I’m so excited that my first novel came out this week!  It’s called Childless, and tells the story of a childless child psychologist named Harvey Sumner who tries to foil a U.S. government plot to remove childhood from the human genome.  That’s right!  No more childhood!  In the future, through genetic engineering, a person will...Read More

What is neurodiversity?  Is anybody really normal?  How can we address the strengths of those who’ve been labeled as ADHD, dyslexia, autism, bipolar, or schizophrenic?  Those are some of the questions that are addressed in a new Canadian Broadcasting Company Radio One program entitled: ”The Myth of Normal” which aired Part 1 on April 29,...Read More

One of the themes that I’ve sought to emphasize in my work in the field of neurodiversity is the idea that whether a person will be labeled as disordered or gifted may have more to do with when and where they were born rather than anything intrinsic to them as an individual.  I’ve found it...Read More

Yesterday in the New York Times an op ed piece appeared entitled ”Successful and Schizophrenic’‘ that affirmed the importance of neurodiversity and the value of strengths in people with mental health labels.  Written by Elyn Saks, who has lived with schizophrenia all her life yet been highly successful in several fields (professor of law, psychoanalyst, MacArthur fellow), the piece...Read More

Two recent articles highlight the positive dimensions of mental health conditions such as autism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. In the journal Nature, an article by Canadian neuroscientist Laurent Mottron, emphasizes the advantages of autism (Mottron, 2011). Mottron suggests that, in addition to the well-known savant abilities of a small sub-section of autistic individuals, there are...Read More