I just finished reading
Unmasking Autism, by Dr.
Devon Price, and came away from it impressed, though with a few reservations.
As far as understanding autism goes, this book does an excellent job of explaining the condition in a way that's more focused on what it means (or perhaps I should say "how it feels") to live with autism, rather than trying to explain it in any clinical manner. Being autistic, Price speaks from a place of experience here, and it lends a powerful sense of authenticity to their work. It's not just a question of conditions and particular behaviors (though there's excellent coverage of those too, including things like how many autistic people have senses that are more sensitive to stimuli than "allistic" people (the term for non-autistic people) and the meaning behind frequent "stimming" activities), but also of how it feels to try and conform to a neurotypical society (in a word: unpleasant).
In this regard, "unmasking" is essentially being your authentic, autistic self, without fear or shame.
Of course, Price recognizes that this is not only difficult for many people, but can be even harder (and possibly dangerous) if you're part of multiple minorities. While being autistic while black, queer, a woman, etc. are all given some coverage in this regard, I should note that the book only touches on these in limited ways, simply because they occupy a subset of what Price talks about. Still, it's an important point of coverage which warrants acknowledgment.
While I think this book hits far more than it misses, there were a few points where I was less enthusiastic about its take on things. This was largely where informing and educating gave way to advocacy, particularly with regards to the systemic changes that Price says that society needs to make for the benefit of autistic people. Even if we leave aside that many of these changes have far-reaching effects beyond that of the autistic community (e.g. a universal basic income), some of them seem to be not only unfeasible, but undesirable.
For instance, at one point Price talks about making public spaces (e.g. municipal buildings, public parks, buses and subways, etc.) more friendly to neurodiverse people by cutting back on their sensory stimulation. While I can see this for things like having dimmer lights in public buildings (though I worry about the effect that might have on people with vision problems), Price also advocates for quieter public spaces, and even excluding strong smells, and that's where I have to object, because that sounds like ejecting someone from a public park for playing their radio out loud or being kicked off the subway because their perfume/cologne is too strong (with excessive perfume and cologne being specifically cited as problems to be managed). It's the difference between "freedom to" rights versus "freedom from" rights, and crossing from one to the other is a very, very charged point, one which risks making the perfect the enemy of the good (among other issues).
Likewise, I was uncomfortable with the repeated instances of the idea of "I deserve to be accommodated (simply because of who I am)." Not because I disagree with the sentiment (quite the contrary), but because the line between refusing to be disenfranchised and expecting/demanding that other people to cater to you (i.e. being entitled) isn't a line at all, but a continuum. At the risk of making this more about me than about the book, I think there's at least
some virtue in the idea of not troubling others for your own benefit, and that even if it's unpleasant there's still merit to conforming when in public and professional spaces. (Of course, as with all things, there's a great degree of nuance to these ideas, and everyone will embrace or reject them in different degrees.)
But those are minor nitpicks overall, and the presentation of what it means to live with autism and the damage that is done by trying to repress that in order to fit in is impressive enough that I can't hold the above points of disagreement against the book (not that I would anyway, since I'm of the opinion that disagreement, when presented and discussed rationally and respectfully, is a good thing). To that end, I'd heartily recommend this to anyone who wants to understand the autistic community better.