‘Groundbreaking … [provides] a deep history of the invention of the “normal” mind as one of the most damaging and oppressive tools of capitalism. To read it is to see the world more clearly’ Steve Silberman, author of NeuroTribes
‘Argues that a radical politics of neurodiversity is necessary, not only for neurodivergent folk, but for our collective liberation’ Professor Hel Spandler, editor, Asylum magazine
‘A vital book that kindles the flames of a neurodivergent revolution’ Beatrice Adler-Bolton, co-author of Health Communism
Neurodiversity is on the rise. Awareness and diagnoses have exploded in recent years, but we are still missing a wider understanding of how we got here and why. Beyond simplistic narratives of normativity and difference, this groundbreaking book exposes the very myth of the ‘normal’ brain as a product of intensified capitalism.
Exploring the rich histories of the neurodiversity and disability movements, Robert Chapman shows how the rise of capitalism created an ‘empire of normality’ that transformed our understanding of the body into that of a productivity machine. Neurodivergent liberation is possible – but only by challenging the deepest logics of capitalism. Empire of Normality is an essential guide to understanding the systems that shape our bodies, minds and deepest selves – and how we can undo them.
Robert Chapman is a neurodivergent philosopher who has taught at King’s College London and Bristol University. They are currently Assistant Professor in Critical Neurodiversity Studies at Durham University. They blog at Psychology Today and at Critical Neurodiversity.
Sea Weather –
Marxist analysis of neurodiversity as a social construct. Thorough and well-told, and also approachable (some of these texts get dense – this one is very readable). The personal anecdotes in the introduction are relatable and ground the analysis that follows. I appreciate the attention to intersectionality in the approach while insisting on centering disability (important, when only 4% of DEI initiatives in higher ed even acknowledge disability). Highly recommend if you’re interested in the development of normativity and divergence. If you like this and want to push further, there are many parallel arguments in the work of Foucault, Ian Hacking, and others. Having read those, this was still worthwhile.
Philly Shopper –
When I got this book, I wasn’t sure I’d understand it because I’ve never read anything about economic systems. I did read it slowly because there was a lot to comprehend, but it was a really clear explanation of the history of defining disability, the history of society’s (mainly UK and US) relationship to disabled people, and the schools of thought being applied to neurodiversity going forward. Re: the current thinking about neurodiversity, the author does a great job of examining the importance and limitations of each model. So helpful.It made so many things fall into place for me and empowered me to question a lot of things I had believed about myself as a neurodivergent person, my fraught relationship with employment, and my role in society as it is today.I got the paperback and quickly bought the Kindle version, too, so I could annotate it easily. And I just bought a copy to ship to a neurodivergent friend who will find it very interesting.It is a complex subject but the writing is very clear, and I just loved it.
timothy Wunder –
If you are ND and want some knowledge on the history/this is a great book.NDs and NTs should read this book
MR T MAY –
Exposing the Empire of the “Normal” Mind
This is a trenchant, clear and maddening read which exposes and challenges the taken for granted assumptions about “normality”. This is expressed by the pathology paradigm through which autism and other neurological differences have been perceived for nearly two centuries.Movingly, there’s a sense that things weren’t always thus. Before the “clock time” of capitalism and the Industrial Revolution, Chapman notes that most societies before the 1800s were sometimes able to accommodate difference rather than judging it against a metrical yardstick.Chapman is measured and critical – if not especially detailed – about the actual record of Communist regimes, chiefly those of Lenin and Stalin, but nevertheless forwards a committed Marxist analysis of how our sense of “normality” and enforced conformism is dictated by capitalism. I am convinced, as clearly, Marxism was not a template or rulebook that the Soviet dictators actually utilised, but rather distorted it and used it for promotional value.This book builds on Mark Fisher’s crucial insights about people too much internalising and blaming themselves for problems which are actually externally imposed by capitalist realism. Chapman rightly calls it a ‘fascistic fantasy’ to wish away neurodivergent disablement and illness and that we need to accept that they will always exist. Chapman is strong on defining the industrial and human impacts of Fordism, which was a major workplace enforcement of conformism and neurotypicality, as well as creating