Divergent Mind

Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You came out from HarperOne on 24 March 2020. The paperback followed in February 2021. The page count varies between 244 and 256 depending on the edition. The subtitle roughly means "thriving in a world that was not designed for you."

I could not find a verified Turkish edition; it did not come up in a Kitapyurdu search either. I am writing about it under its original title.

Since this is a contemporary book, let me say it up front: this review is based on the book's table of contents, the publisher's description, an article the author adapted from the book, and published reader and expert reviews. I am not pretending to have wandered through its pages. I also say where I could not verify something.

Who wrote it

Jenara Nerenberg is a journalist. She is not a clinician, and she is not a researcher either. She studied at Berkeley and at the Harvard School of Public Health. After living in Asia, she started out in journalism at CNN, and her writing has appeared in places such as Fast Company and TIME. She is also the one who founded The Neurodiversity Project.

The story behind the book is personal. According to the author's description, she realizes that the sensitivities she had long labeled as "anxiety" could also be recognized as traits of autism and ADHD, and she starts researching the subject as a journalist.

This explains the book's tone. What you have in front of you is not a textbook. It is a journalist's book that combines her own process of recognition with a compilation and moves forward through interviews.

The starting idea

The book's claim comes together in three steps. First, because diagnostic criteria were written for many years on the basis of boys and young men, women and girls fell outside the criteria. Second, women learned early to wear a mask in order to fit in, which is why what remained were wrong or incomplete diagnoses such as anxiety and depression. Third, all of this needs to be looked at through the framework of neurodiversity rather than a framework of "normal and abnormal."

The book places itself next to two predecessors. One is Elaine Aron's book on high sensitivity that came out in the 1990s. One reader review says that Nerenberg built her book as both a response and a complement to Aron. The other is Steve Silberman's NeuroTribes. According to another review, because that book focuses mostly on men, Nerenberg turns to the experience of women. Alongside Aron and Silberman, Susan Cain and the autistic neurodiversity scholar Nick Walker also appear with praise in the book's promotion.

I think this framework is what determines its position on my shelf. Here ADHD is not a heading on its own but one member of the family. It is the umbrella I described in the neurodiversity entry in the glossary, turned into a book.

Inside the book: the introduction and Part One

The introduction is about twenty-two pages. It tells the author's own story and the case for the book.

Part One is "Inner Worlds." It has two chapters. The first is "The Female Mind Throughout History," how the female mind has been read through history. As far as I can tell from the sources I saw, it touches on women's behavior being read as possession by spirits in the Middle Ages and as hysteria in the nineteenth century. The idea is this: a sensitivity counted as illness in women always came out of the social context of its time.

The second chapter is "Reframing Sensitivity." As far as I can tell from the title and secondary sources, Aron's concept of the "highly sensitive person" and gender bias in psychology research are covered here. I could not verify the details of this chapter, so I will not say much.

According to the page numbers in the printed table of contents I saw, this part is about thirty pages. It is the shortest part of the book.

Inside the book: Part Two

"Outer Frames." About sixty pages and two chapters.

The third chapter is called "Autism, Synesthesia, and ADHD": autism, synesthesia and ADHD, under the same heading. What caught my attention is that ADHD does not get a chapter of its own. The book describes the three side by side. According to the publisher's description, the book contains the stories of women who live with high sensitivity, ADHD, autism, misophonia, dyslexia and sensory processing differences.

The fourth chapter is called "Sensory Processing 'Disorder.'" The word disorder is in quotation marks in the title. I think this small sign tells you the book's attitude: it recognizes the label but does not carry it.

In one of the reader reviews, two names stand out. One is the massage therapist CC Hart, the other the planetary scientist Sara Seager. The review relates that Seager struggled with everyday tasks such as shopping and was later diagnosed on the autism spectrum. I could not verify in which chapter these stories appear.

Inside the book: Part Three

"Something New." The longest part of the book: about seventy-four pages and three chapters. After it comes a twenty-six-page conclusion. One table of contents I saw also includes an afterword.

The chapters are, in order, "Well-Being," "Home" and "Work." Here the book moves from diagnosis to solutions.

I could not see inside the chapters page by page. An article the author adapted from the book, which appeared on the website of Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center in March 2020, does show what kind of suggestions the book deals with. There is an exercise in noticing bodily signals: counting your heartbeats after a few jumping jacks without checking your pulse, for example. On medication, the author talks about finding a doctor who understands brains that work differently and notes that stimulants can support executive functions. For the home, dim and colored lighting, calming visuals and multisensory rooms called "snoezelen" are recommended. There is also the principle of try it, keep what works, drop what does not. This article is a good example of the book's tone.

One reader review sums up this part as society making accommodations at home and in the workplace. The same review writes that the suggestions stay general rather than concrete.

Its strongest points

First, recognition. For a woman who was noticed late, the sentence "I always had this, and it has a name" means a great deal. Most of the readers who reviewed the book agreed with it exactly at this point.

