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Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You Paperback – February 16, 2021

by Jenara Nerenberg (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,414 ratings
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AUDIBLE EDITOR'S PICK


A paradigm-shifting study of neurodivergent women—those with ADHD, autism, synesthesia, high sensitivity, and sensory processing disorder—exploring why these traits are overlooked in women and how society benefits from allowing their unique strengths to flourish.

As a successful Harvard and Berkeley-educated writer, entrepreneur, and devoted mother, Jenara Nerenberg was shocked to discover that her “symptoms”--only ever labeled as anxiety-- were considered autistic and ADHD. Being a journalist, she dove into the research and uncovered neurodiversity—a framework that moves away from pathologizing “abnormal” versus “normal” brains and instead recognizes the vast diversity of our mental makeups. 

When it comes to women, sensory processing differences are often overlooked, masked, or mistaken for something else entirely. Between a flawed system that focuses on diagnosing younger, male populations, and the fact that girls are conditioned from a young age to blend in and conform to gender expectations, women often don’t learn about their neurological differences until they are adults, if at all. As a result, potentially millions live with undiagnosed or misdiagnosed neurodivergences, and the misidentification leads to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and shame. Meanwhile, we all miss out on the gifts their neurodivergent minds have to offer.

Divergent Mind is a long-overdue, much-needed answer for women who have a deep sense that they are “different.” Sharing real stories from women with high sensitivity, ADHD, autism, misophonia, dyslexia, SPD and more, Nerenberg explores how these brain variances present differently in women and dispels widely-held misconceptions (for example, it’s not that autistic people lack sensitivity and empathy, they have an overwhelming excess of it).

Nerenberg also offers us a path forward, describing practical changes in how we communicate, how we design our surroundings, and how we can better support divergent minds. When we allow our wide variety of brain makeups to flourish, we create a better tomorrow for us all.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    HarperOne
  4. Publication date
    February 16, 2021
  5. Dimensions
    5.31 x 0.58 x 8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0062876805
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0062876805
  8. See all details
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Popular Highlights in this book
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Previous page
  1. Masking refers to an unconscious or conscious effort to hide and cover one’s own self from the world, as an attempt to accommodate others and coexist.
    Highlighted by 1,101 Kindle readers
  2. The defining characteristic of HSP is a depth of processing—taking time to perceive and process external and internal input, be it sound, light, feelings, or new information and explanations.
    Highlighted by 825 Kindle readers
  3. For neurodivergent people, what extra information are they perceiving or sensing that neurotypical people are not?
    Highlighted by 706 Kindle readers
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Divergent Mind explores powerful and positive ways to understand our fundamental differences. Its focus on women is much needed and timely. The book de-pathologizes those of us who most profoundly and intensely think and feel the world around us. I found it to be eye-opening and healing.” — Mary Pipher, New York Times bestselling author of Women Rowing North and Reviving Ophelia

"American psychiatry has increasingly taught our society to think that people can be divided into two categories: those who are 'normal' and those who are 'not normal.' In Divergent Mind, Jenara Nerenberg powerfully writes of an urgent need to scrap that way of thinking, and replace it with a societal appreciation for the many gifts that people with divergent minds bring to our world. Hers is a clarion call for change." — Robert Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of Anatomy of an Epidemic and Mad in America 

“This book is powerful, much-needed for our times, and Jenara Nerenberg offers a unique blend of personal, scientific, and societal analysis. Divergent Mind is really for all women, giving them the chance to understand each others’ invisible differences and gifts.” — Elaine Aron, PhD, bestselling author of The Highly Sensitive Person

“What is ‘normal’? Who gets to decide? Jenara Nerenberg’s wide-ranging Divergent Mind asks and answers these and other essential questions, offering a vision for how individuals and society can take better advantage of the many ways in which we are human.”  — Louise Aronson, MD, New York Times bestselling author of Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life

“This wonderfully positive and accessible introduction to the neurodiversity paradigm is packed with life-changing insight for anyone whose way of experiencing the world diverges from the ordinary.”  — Nick Walker, PhD, autistic neurodiversity scholar and aikido teacher

“Empowering…. This important book not only advocates for research and innovation; it demonstrates the power of acceptance, kindness, and the celebration of differences.”  — Booklist

“An extraordinary, jaw-dropping take on a topic with which many women will identify.” — Library Journal STARRED review 

About the Author

JENARA NERENBERG lectures widely on neuroscience, innovation, sensitivity, leadership, and diversity. Selected as a “brave new idea” presenter by the Aspen Institute for her work on re-framing mental differences, Jenara is also the founder and host of The Neurodiversity Project. She holds degrees from the Harvard School of Public Health and UC Berkeley. Her work has been published in Fast Company, New York magazine, Susan Cain’s Quiet Revolution, Garrison Institute, Elaine Aron’s HSP, Healthline, KQED, and elsewhere. In addition to her work as a journalist, Jenara is a frequent workshop facilitator, speaker, and event host for institutions including the Stanford Graduate School of Business and elsewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperOne; Reprint edition (February 16, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0062876805
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0062876805
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.58 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,414 ratings

About the author

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Jenara Nerenberg

Jenara Nerenberg

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Jenara Nerenberg grew up in San Francisco and lectures widely on the future of psychology, empathy and neurodiversity, sensitivity, neuroscience research, design, leadership, and reframing media narratives and is the founder of The Neurodiversity Project. After leaving her performing arts high school at the age of 16, she graduated from UC Berkeley and the Harvard School of Public Health and was later selected as a “brave new idea” presenter by the Aspen Institute for her work on reframing mental differences. Her favorite activity is the one-on-one interview -- with NYTimes bestselling authors she hosts for live events or with homeless women and men she grew up talking with and serving at the Glide Memorial Health Clinic.

