I was given this slim volume as a Christmas present and read it from cover to cover in a few hours. I found in it as much about cattle squeezing machines as I'm ever likely to need to know, but also much with which I could identify.
She says more than once that autism is caused by "brain damage," and that we can "recover" from autism with the right combination of motivation, circumstance and opportunity.
Is this true? What do others think?
Stella
So does she feel that she has recovered? According to Catffeinated's signature Temple appreciates her autism and would not want to be changed.
Was that book one of her first Stella? Maybe she feels differently now.
(Hope you had a nice time btw, and got some gifts you enjoy).
Emergence: Labeled Autistic (1986) was Grandin's first book.
In it, she says that she has "recovered" from autism. Notably, the book is co-written by journalist Margaret M. Scariano, and given the way that a ghost-writer reporting to a book editor can very much skew a person's account of herself towards what is most commercial, Grandin may have been manipulated into putting her name to things that don't reflect her actual view and experience.
Scariano seems otherwise to be a children's writer with cowboy fiction titles such as Deputy at Wild Card and The Winchester Connection and non-fiction children's books like Guns in the United States.
Stella
I got the quote from a later book of hers, Thinking In Pictures.
She says more than once that autism is caused by "brain damage," and that we can "recover" from autism with the right combination of motivation, circumstance and opportunity.
Is this true? What do others think?
I haven't read any of her books, but maybe she means it in a metaphorical way, of having accepted her autism and who she is and found a path in her life that worked for her and brought her success.
It sends out the wrong message, period.
I read thinking in pictures, I think most of the time it was neutral.