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.

Joel Salinas of Harvard Neurology, author Maya Dusenbery, Angel Kyodo Williams, Lissa Rankin, NYTimes bestselling author Bill Hayes, designer Scott Belsky of 99U and numerous others. Sharing real stories from women with high sensitivity, ADHD, autism, misophonia, dyslexia, SPD, and more, Nerenberg explores how these brain variances present differently in women and describes practical changes in how we communicate, how we design our surroundings, and how we can better support divergent minds.

If this book were published prior to the Black Lives Matter movement's founding rather than in 2020, I might have let that slide. Reads as an extremely out of touch hr manual which is especially jarring considering how much passion the author clearly has for the topic. 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. Divergent Mind is a long-overdue, much-needed answer for women who have a deep sense that they are “different.

My sensory issues are a big part of my experience as an autistic woman, but it's nowhere near the only one. To access your ebook(s) after purchasing, you can download the free Glose app or read instantly on your browser by logging into Glose. I loved that Nerenberg explained all of the ways the brain functions out of the norm and how to deal with this. 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 book de-pathologizes those of us who most profoundly and intensely think and feel the world around us.

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. 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. 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. There is a lot of discussion around HSP, with no mention of the harmful and incorrect things Elaine Aron has said about autism. Nerenberg also offers us a path forward, describing practical changes in how we communicate, how we design our surroundings, and how we can better support divergent minds.

It ends up feeling really "White Feminist" to spend so much time speaking about gender and gender alone.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.