Book review: Unmasking Autism

Unmasking Autism is a blend of pop psychology and self-help heavily informed by the neurodiversity movement.

Price offers a perspective on autism that is non-pathologizing, and frames many of the difficulties associated with autistic living as a failure of our society to include autistics.

The book is geared towards autistics, with journal prompts helping the assumed autistic reader understand and differentiate them vs. their mask.

Price’s goal is to help the reader learn to let go of masking behaviors that hold them back from expressing their true self and their boundaries, and make peace with their suppressed needs as an autistic individual.

You can already tell that Price makes some assumptions about the reader. And many readers have criticized this.

Indeed, while Price does occasionally touch on autistics with higher support needs, Unmasking Autism mainly focuses on a specific demographic: young-ish adult autistics with low support needs, who can and do mask in the first place, and who have access to spaces where they can safely unmask.^[1]

So Unmasking Autism is not an in-depth review of the entire autism spectrum, nor is it a primer – but I don’t think it’s meant to be.

Like I said, this is more of a self-help book geared towards that demographic. Price describes the social struggles of many autistics in that demographic; a non-pathologized view of autistic traits; and tips and stories on learning to express your boundaries, embrace your quirks, and pursue your joys.

I think Price refers to autistics using “we” a bit too much for comfort, and oversimplifies some topics. Not every section is a homerun,^[2] and not every journal prompt inspired much insight in my experience.

But some did, and many other sections are well-written, thought-provoking, and, on a personal level, validating. I participated in most of the prompts; my copy is now marked up like a little diary.

This is not a very academic book, and by no means should it be your only understanding of autism.

But for that specific demographic of autistics – many non-autistic young adults, too – who want to get better at embracing who they are, stick up for their own needs, and view autism from a non-pathologizing lens, Unmasking Autism is a book that will hopefully help.

Other reviews I like

• “[Unmasking Autism] is by default focused on the perspective of autistics whose pain has been caused by sublimating their autistic feelings and behavior. I came at it from another perspective...”
• “I feel like maybe ‘Autistic Self-Love: finding self-acceptance and self-confidence in a neurotypical world’ would have been a better title...”
• “...getting to see things from ‘both sides of the coin,’ can make it challenging for me to consume content that glosses over the nuance that exists when discussing autism from the lens of someone with low support needs vs someone with higher support needs...”