An assortment of enlightening interviews with people with autism and their families.
Members of the autism community have their say in this collection of interviews.
Autism is a spectrum, and those affected by it represent a whole range of experiences. Each person’s autism is different, which is why it is important to listen to as many perspectives as possible. In this work, Aguirre compiles interviews with over 30 advocates from the autism community, including people with the condition and their families. They discuss the ways autism manifests in their lives as well as questions of faith, community, work, school, and what they wish others knew about the condition. Some talk about the way their autism intersects with other issues in their lives, like Ben from Virginia, who has encountered both ableism and racism, often at the same time. Ginny Conroy, also from Virginia, talks about how her brother, Russell, manages with both autism and Down syndrome. She discusses how the autism was in some ways harder for the family to deal with when he was a child. Russell’s situation inspired Conroy—who suspects several of her family members fall somewhere on the spectrum—to embark on a career in special education and behavioral analysis. Several other parents and siblings of people with autism share their own insights, which readers outside the autism community may be surprised to learn. “I would…like others to know that parents of autistic children can be under significant scrutiny from others, including autistic adults,” says Amanda, a third Virginian, whose twins, Noah and Nick, have the disorder. “Some of them are displeased with the parents of autistic children.…I am terrified that my children could feel the same way one day.” Such messages contribute to the author’s portrait of the contemporary autism landscape, one in which increased activism and visibility go hand in hand with differing opinions and occasional misunderstandings.
The book is elegantly formatted, with full-color photographs of each person profiled. Aguirre is a minimal presence as an interviewer, but her short, open-ended questions invite intriguing responses from her interviewees. She frequently speaks with multiple members of the same family, which helps to show how individuals’ autism can shape the lives and relationships of those around them. The variety of experiences within the autism community is on display here even as members of that group admit to feeling sidelined or silenced. “People don’t care that I’m autistic, and they don’t care that I’m an autistic parent,” says Sal from Texas. “People don’t even care that I have my degree and am a practitioner who specializes in autism. They still don’t want to hear what I have to say.” The book is released as a special edition of Autism Parenting Magazine, and the primary audience seems to be those who are already inside or adjacent to the autism community. But readers with little experience of autism or a curiosity to learn more will be well served by this volume, which succeeds in putting a number of faces to the condition.
An assortment of enlightening interviews with people with autism and their families.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-66709-360-4
Page Count: 453
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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