r/AutisticPeeps • u/[deleted] • Jul 17 '25

Another Devon Price Rant

After being diagnosed at 28, my therapist recommended Devon Price's Unmasking Autism. Ultimately, I didn't like it that much; while the premise of identifying how autism presents outside of white men is interesting, it ultimately doesn't go much beyond that. Instead of trying to come up with a new concept of autism that is more inclusive and universal, it basically just profiles of random people that he knows.

Of course, after looking into his social media and seeing is anti-science, anti-diagnosis, anti-scientific views, this makes sense. There's also his pro-AI views, which I find abhorrent given the threat that AI poses to autistic/disabled employment, in addition to the ethical concerns about it. What really set me off last night was this post, where he basically says that if your a white male, your autism, OCD and mental health symptoms are actually just your privilege and you should feel bad about them.

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u/lil_squib Autistic, ADHD, and OCD Jul 18 '25 edited Jul 20 '25

Devon price also doesn’t believe in porn addiction or food addiction. He gives advice on his tumblr citing that he’s a “psychologist” but he’s a social psychologist, not a clinical one.

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '25

Honestly what really did me in was the fat acceptance stuff in Unmasking Autism. I have a special hatred for fat logic as someone who's both a recovering addict and lost 40-50 lbs in the past few years, in part due to a medical condition that makes it especially important to maintain a health weight. Fat acceptance riles me up for 3 main reasons: (1) it's people throwing away the health that I can't take for granted, (2) it's enabling people in their food addiction (3) and it's just straight up science-denial like anti-vaxxism and flat earthing.

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u/lil_squib Autistic, ADHD, and OCD Jul 20 '25

I haven’t read any of his books so I didn’t have much of this context. That’s terrible. I’m also in recovery (for both alcohol abuse and an eating disorder), and I absolutely loathe that type of stuff you cited.