Unmasking Autism

Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity

By: Devon Price PhD

Narrated by: Devon Price PhD

Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

A deep dive into the spectrum of Autistic experience and the phenomenon of masked Autism, giving individuals the tools to safely uncover their true selves while broadening society’s narrow understanding of neurodiversity

“A remarkable work that will stand at the forefront of the neurodiversity movement.”—Barry M. Prizant, PhD, CCC-SLP, author of Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism

For every visibly Autistic person you meet, there are countless “masked” Autistic people who pass as neurotypical. Masking is a common coping mechanism in which Autistic people hide their identifiably Autistic traits in order to fit in with societal norms, adopting a superficial personality at the expense of their mental health. This can include suppressing harmless stims, papering over communication challenges by presenting as unassuming and mild-mannered, and forcing themselves into situations that cause severe anxiety, all so they aren’t seen as needy or “odd.”

In Unmasking Autism, Dr. Devon Price shares his personal experience with masking and blends history, social science research, prescriptions, and personal profiles to tell a story of neurodivergence that has thus far been dominated by those on the outside looking in. For Dr. Price and many others, Autism is a deep source of uniqueness and beauty. Unfortunately, living in a neurotypical world means it can also be a source of incredible alienation and pain. Most masked Autistic individuals struggle for decades before discovering who they truly are. They are also more likely to be marginalized in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, and other factors, which contributes to their suffering and invisibility. Dr. Price lays the groundwork for unmasking and offers exercises that encourage self-expression, including:

• Celebrating special interests
• Cultivating Autistic relationships
• Reframing Autistic stereotypes
• And rediscovering your values

It’s time to honor the needs, diversity, and unique strengths of Autistic people so that they no longer have to mask—and it’s time for greater public acceptance and accommodation of difference. In embracing neurodiversity, we can all reap the rewards of nonconformity and learn to live authentically, Autistic and neurotypical people alike.

*Includes a downloadable PDF of exercises, tables, lists, and a graph from the book

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Devon Price (P)2022 Random House Audio

Eye Opening and Validating

This book was amazing. Dr. Devon Price has such a pleasant voice to listen to. They spoke plainly in a way I found easy to follow as they help the reader, or in our case the listener, understand autism better.
In a gentle but firm and unwavering manner, Dr. Price tells the listener to throw out harmful neurotypical views on autism and instead listen to other autistic people. They remind the listener, or teach them, in my case, that too many neurotypical people place their own convenience or doxastic comfort above the happiness and healthiness of their neurodivergent counterparts. Or, to say it plainly: too many people insist on believing and enforcing the belief that there is a universal or even mandated Normal, that Normal is good and right, and that doing anything outside that Normal, even if it harms no one and makes the ‘abnormal’ person happy, is bad and wrong. Unmasking Autism is about rejecting the frivolous Normal and doing what makes you happy, as well as fighting for a world where everyone can do so.
If you disagree with the belief that we should all fight for a world where everyone can unmask safely and happily, I beg you to listen to the WHOLE book before tossing it aside. Hold off your objections to whether anyone is being oppressed or wronged until you’ve listened to all Dr. Price has to say about how it actually feels to be an autist in a world that was not built for you, but rather was built to grind you into a palatable fraction of who you really are.
Dr. Price’s intersectional perspective reminds them, and therefore allows them to remind us as the listeners, that autism (and indeed, life in general) does not look the same for everyone. They explain this with academic evidence as well as anecdotal stories shared with them from other neurodivergent people. There’s even a small but weighty and meaningful emphasis on how neurodivergence in different demographics is viewed by neurotypical society, and I appreciate that when they speak about the difficulties and even dangers of unmasking one’s autism when one is, say black, for instance, they use examples given to them by black autistic people.
This book really opened up the door for me to question myself and the world I live in, and I truly believe I am better for it. It helped me learn to love a part of myself I and my family have been first ignorant and then resistant to for most of my life. I highly encourage everyone, regardless of whether or not you think you’re neurodivergent or know anyone who is, to read/listen to it.
To that point, I want to recommend that you ignore, or at least set aside until you finish the book, any angry one star reviews complaining about how the book is too ‘woke’ or ‘indulgent in victim mentality’. It’s literally the author saying ‘hey autism and some other neurodivergent conditions aren’t something one needs to fix or hide in order to make neurotypical people happy, and we should fight for a world where no one is forced to do so.’ It’s about unabashedly being one’s autistic self. And yes, in order to achieve a world where people can be themselves happily and safely, a lot of social injustices must be corrected and left behind. This will always grind the gears of those unwilling to ask themselves whether they’re a part of the system that’s hurting others and whether they’re okay with that or not. Please, for yourself, and the rest of your teammates in this game of life, ie; literally everyone on the planet, PLEASE give this book a listen with an open mind and open heart.
Also, the definition of doxastic is ‘of or pertaining to belief.’

I used to think my mask protected me…

This book shifted my perspective on autism as well as myself. I’ve worked with autistic individuals for years. Teenagers on the spectrum were always clocking my neurodivergence but I was one of the “everyone is a lil autistic” people until doing research and deconstructing a lot of what I learned in school. This book helped me squash any remaining misleading concepts and stigmas I had.

Must read

This book lands in my top 3. Changed my life. Changed my perspective. Everyone needs to read this. Great narration too

Amazing book

This book is so beneficial for anyone who feels like they might be or has people in their life that are autistic. It really helps you understand it to the core.

Must read for all neurodivergents

Narrated by the author, this felt more like listening to a conversation in some ways, but is in fact a well researched and documented book. I related to this book more than any other I’ve read and highly, highly recommend it.

Meaningful

This is literally the most meaningful book I have ever read. Being late dx ASD, It is like FINALLY being seen and understood. I recommend it to parents, friends and loved ones who have/know people, children etc. with ASD to get to know us better and hear our struggles.

Excellent

Devan beautifully explains the connections and specifics between needed social change and needed personal change

Top of the list

Extremely valuable and well written. (Not boring and academic)
Devon and their work are an asset to the autistic and larger community. More people and books like this, please.

Wow!

What a great and informative book. As an autistic person I learned a lot and the exercises were so helpful. I highly recommend it!

Great Inclusive and Informative book

I went into this book knowing I was neurodivergent, albeit not exactly how, and looking for some help in sorting out the issues I have because of my brain and the issues I have because of how my brain has been formed by the ableism and trauma around me. This did a great job at helping me sort out my own understanding of myself, my understanding of other experiences, how I can be more understanding of others and myself, and what steps to take for myself. The exercises throughout the book build on each other and thanks to the examples provided were easy to accomplish with a little thinking.

While this book doesn’t focus on neuroscience (which is not what it was advertised as) it does give a great societal background from a variety of perspectives. I came out of this book knowing more about varied human experience than I did going in and that’s more than worth the time for me, even if I hadn’t also learned more about myself which I did. If you enjoy learning by listening to examples and other people’s experiences this will be a great book for you! This book is also expressly queer and poc minded when suggesting steps giving it an awesome intersectional approach that made me feel more comfortable with the text as a whole.