Second, it takes the sensory side seriously. Most ADHD books are occupied with attention and executive functions. Sound, light, texture and crowds are usually a footnote. Here they are a main heading. As I described in the sensory differences in autism and ADHD piece on the site, this topic really does narrow the day in both diagnoses.

Third, the home and work parts treat space as a variable. Saying "the environment was not built for me" instead of "I am doing something wrong" changes the direction of the problem. The open office piece on the site looks in the same direction.

Fourth, readability. In the reviews the book was found fluent, warm and engaging.

Weak points and the problem of evidence

First, the evidence. The topics the book covers are not equally solid. ADHD and autism are conditions that have a place in the official diagnostic systems and have been researched extensively. Late and missed diagnosis in women is also an observation supported by research; I described it in the autism and ADHD in women piece. But high sensitivity is a concept that comes from Aron's own line of research, not a diagnosis. Sensory processing disorder is not listed as a separate diagnosis in the DSM-5. Misophonia is not a separate diagnosis in the official classifications either. Synesthesia is a real difference in perception, but it is not an illness in itself. Putting all of them under one umbrella is powerful in terms of solidarity, but it is problematic because it blurs the level of evidence. Some readers find the sources weak, the writing overgeneralizing and the topics too many.

Terms such as "mirror neurons" and "empathy" come up often in the book. The link between mirror neurons and empathy is a contested area in neuroscience. I could not verify how the book handles this topic. I am writing this not as an accusation against the book but as a note to the reader.

Second, the sample. On Goodreads it has an average of around 3.8 across roughly ten thousand ratings, which means the reviews are mixed. The most frequently repeated criticism is this: the women interviewed are mostly educated, well-off, white, and from the worlds of tech, academia or corporate business. Women of different races and classes, and people with high support needs, do not get enough room in the book. A late-diagnosed autistic reader thinks the book was written for women who can work an ordinary job once accommodations are made. I do not find this reading unfair.

Third, the language. Several reviews find the use of the term "Asperger" outdated and problematic. In the official systems this diagnosis was folded into the autism spectrum with the DSM-5 in 2013.

Fourth, the emphasis on strengths. Some readers worried that framing difference as talent would play down the burden of those who are struggling. It is a criticism that comes from the same place as the strengths debate on the site. Some readers were also concerned that a framework that does not count difference as a disorder could keep people in crisis away from treatment. Looking at the adapted article, I do not think the book intends this; it talks there about finding an understanding doctor. But if you are looking for clear guidance on diagnosis and treatment, this book was not built for that.

Who it is for, and who it is not

For a woman who was noticed late, who has always been accused of being too sensitive, who has described herself as "anxious." For the reader looking for the feeling of "I have this too," or the reader just approaching a diagnosis, it is a good door. One reader recommended the book to newly diagnosed women and to mental health workers.

Who it is not for: someone who wants to learn about ADHD in depth. There is no separate ADHD chapter. It is not for someone looking for strategies either, because the suggestions are reported to stay general. And not at all for someone looking for diagnostic criteria, medication or a therapy protocol.

I got my diagnosis at 22. I think I would have wanted to read this book at that age as a mirror, but knowing that I would look for the next step in another book.

As for how to read it, the distribution in the table of contents suggests an order to me. The introduction and Part One take up about fifty pages and mostly build the framework. If your time is limited, I think it makes sense to start with Part Two: that is where you will recognize yourself. As for Part Three, it seems better to open it chapter by chapter, when you need it, rather than reading it in one go. The home chapter might be useful while you are arranging a bedroom, the work chapter before you go to an interview or a meeting. I am saying these things based on the table of contents and the description. I cannot say how it works in practice, because I have not tried the book myself.

There is one more thing: looking at its description and table of contents, it does not seem like a workbook. No exercises, scales or pages to fill in are mentioned. Things like taking notes or drawing up your own sensory list are something you will have to set up yourself as you read.

Its place on the shelf

When you put it next to the books on women and ADHD on the site, the difference shows. Women with Attention Deficit Disorder is a book from 1995 that describes the shame of the woman with ADHD. Kadınlarda DEHB İçin Radikal Bir Rehber (A Radical Guide for Women with ADHD) is a workbook that works with that same shame using the tools of acceptance and commitment therapy. Nerenberg is broader than both and less deep than both: she thinks about ADHD together with autism and sensory differences.

For the picture that emerges when ADHD and autism occur together, the AuDHD piece gives more detail. For the burden women carry in hiding themselves, you can look at the masking piece.

Closing

This book should be read not as a book of diagnosis but as a book of recognition. I think the best thing it does is explain to someone who was belittled for years as "too sensitive" why she was not noticed. If you are looking for a guide with solid evidence, look on other shelves. But if a woman is going to find herself not in a checklist but in a landscape, this book's wide door was opened exactly for her.