Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You

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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. The author uses the term 'Aspergers' multiple times, without saying anything about the history of that term. This book is powerful, much-needed for our times, and Jenara Nerenberg offers a unique blend of personal, scientific, and societal analysis. It was comforting to read about others that cope with similar experiences on a daily basis however I really would like more advice on how to actually deal with it. Mostly it’s an overgeneralization/simplifications of other, better books that the author herself mentions in the text and that I myself have read.

There is a lot of discussion around HSP, with no mention of the harmful and incorrect things Elaine Aron has said about autism. This book left me wondering who exactly this book was written for, the individual neurodivergent, or for those who have the power to enact systemic change? 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 really for all women, giving them the chance to understand each others’ invisible differences and gifts.

As a result, potentially millions live with undiagnosed neuro-divergences, obscured by anxiety and depression.

Absolutely useless to the individual, and only addressed white collar corporate culture, completely ignoring blue and pink collar work, and offered absolutely no practical advice for the neurodivergent individual working in environments that are controlled at a level far higher than the individual location. I feel that the author collected a lot of stories from women that were closer to her economic social circles, which is fine, but I’m very much a working class woman who was looking for more help navigating the struggles I have within my social class, which I didn’t find in this book. I'm not a woman, but since I spent my first 18 years of my life perceived in all my offline social spheres as a girl, my experiences from then are more like late-diagnosed autistic women's than late-diagnosed autistic men's. And I'll save my criticisms of treating "Highly Sensitive Person" like an actual diagnosis because oh my god.The book de-pathologizes those of us who most profoundly and intensely think and feel the world around us.

If this book were published prior to the Black Lives Matter movement's founding rather than in 2020, I might have let that slide. Divergent Mind is a long-overdue, much-needed answer for women who have a deep sense that they are “different. I loved that Nerenberg explained all of the ways the brain functions out of the norm and how to deal with this. Between a flawed system that focuses on diagnosing younger, male populations, and the fact that girls are conditioned from a young age to blend in and conform to gender expectations, women often don’t learn about their neurological differences until they are adults, if at all. I really found this enlightening; this is, in some ways, the successor to Susan Cain's "Quiet", the book about introversion.This wonderfully positive and accessible introduction to the neurodiversity paradigm is packed with life-changing insight for anyone whose way of experiencing the world diverges from the ordinary. Mirror Neurons are a staple of bonding and evolution, if you don't have mirror neurons firing off you gonna have big problems. For a book published in 2020, you'd think that the author would realize that "Asperger's" is outdated, or at least mention it (or it's historical connotations).

I bought the book hoping for lots of ideas of how to manage life in this world however it seemed more of a book about why and how we should advocate for change. The author's passing endorsement of training cops about ways autistic traits can look like disobedience feels especially ignorant, given the amount of young autistic Black men and women who have been arrested or assaulted by police who knew they were autistic. 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. American psychiatry has increasingly taught our society to think that people can be divided into two categories: those who are 'normal' and those who are 'not normal.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. The framing of most neurodivergent traits as positive differences is nice, but glosses over the struggles of people who have higher support needs. While some of the earlier chapters in the book gave helpful definitions for different neurodivergencies, I recommend looking into other sources like, you know, Google and Instagram for the same exact information that’s most likely presented in a less privileged manner. This book was a great first step into understanding women who are neurodivergent and how certain women have adapted and struggled because of their “differences”. To access your ebook(s) after purchasing, you can download the free Glose app or read instantly on your browser by logging into Glose.