Is autism a diagnosis with a fixed treatment, or is it a part of the wider human condition, to be treated humanistically? As autism’s prevalence continues to rise, society debates how to do this. In this book, Curtis Youngblood clearly comes down on the humanistic side. Through life experience, he contends that more attention needs to be paid towards helping people to live with autism practically rather than divining some yet-unknown cause or causes. This perspective matters on two major fronts: Funding for autism research and in helping our fellow citizens.
A lot of good material fills this book. Youngblood has dealt with autism as an adult for decades, and he speaks mostly from wise experience, not from academic research alone. This book leans heavily towards the self-help genre and succeeds in encouraging self-esteem among those on the spectrum. He addresses everything from governmental policy, public portrayals, daily life, and work life. It’s just one person’s perspective and not an overarching answer to solve all autism-related problems. As the title contends, reading this can provide a helpful start towards understanding how to deal with autism outside of structured education.
I read this book to learn to work with colleagues who might have autism. I know that autism burnout in work affects them significantly. This book mentions it in its long subtitle, but that theme of burnout, integrated into discussions about masking, does not play a major role in this text, unfortunately. Only one chapter with less that ten pages describe this condition. I wish this emphasis would have been discussed more, particularly addressing prevention by both “neurotypicals” and the “neurodiverse.”
Thus, I can’t write whether this would help someone who actually has autism. I can say that it helped me better understand those I deal with in society. It’s easy to read without a ton of jargon. Those of moderate-to-high reading proficiency can approach its language well. I think youth and young adults preparing to live a life can especially benefit from learning from Youngblood’s experience. Indeed, he can function as a mentor to readers. Autism continues to be a contemporary social issue, and reading firsthand accounts like this can only benefit us.
Unmasking Adult Autism: The Brain and the Person
By Curtis Youngblood
Copyright (c) 2022
Independently Published
ISBN13 9798393405577
Page Count: 188
Genre: Self-Help, Autism
Sponsored link to www.amazon.com