Jenara publishes widely on topics ranging from mental health to suburban life to gender bias and belonging and community. She lived in Asia for six years and began her journalism career there with CNN. Her interviews have appeared in Fast Company, New York Magazine, and Susan Cain’s Quiet Revolution, as well as the Garrison Institute, the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center, and KQED.

Jenara is also a frequent event host, workshop facilitator, and speaker for institutions including the Stanford Graduate School of Business, OZY Media, the Tahirih Justice Center, and Park Day School. Learn more at divergentlit.com

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Top reviews from the United States

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Such an important read!!!
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2024
Verified Purchase
This book was incredibly eye opening to the world of neruodivergence, especially for adult women. Such a validating and empowering read. As a therapist, this gives me ideas in how to better support my clients and myself. Rather than seeing individuals as the problem, we have to ask how society and the environment exclude individuals.
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Dana
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and eye-opening
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2024
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What did I like/disklike?
Liked: cutting edge research and journalism; considers capitalism, white-supremacy, and patriarchy as external agonists; focuses on depatholoziging language
Disliked: can be a bit of a laborious read considering some areas required me to stop the book and do research on other things to understand the paragraphs better, but that's more of a learning/developmental challenge for me than it really has to do with the book itself and still comes out a total positive.

Who would I recc to?
Anyone looking to expand their knowledge on why people are the way they are, how to better understand themselves or the people they live with, and become more passionate and understanding to how certain behaviors may appear in themselves and others because of the world around us.

Why did I choose rating?
This book beautifully articulates relationships among discoveries in neuroscience, autism, psychiatry/neutropics, psychology, and therapy research to make a solid case for changing how we organize our views of the human mind, condition, and manifestation of behaviors; instead of by exclusively pathologizing the person, but by also acknowledging a major role the pathology of the environment they are in plays to their condition.
9 people found this helpful
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JAA Tats
4.0 out of 5 stars Trauma disambiguating
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2023
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Trauma to young girls is finally being addressed. And it's not Freudian. Autism was only looked at in lads; lassies hid theirs from parents and pros; now an army of women are sharing. Symptoms of heart attacks are different in males and females. So is autism.
24 people found this helpful
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Shoji Peter
5.0 out of 5 stars If I had only known this before!!!
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2020
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Review of Divergent Mind

This compelling book crystallizes many years of valuable research by its author resulting in an excellent in-depth look at what has sadly remained a less understood and studied area of psychology and psychiatry ie; the gifts, variations and characteristics of exceptional sensitivities. Interestingly it would appear that these sensitivities seem to particularly affect women more than men. But, as women have not been studied as often as men, the research is only just gaining momentum now.
It is a miraculous discovery for me to find so many other women who share the sensitivities that I have. My sensitivities have always set me apart, uncomfortably, from others and prevented me from more easily made friendships that I enviously watched others form. My sensitivities were always classified as ‘exceptional intelligence’, ADHD (once I became an adult) but never broken down further to be specifically described. They are my ability to see heightened color versus what others see. Also, I have an exceptional sense of subtle differences in smell that both comfort me when in familiar places and trigger childhood memories, (both good and bad). However, this sensitivity is problematic too as I cannot tolerate certain scents that make some situations difficult and cause me to either suffer or leave. Until now, I have had no name to describe, nor known anyone with whom to share nor discuss these gifts/challenges that such sensitivities provide. I was always a joke among my siblings and teased. Happily, as both of my daughters exhibit ‘sensitivities’, I can now reassure them as never before. Further, there are resources, ie; centers of research, counselors and online groups named in Ms. Nerenberg’s research and interviews, articles and films which can become a critical resource and very helpful for the reader. I have always found my way, (I am a painter and writer of short stories and screenplays now, and am a retired CEO of a financial research and marketing communications firm), but had I known earlier in my life all that Ms. Nerenberg and her bevy of researchers have shared in this powerful work Divergent Mind I could have made different choices in my life and would have suffered less for not being like most. Thank you Ms. Nerenberg.
Ann Gommers, Anngommers.com
45 people found this helpful
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Dakota Earth Cloud
5.0 out of 5 stars Dynamic Perspective
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2022
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I have Autism, diagnosed very young, I worked with an OT in the 70's and 80's trained by Dr. Ayres. I did hours of OT work daily, until I could stand the feel of clothes, and shoes, sounds and smells. I am now an LPC. Up until reading this book, I have not been open about my diagnosis with my clients or other professionals for fear of being seen as incompetent. The few times I have shared with my children's psychiatrists to assist in correct diagnosis, they told me I do not have that, and it must be a miss diagnosis. This always left me feeling embarrassed and a feeling of shame.

