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Loading... Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's (original 2007; edition 2008)by John Elder Robison
Work InformationLook Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's by John Elder Robison (2007)
  
No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) jbrownleo | Mar 27, 2024 |   ) thezenofbrutality | Jul 5, 2023 |  ) jemmatcf | May 30, 2023 | Robison was raised without a formal understanding of his condition. He was mistreated by his peers, abused by his father, and dropped out of high school. However, due to a combination of persistence, opportunity, and luck, he managed to carve out a decent life engineering mechanical and electronic equipment. He learned, often painfully, how to adapt in society. As of his time writing this book, in his fifties, he feels socially accepted to a degree that he didn’t think possible as a youth. This story can serve several ends. It can inspire, and it can teach. With the prevalence of autism on the up-and-up, more people receive this diagnosis and need hope to assuage anxieties. This rise in diagnoses may be due to more awareness of the condition (as in Robison’s case) or due to a larger number of cases (or both). Either way, Robison demonstrates that with a few adaptive lessons (specifically spelled out in his story), people can live a happy and well-adjusted life. Besides being useful, this story is also entertaining. Robison’s journey spans an unstable household, a bout with homelessness, gigs with the rock band Kiss, jobs with engineering firms, marriage and family, and starting a high-end car repair business. Robison’s writing style is heavily analytic yet engaged with the human condition. He comes off as incredibly human and – dare I say – normal. Autism continues to receive attention (rightfully) in ways to integrate those with the condition successfully into socially helpful roles. For whatever reason, society deals with this issue more and more today. Books like this serve as a part of the social solution by providing human understanding. Asperger’s, as Robison notes, has many benefits if one makes a few social adaptations. This book thankfully lights the way for affected families, professionals, and the reading public in general. ( ) scottjpearson | Mar 24, 2022 |  ) Wren73 | Mar 4, 2022 |
 Since learning about Asperger's, I have read just about every personal account I can find with regard to Asperger's. While I found all of them interesting, I can't think of one that I would have called warm or engaging - until I read John Elder Robison's memoir Look Me In The Eye: My Life With Asperger's. ...Mr. Robison tells a story that is at once heartbreaking, inspiring and funny....Mr. Robison's life is a testament to the fact that a life with Asperger's can be as rich as anyone else's - despite the challenges. AwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Biography & Autobiography.
Psychology.
Nonfiction.
HTML:Ever since he was small, John Robison had longed to connect with other people, but by the time he was a teenager, his odd habits–an inclination to blurt out non sequiturs, avoid eye contact, dismantle radios, and dig five-foot holes–had earned him the label “social deviant.” No guidance came from his mother or his father. It was no wonder he gravitated to machines, which could, at least, be counted on. After fleeing his parents and dropping out of high school, his savant-like ability to visualize electronic circuits landed him a gig with KISS. Later, he drifted into a “real” job, as an engineer for a major toy company. But the higher Robison rose in the company, the more he had to pretend to be “normal” and do what he simply couldn’t: communicate. It was not until he was forty that an insightful therapist told him he had the form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome. That understanding transformed the way Robison saw himself–and the world. Robison also provides a fascinating reverse angle on the younger brother he left at the mercy of their nutty parents–the boy who would later change his name to Augusten Burroughs. Ultimately, this is the story of Robison’s journey from his world into ours, a strange, sly, indelible account–sometimes alien, yet always deeply human. No library descriptions found. 
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)362.1968588320092Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Social problems of & services to groups of people People with physical illnesses Services to people with specific conditions Diseases Diseases of nervous system and mental disorders Miscellaneous diseases of nervous system and mental disorders Personality, sexual, gender-identity, impulse-control, factitious, developmental, learning disorders; violent behavior; mental retardation Mental retardation; developmental and learning disorders Other pervasive development disorders Asperger syndromeLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.74)
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Wikipedia in English (4)
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