burnout and boredom. The manipulation of workers and their moulding into ‘man machines’ saw corporations utilising the PR techniques of Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays.There’s a fascinating section where Chapman develops a nuanced critique of the increasing use of prescription drugs from the 1950s and related debates concerning over-medication.Chapman also critiques the 1960s Laingian anti-psychiatry movement, which was so easily coopted by right-wing libertarians like Thomas Szasz, giving them ammunition to dangerously claim that mental illness itself was a ‘myth’. A section on eugenics builds on Adam Pearson and Angela Saini’s BBC documentary Eugenics: Science’s Greatest Scandal and Adam Rutherford’s recent work in exposing this appallingly extant movement that Galton founded. If anyone’s in any doubt about the sway of the ‘autism as damaging’ pathology paradigm, learn how Deborah Barnbaum argued, as recently as 2008, in The Ethics of Autism, ‘that, once prenatal diagnostic technology is capable, there will be a moral obligation to abort autistic foetuses on the grounds that being autistic is inherently incompatible with living a good human life’.Chapman provides a sound account of European socialist alternatives to the mainstream and also anti-psychiatry in the 1970s-80s. He also covers the crucial Neurodiversity movement which emerged in the 1990s, led by Jim Sinclair, Judy Singer and Harvey Blume; their politics of Neurodiversity has been furthered by Nick Walker, who has led the paradigm shift towards neurodivergence being respected.Chapman notes significant earlier progress in the late 1970s with the Black Panthers recognising ‘disabled liberation as bound up with collective liberation’. This is a prelude to his necessary and ambitious focus on intersectionality at the end, with many alliances with other groups needed for his proposed neurodivergent Marxism to work. He does not entirely ignore our planetary environment, which has been ransacked and made to fit the needs of capitalist development, whether of the American, Chinese or European variants. However, that this really only emerges in the conclusion suggests a fuller book is needed to explore how neurotypical thinking hinders any serious long term ecological action.This impressive book, with its far-reaching and impressively constructed argument, persuades you that some form of reformed Marxist thinking, combined with other lenses, is vital to begin making the world a better place. Chapman grounds the book with a notably personal introduction which engages with his own life experiences. There are some promising signs in how neurodivergence is being more accepted, but we can’t be complacent: as Chapman argues, we need fewer ‘diversity consultants teaching companies how to exploit more neurodivergent workers’ and more ‘neurodivergent workers organising as neurodivergents to radically change the structures and expectations of the workplace.’ (p.161)
Russ –
This is an important book.
In a time where some the richest countries in Europe (UK and Ireland) have blamed the failure of the economy to provide a decent standard of living on people living with disability, instead of blaming the effects of the deregulation of banking and business, this book is both a welcome insight and a warning. I expect people will look back at this time and ask why it was allowed to happen given the lessons from our recent history, but there is a big difference between actual historical facts and the many political narratives, missinformation and propaganda we all know; And this book clearly reveals the many reasons why we have only heard about the latter, what it means and what we should all be doing about it!It is an important and well researched work to that clarifies the severity of the situation and the necessity of preventing our societies from resurrecting the horrors of the past.
Allyboo –
Fantastic.
I think this is a brave, bold and courageous book 👍 Well done in my opinion 🙂
N G. –
Eloquent, skillful and insightful
I just loved this book and I read a lot of books about Neurodiversity! Chapman’s blend of deep rigorous knowledge around psychology, philosophy, history and politics somehow combines to create a sense of intimacy in their narrative. I felt taken on a journey, one of which I am familiar with the map, yet I felt more present and engage with the landscape than before. Chapman has reached that rare elevation as a writer of simultaneously holding expertise and knowledge whilst remaining accessible and personable. Fantastic book. Have bought two as gifts already.
Rich –
Better than expected
I bought this book since it sounded like some of the topics I’m covering in my own research and personal life-experience writings. I’ve only just received it and page one feels like I wrote it (with some chatGPT editing). Never have I felt such immediate connection to a book, and other life. A brief look at subsequent chapters and I think this will be on par with some of Sapolsky’s writings. Very impressed and excited to read more.