Daniel Tammet (Wellcome Collection)
How do you see inside the mind of someone else, how they really experience the world? Often, our mental shortcuts let us assume that everyone encounters it as we do.
But they don鈥檛: we all experience the world differently. And that is where reading or listening to other people鈥檚 stories helps. In Nine Minds: Inner lives on the spectrum, Daniel Tammet, himself autistic, creates narrative portraits of nine neurodiverse people, setting out to explore 鈥渨orlds so much richer than the dry, bland accounts鈥� in texts captive to neurotypical ideas of autism鈥� while evading 鈥渓imited clich茅s, defying outdated prejudices鈥�. In this, he very much succeeds.
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We meet Warren, a British police officer, who investigated 92 murders in seven years: in all but one case, the killer was convicted. Then there is Vaughan, a hand and wrist surgeon who 鈥渓iked to think that certain autistic traits 鈥� tremendous focus, attention to specifics, imaginative somersaults 鈥� had played their part in [his] family鈥檚 flourishing鈥�.
Creativity is a theme: Amanda, who wrote her thesis on the autistic poet Les Murray, describes how aspects of autistic thought are especially conducive to creativity, such as 鈥渋nventing and playing with words鈥� revelling in rhyme and the repetition of sounds; listing, arranging, classifying鈥�. Author Naoise relates how she wrote her debut novel in an 鈥渁ssociative, cumulative, almost magical way鈥�. Engineer Ayo imagines lifelike, walking buildings of the future that can respond to the position of the sun and weather.
Tammet, who has written nine other books, including his memoir Born on a Blue Day, skilfully gives each portrait colour and personality so they zip along, with loves, joys and challenges effortlessly woven together in an engaging but sensitive style.
One common refrain is the damage that ignorance causes neurodiverse people. This is most shockingly illustrated when we meet Billy, a non-verbal adult who was diagnosed with autism as a toddler in the 1990s. His story, told through his mother Eve, details uncaring and dismissive attitudes from the medical profession. When Eve asked how to help Billy learn to communicate his needs, wishes and thoughts, for example, she was met with incredulity. 鈥淲hat thoughts?鈥� asked the specialists.
Autistic people are pushing back against these negative stereotypes. Researcher Kana used her experience of crushing loneliness at university in Tokyo as her starting point to investigate loneliness in autistic people, setting out to overturn long-held beliefs that autistic people prefer to be on their own and so don鈥檛 feel lonely. Her research, , found that loneliness increases when autistic people try to conform to neurotypical social behaviours.
There is still a way to go. When I read how Kana was initially misdiagnosed with anxiety by a male psychiatrist, I wasn鈥檛 surprised. Misdiagnosis is something many autistic people, particularly women, have experienced: a showed that prior to an autism diagnosis, 1 in 4 autistic adults, and 1 in 3 autistic women, received a diagnosis for a mental health condition that they perceived as a misdiagnosis.
While most of the profiles are a wonderful evocation of a person鈥檚 life, some are less successful, staying at surface level. But this doesn鈥檛 detract from Tammet鈥檚 overall message that there is no single neurodiverse experience.
Nine Minds is an interesting book that eschews prejudices and stereotypes, showing, as Tammet puts it, the 鈥減ower and beauty of the autistic imagination鈥�. If you would like to peek inside other people鈥檚 minds, this is a great place to start.
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