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Summary: Great insights into the autistic mind
Review: In some passages, Ms. Grandin reflects on her humanity, her mortality and directly addresses her difficulties. I cannot wait to read her other books. Just wonderful.
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Summary: Great insights into the autistic mind
Review: In some passages, Ms. Grandin reflects on her humanity, her mortality and directly addresses her difficulties. I cannot wait to read her other books. Just wonderful.
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Summary: Autistics should read this book too!
Review: Learning about Temple Grandin has validated my own life and gifts, and has put the symptoms of my disability (Asperger's Syndrome) into perspective. Many reviewers say that those *working with* autistics would enjoy her book, but just as importantly, other autistic-spectrum people will find some helpful and relevant information in her book that they can use to apply to their own life.
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Summary: An outstanding first person account of autism.
Review: Subjectivisty in psychology lost favor in the early part of this century, but Temple Grandin shows us a picture and a theory of autism that no outside observer could ever hope to construct. More analytic than her earlier autobiography, this book is the result of Grandin's application of her professional and analystic skills to explaining the world of autism and how it contrasts with the perceptual world of the average person. It's also a very good basic reference and guide to the different types autism and the different treaments being used successfully today. A must read for the student of psychology, and for anyone interested in theories of mind
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Summary: Well-Written View Of Autism From A Real Insider
Review: Temple Grandin accomplished many things with this book. Technically, it is a very well-written book, with good flow, an extensive display of vocabulary (without sounding pretentious), a logical structure, and only a small amount of repetition (which is an accomplishment for an autistic person)."Thinking in Pictures" explains autism from the inside-out. Oliver Sacks, in "An Anthropologist on Mars" gave an excellent description of autism (and Temple Grandin) from the outside, but this book gives the inside view from the very same subject. After reading the DSM-IV and many textbooks, I was still having trouble fully grasping what autism was. After reading Sacks' books, I was much clearer on the subject. "Thinking in Pictures" went three steps further in helping me to understand the various forms of autism. I also have a much greater understanding of what sensory integration treatment is all about, even though I had listened to two in-services on sensory integration by sensory integration therapists before reading this book. I also learned much about the cattle and beef industry in this country, which was surprisingly interesting. I'm glad that there are people like Dr. Grandin in that business working to make it as humane as possible. Temple Grandin is in an unusual situation and was able to give a perspective on what it means to be a "normal" human being that few people could give. Being a very bright but autistic person, she is almost the "flip-side" of "an anthropologist on Mars": it is as if she were a Martian anthropologist visiting Earth and trying to understand humanity. Her thinking, feeling, and sensory processes are so different from the average person, that she can almost view humanity from the outside. "Thinking in Pictures" teaches the reader much about autism, the cattle industry, and humanity. What might surprise many people is that, with all that teaching going on, this book is also thoroughly enjoyable. I hope that I can someday meet Dr. Grandin, as I am sure it would be an interesting, unique, and memorable experience. Christian McCallister, Ph.D., L.P., Clinical Psychologist
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Summary: A New Idea of "Thinking"
Review: Temple Grandin provides vivid and understandable descriptions of her unique visual thought processes. Her book is an amazing and invaluable resource for anyone struggling to understand the autistic mind, whether the autistic is a visual thinker like herself or not. Her discussion of autism and related disorders within the family and as they relate to heredity is especially fascinating.
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Summary: A compelling and inspirational account . . .
Review: Temple Grandin's autobiographical work traces the entire span of her life in order to give a full and complete picture of an individual that has found her own way to cope with and overcome many of the obstacles presented by autism. She adopts a non-linear style, supplementing the story of her recent successes with recollections of her successes and failures along the way. Her discussion of autism is complemented by ample citation of scientific sources and of the accounts of many others who suffer with similar difficulties. She provides insight into many facets of autism: sensory, emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual. The metaphor that ties her story together is her work with livestock, as she draws abundant comparisons between animal psychology and the workings of the autistic mind. The pursuit of more humane and civilized livestock-handling facilities is her life's work, and she empathizes strongly with the way that these animals feel. I found Temple Grandin's account of her life to be incredibly interesting and inspirational. I read the entire book in one sitting. Her writing style is clear and fluid and it is amazing that someone suffering from autism has been able to gain such a mastery of the written word. I saw no major weaknesses in her writing style, and was impressed by the coherent and original chronology that she employs.
The story of her life resonated with me on several different levels. Having read about autism and having seen the movie Rain Man, I thought I had a fairly good understanding of autism. Grandin's narrative opened my eyes, giving me a glimpse of the way that the autistic mind works. I also found her life to be interesting because of her work with farm animals. I grew up on a dairy farm, and I could vividly picture each scene that she described. I had never really thought about animal psychology before, but now the behavior of our animals makes a lot more sense to me. Her identification with these animals also helped me to understand that autistic individuals think in a way that I will never be able to understand. Grandin thinks totally in visual images, cataloguing everything she has seen into a highly organized mental database. Her ability to visualize solutions and to retrieve information is astounding, and her analysis of the relationship between genius and autism was especially persuasive. Overall, I found this autobiographical narrative to be very compelling.
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Summary: An Insider's View of Autism
Review: Temple Grandon has given the reader an insider's view of autism in THINKING IN PICTURES. As the book progresses, the reader gets a sense of the cognitive wall that separates autistic people from their surroundings. I was impressed with the way Grandon was able to explain the different catagories of autism, and what strategies some high functioning autistics(such as herself) use to succeed in our society. She explains complex concepts in layman's terms. No advanced degree is needed for comprehension of the book's material. Grandon explains the various possible causes, from genetic, to toxins, to survival instincts gone awry, which may explain the neurological dysfunction resoponsible for autistic behavior. She also describes the various treatments used to minimize the neurological problems associated with the illness. The most fascinating part of the book, however, is Brandon's unique perspective of how autistic people think. Not only does she explain how she thinks in pictures. She gives anecdotals from other autistics who explain their unconventional thought processes. Finally, Brandon explains how some of the world's most brilliant people have had the same character traits found in high functioning autistics. The ability to focus on a single math problem for months at a time is very similar to what psychologists call a fixation disorder. The same characteristics which brought us Einstein, left unchecked, could allow a genius to cross over the blurry line into mental illness. As Brandon states, "Genius is an abnormality. . . . It's clear that the genetic traits that can cause severe disabilitites can also provide the giftedness and geniusness that has produced some of the world's greatest art and scientifiic discoveries. I recommend this book to anyone who works with autistics, or has an autistic relative, or anyone in the mental health or educational fields.
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Summary: Excellent for parents, teachers, caregivers
Review: This book is excellent for ALL caregivers of autistic people. It gave me great insight into the world of the autistic children I work with and how I can adapt the atmosphere around them to help them.
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Summary: Inspirational
Review: This book opened up my eyes to what life might be like with autism. Temple Grandin has an amazing honesty and a commendable willingness to share her world. To any parent/caregiver who is looking for information about autism, I would recommend this book along with Tanis Morran's "A Place Within the Sphere" as the best starting point on the way to gaining a broad understanding of how different, challenging and wonderful life can be for these people. How much there is to learn from these amazing people!
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