Divergent Mind

Jenara Nerenberg, a graduate of Harvard and UC Berkeley, opens Divergent Mind with a personal account of returning to California with her young daughter. Despite her credentials, she finds herself depressed, anxious, and unable to manage household logistics or routine conversations with her husband. Between 2013 and 2016, she encounters articles about adult women being overlooked in research on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism, and the descriptions resonate with her own experience of deep curiosity, intense focus on select topics, and a lifelong effort to suppress parts of herself to fit in.

These discoveries lead Nerenberg to the concept of neurodiversity, a term coined in the late 1990s by Australian sociologist Judy Singer to describe the natural range of human brain makeups rather than dividing people into "normal" and "abnormal" categories. She defines key terms: A neurodivergent person is someone who identifies with or has been labeled with a cognitive difference such as ADHD or autism; a neurotypical person does not have such a difference. She identifies five neurodivergences, or clusters of cognitive difference, that share heightened sensitivity at their core: the highly sensitive person trait (HSP), ADHD, autism, sensory processing disorder (SPD), and synesthesia, a phenomenon in which the senses cross so that hearing a sound might produce a visual experience of color. Nerenberg contends that an entire "lost generation" of women has gone undiagnosed because research has relied overwhelmingly on male subjects, leaving doctors, therapists, and teachers unable to recognize these traits in women. She introduces the concept of masking, the conscious or unconscious effort to hide one's true self to accommodate social expectations, and argues that women and girls are socialized into extensive masking from an early age.

Nerenberg traces how the female mind has been pathologized in Western medicine. Notions of madness shifted from demonic possession in the 1400s to female "hysteria" in the 19th century, a so-called disease of uncontrollable emotion for which marriage was considered the cure. Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud initially attributed hysteria to early sexual trauma but reversed his position under professional pressure. Nerenberg draws on Elaine Showalter's The Female Malady (1985) and Phyllis Chesler's Women and Madness (1972) to show how psychiatry, which partially originated within obstetrics and gynecology, systematically pathologized women's inner lives. She recounts the short-lived era of "moral treatment," a humane approach championed by French physician Philippe Pinel, which gave way to medicalization as physicians took control of asylums. She details the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), noting that its third edition in 1980 nearly doubled the number of listed disorders, and that researcher Joseph Biederman's focus on childhood bipolar disorder in the 2000s contributed to a fortyfold increase in diagnoses among children by 2003 and a surge in antipsychotic prescriptions.

She reframes sensitivity as a legitimate trait through the work of psychologist Elaine Aron, who coined the term highly sensitive person in her 1996 book The Highly Sensitive Person. Aron defines the trait's core as a depth of processing of external and internal input, found in roughly 20 percent of the population. Brain imaging studies show that HSPs process stimuli more elaborately and have more active regions for sensory integration and empathy. Nerenberg argues that women have been systematically excluded from psychological research, citing Pauline Maki of the University of Chicago, who states that women's normal emotional experiences have often been pathologized. She interviews physician Lissa Rankin, who recounts how a male doctor screamed at her to stop feeling so much after she delivered four stillborn babies in one night, and profiles author angel Kyodo williams, a sensitive Black woman who managed profound empathy while growing up in a New York City housing development, underscoring how sensitivity is compounded by racial and class marginalization.

Nerenberg explores autism, synesthesia, and ADHD in depth. She challenges the stereotype that autistic people lack empathy, noting that many autistic advocates describe an overabundance of empathy that causes them to shut down. She presents writer Samantha Craft's unofficial checklist for autism in women, which includes traits such as continuously analyzing existence, imitating others, and feeling trapped between authenticity and social conformity. She profiles planetary scientist Sara Seager at MIT, who attributes much of her professional success to her autistic traits. Through Harvard neurologist Joel Salinas, a synesthete, Nerenberg explains that autistic people are much more likely to have synesthesia and that many genes linked to both conditions overlap. She also discusses the discovery of mirror neurons by scientist Giacomo Rizzolatti, whose team found that neurons in a monkey's brain fired simply from observing another's actions. On ADHD, she profiles her Harvard classmate Stephanie, who was not diagnosed until after graduate school and describes dissociating for hours while mentally planning errands without completing them. She argues that because girls are socialized to mirror the behaviors of those around them, their neurodivergent traits get masked until adult responsibilities overwhelm their coping capacity.

The chapter on SPD centers on women whose physical reactions to sensory input have been repeatedly misdiagnosed. Nerenberg profiles SPD advocate Rachel Schneider, who received a correct diagnosis only at age 27, and interviews occupational therapists at the STAR Institute who describe how most adult women who reach them have already cycled through diagnoses that never fit. She also introduces actress Kathryn Renée Thomas, who lives with misophonia, a specific sound sensitivity involving extreme reactions to chewing and repetitive movements.

Turning to practical applications, Nerenberg contrasts positive psychology's focus on individual strengths with the neurodiversity framework's focus on how societal structures create distress. She interviews therapist Grace Malonai, who specializes in clients with high sensitivity across different neurological profiles and whose office is outfitted with weighted blankets, fidget toys, and no overhead lights. Susan Cain, author of Quiet, tells Nerenberg that naming traits like introversion and sensitivity gives people permission to be themselves. Nerenberg discusses research showing that autistic people often have difficulty detecting their own heartbeats, and that the mismatch between actual and perceived internal bodily signals predicts anxiety levels. On home environments, she interviews architect Kijeong Jeon, who designed spaces for autistic clients using compartmentalized rooms, dim lighting, and calming color palettes. Therapist Eva Mendes introduces the concept of "energy quotients," helping clients track how daily activities drain their energy and identify triggers before they accumulate into meltdowns.

On work, Nerenberg profiles Margaux Joffe, who launched Yahoo's first neurodiversity Employee Resource Group and found that disclosure prompted dozens of colleagues to come forward about their own neurodivergences. She profiles Silka Miesnieks, head of Emerging Design at Adobe, who was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult and describes her ability to connect abstract ideas as a strength she did not recognize until after diagnosis. Freelance writer Sarah Kurchak, diagnosed as autistic at 27, navigates film festivals by leveraging her ability to read obvious social motives, while Irish author Lucy Pearce describes how her Asperger's diagnosis at age 38 gave her permission to stop performing normalcy.

In her conclusion, Nerenberg surveys emerging innovations, from AI applications to architecture designed around autistic sensibilities. She profiles Elyn Saks, a MacArthur Fellow and USC professor with schizophrenia who advocates for people to be the architects of their own lives. Reflecting on her own healing, Nerenberg identifies four factors: finding the right career, understanding her needs, communicating those needs and having them respected, and learning more about her body. She calls for systemic change across medical schools, workplaces, and institutions, arguing that the goal is not to coerce neurodivergent people into being different but to make room for everyone through acceptance and accommodation.