Books & Audiobooks
Having read and enjoyed Price’s previous books, Unlearning Shame and Unmasking Autism, I found his most recent book, Unmasking for Life following the same immediately-helpful-to-readers trajectory as volumes past. He joins a growing chorus of autistic people who call for more focus on a shift away from harmful Applied Behavioural Analysis training (invented by the same person who used and advocated for electroshock therapy on boys to “fix” traits that fell outside of hetero-norms that he felt were “effeminate”), and a move towards helping autistic people advocate for themselves. Price outlines the five skills that help autistic and neurodivergent people “unmask” or, live on their terms, rather than conforming to the expectations of a neurotypical world about what normal means. They include Acceptance, Engagement, Transgression, Tolerance, and Creation. The book is one-part helpful guide for allistics, and other neurotypical people but more importantly, it is written for the autistic person who has been taught that self-disregard is a valuable trait to adopt to navigate a neurotypical world with autism. Plainly stated, it is a project of restoring dignity and power to autistic people.
Books that are immediately applicable, or practical in any way earn a special place on my bookshelves (not to suggest a utilitarian knowledge binary of useful and not). It is one of the gifts of Price’s books. Each chapter based on a Core Skill for Unmasking contains a helpful worksheet and series of exercises at its end where Price as a psychologist, guides readers through restorative and reparative self-awareness. There is some irony that the exercises and journaling practices encouraged in Unmasking for Life are applicable to autistic people and that they would also work for people whose PTSD or C-PTSD has left them disconnected from their body and needs. Price’s depth of research speaks for itself but is especially poignant where it cites that “between 45 and 61 percent of Autistic adults have PTSD.” It makes Unmasking for Life a useful guide for anyone experiencing neurodivergence, including those whose experiences of PTSD have altered their sensory processing, and relationship to neuronorms. Building a more autism-inclusive world doesn’t just benefit autistic people, and it highlights the equity truism that empathy, kindness, and compassion often benefit multiple marginalized communities.
Price takes up the work of restoring dignity to autistic people, and as someone who received a late-in-life-diagnosis of ASD I (formerly Aspergers), it reads like a breath of fresh air that allows your body to fully relax (i.e. unmasking). The simple act of encouraging an autistic person to know and name what they need, whether that be clothing that is more comfortable, a more sensory friendly environment or their physiological needs like hunger or exhaustion is so valuable. Using an example from my own experience, I had the same breakfast smoothie almost every day for three years; Now I find it important that my breakfast has a crunch if I want to enjoy eating it, rather than drink it. Many people would say there was something wrong with that, or that I was inflexible, but Price advocates that it’s okay to just be autistic in your life. Autistic people thrive with predictability but it is often cast in the role of oppositional, or unduly rigid. I got used to people thinking me weird, offensive, entitled, or prickly about certain things, but what if there was no need for this acclimation to discomfort? What if it was just okay to need what you need as an autistic person, especially when it doesn’t harm or affect anyone?
What a healing gesture it is to be given permission to just be and encouraged to advocate for yourself because autistic people deserve this just as much as allistics. Price outlines the Core Skills and simultaneously emphasizes the skills that autistic people need to advocate for themselves: increasing distress tolerance, learning to be okay with other people’s expectations being unmet, learning social skills not relative to what other people deem them to be but based on one’s own boundaries and needs; Rather than just being expected to sit through or live through uncomfortable (and sometimes violent) situations, Price advocates that autistic needs are valid, too. It is a realignment of priorities wherein autistic people get to do what therapeutic interventions or diagnostic criteria oriented towards “cure” would encourage against: being ourselves, unapologetically. In one passage he notes of expectations, asking questions and needing to know why, that:
“Masked Autistics are frequently discouraged from asking questions because many allistics communicate in covert, symbolic ways and expect us to do the same. But you deserve to understand the situation you are in, any expectations a person has put upon you, or why a rule is what it is. A powerful way to stay engaged rather than passive and checked out is by asking directly when something isn’t clear. This may surprise some people who see asking questions as rude—do it anyway.”
When we talk about justice of any kind, not far behind are the twin concepts of dignity and humanity. Unmasking Autism gives autistic people a way of seeing their strengths and inherent value; “The nonconformity of autistic people is one of our greatest strengths, but we’re taught to believe it’s one of our worst qualities.” Price’s book is an exercise in envisioning a world were autistic people can flourish, where their voice matters, and where their experiences are believed without requiring vast qualifying projects just to be heard. He paints a picture of a world that one cannot help but want to create for others, and that autistic people deserve to experience firsthand: thriving.