multiple passages have stuck with me ever since, for example how he challenges the conventional metaphor of brains as computers (either “working” or “broken”), suggesting instead that we make a better parallel with brains as forests; highly complex, living organisms.