This book gave me permission to share my story openly with my clients who are also "neuro divergent." The ability to do this gave them validation of what they already suspected but also gave them the awareness that this is what "Autism, ADHD, Neuro Divergence, SPD, looks like." We see all the colors and hear all the sounds, feel every grain of sand and it is amazing once we learn how to regulate it. It is interesting in that I have been helping them through sensory integration and executive functioning for years, but now that they know I am their equal it seems to have been the spark they needed to take off.

Thank you for your dynamic work and magical ability to put this in writing in such a fluid way. This book is a true game changer.
69 people found this helpful
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Steve Fink
5.0 out of 5 stars Changed my life
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2024
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I didnt know i was, now I know I am and it explains so much.
5 people found this helpful
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Sandra Thompson
3.0 out of 5 stars personal information about divergent indvidual
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2024
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This was a personal journal bout a divergent individual, with emphasis on how women are perceived.
Was not a "guidebook" of conditions that an autistic person might encounter and how to adapt or overcome them.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Nahieli
5.0 out of 5 stars great book
Reviewed in Canada on January 1, 2024
Verified Purchase
It’s emotionally hard to read sometimes because it’s so good and relatable. Amazing, would 100% recommend. I learned a lot
One person found this helpful
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hanna barraclough
5.0 out of 5 stars Eye opening and refreshing welcome reframe of N.Ds
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 12, 2023
Verified Purchase
This book is a must read for any one with, suspects or knows neuro diverse people. If we were to reframe our understanding and acceptance of N.D in the way of this book and the whole of society got behind implementing the suggestions in here life for those of us that are N.D would change for the better
2 people found this helpful
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Claudia M.
3.0 out of 5 stars Generic, impractical, limited to the privileged, problematic at times
Reviewed in Germany on July 5, 2023
Verified Purchase
I give this book generous three stars. It's more of 2.5 stars, to be honest. It's a very mediocre book.

The studies are not "paradigm shifting", they are generic, and all the research is superficially mentioned. The interviews focus on super-successful people, and the language is generically positive, with lots of "superpower" talk without much acknowledgment of the challenges experienced by various divergent women that don't fit the uber-successful profile. It seems to be a book geared towards convincing people that ND women are good (we know that, honey), like a wannabe life coach or a women's magazine article full of platitudes.

I didn't need "affirming", I needed strategies. I didn't get that.

Side note: Unqualified author (she's a journalist who does not identify as ND, just as "having ND struggles". Instead of seeking a diagnosis (despite being able to), the author chose to "investigate through the stories of those that felt like her"). Besides this, the author never acknowledges her privilege nor seeks voices different from her own. She uses the term "ASPERGERS" repeatedly, and talks about "Highly Sensitive Person" as if it was an actual diagnosis. Why this book is being given more traction than the voices of actual ND women is beyond me. My guess is the author has better connections than the unprivileged voices that would have actually written useful books.
27 people found this helpful
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KW
5.0 out of 5 stars incredibly liberating
Reviewed in Japan on June 17, 2022
Verified Purchase
As a recently diagnosed 26 year old woman with ADHD and autism, this book beautifully articulated my experience of feeling misunderstood and misfit throughout my life. It gave me the vocabulary I need to move forward with my newly named identify and hope it does the same for so many more sensitive neurodivergent women around the world.
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SongsMoon
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best resources out there for neurodivergent women
Reviewed in Australia on April 16, 2020
Verified Purchase
This book is my big recommendation specifically for neurodivergent women (and those who love them/want to comprehend them better)- the author is the brilliant Jenara Nerenberg, a woman whose passion and interests in the areas covered in this book were largely stimulated by her own desire to understand herself and which eventually led her to creating The Neurodiversity Project, a fabulous resource and research lab exploring many elements of neurodiversity (including giftedness, synesthesia, the very different traits of female autistics that have gone largely unrecognised because of male dominated focus, just to name a few).

I *love* this book, even as it confronts and enrages me at times; the history of females and the psychiatric 'profession' (cue Lilith type raging at patriarchal medical industry abuse/crap yet again); it's powerful knowledge and information in a world that even now continually seeks to minimise and silence female, diverse and neurodivergent voices. I love learning how to nurture and evolve my very different mind and Self. <3

This book deserves to be in every feminist library that is truly focused on empowering ALL women, not just some. I cannot recommend it enough! I was shamed so much for my own synesthesia as a child that I learned to shut it off- it's only in the last 6 years or so that I have been working to open it back up again, and sometimes now I can taste and feel the textures of colours and scent again, see the colours of scent and texture- there are a lot of combinations that happen. I don't see music as ribbons of colour though, bummer, although some sounds and music have textures, scent and taste. This book has given me the inspiration to begin finding my own authentic, powerful, unapologetic and nourishing way in an neurotypical world that frequently chooses to dismiss me as a freak.
9 people found this helpful
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