Neurodiversity Reads discussion

Anti-Recommendations are books that you recommend AGAINST. This thread is for non-fiction.

Title
Author
Subject
Comments/Reasons it's an Anti-Rec

The Ethics of Autism: Among Them But Not Of Them
Deborah R. Barnbaum
Bioethics/philosophy

The fact that this book won awards gives me chills. The author, a philosopher, argues that Autistics are incapable of forming communities or truly sharing with others, cannot be considered fully human or full citizens, and should not be allowed to vote. She argues that a woman with a family history of autism who discovers that she is pregnant with a boy child has a moral imperative to abort or else she has committed a breach of ethics worse than drinking alcohol while pregnant. There was not a single page in this book that was not offensive and triggering.

Sparrow wrote: "The Ethics of Autism: Among Them But Not Of Them
Deborah R. Barnbaum
Bioethics/philosophy

The fact that this book won awards gives me chills. The author, a philosopher, argues that Autistics are i..."

I started to read that book but couldn't finish it because of all the ableist tripe. I didn't know about the abortion argument, blech. This book won awards?!! Gah.

Anything written by Jenny McCarthy (such as Louder Than Words)
Anything that references "recovery" or "cure" (unless the author changes their mind before the end of the book)
Healing and Preventing Autism (forward by Jenny McCarthy)
I Wish My Kids Had Cancer (I wish the author had empathy)
Simon-Baron Cohen's Zero Degrees of Empathy

These are books I refuse to read because I cannot interrupt the authors while reading to tell them how wrong they are.

Memoirs of Madness by Christopher Markowski (a personal account)

This book had many issues. Not the least of which was a lot of ableist language. A lot of it seemed to be occupied with "I was crazy and now I am not." I thought the writing itself was hard to read. While the author reports to be trying to reduce stigma I do not think that is what is accomplished in this writing.

Laura wrote: "Anything written by Jenny McCarthy (such as Louder Than Words)
Anything that references "recovery" or "cure" (unless the author changes their mind before the end of the book)
Healing and Preventing..."

I just reviewed McCarthy's...well, I'm not about to call it a book. Obviously, I gave it one star. Good to see someone else who hates it.