NeuroTribes

The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity.

What is autism—a lifelong disability, or a natural form of cognitive variation, even a kind of genius? In truth, it is all of these things and more—and how we choose to understand autism will shape the future of our society.

Reporter Steve Silberman uncovers the hidden history of autism, revealing how early misconceptions and suppressed truths by the very clinicians who "discovered" the condition shaped decades of stigma. Tracing the lives and legacies of Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger—two researchers with radically different visions of what autism is—Silberman weaves a gripping narrative that challenges what we think we know.

As he explores the recent surge in diagnoses, Silberman introduces the transformative idea of neurodiversity: the view that conditions like autism, ADHD, and dyslexia are not flaws or modern epidemics, but natural variations in the human mind. These neurological differences, he argues, have always existed—and often come with extraordinary strengths.