Virtuoso or misfit?
A first-hand report about the hidden world of Asperger Syndrome
Thomas Jefferson may have had it. The pianist Glenn Gould almost certainly
had it. There are even those who insist (probably incorrectly) that Albert
Einstein had it. Whether it is called "geek syndrome,"
"high-functioning autism," or simply "Asperger's," it is not
just one of the most poorly understood of all psychiatric diagnoses, but one of
the fastest-growing in America today.
Basing his new book American Normal on memoirs, clinical histories, poems,
stories, and visits with dozens of individuals afflicted with the disorder,
Lawrence Osborne shows us what life with Asperger's is really like. Often
brilliant at math and able to perform savant-like feats of memory, those who are
afflicted with the syndrome are also wracked with bizarre obsessions. Children
diagnosed with the disorder (some 80 percent of them are boys)
characteristically struggle to understand even the most simple expressions of
the human face.
Setting aside the usual pieties of medicine and rehabilitation, Osborne casts
a skeptical eye on American psychiatric establishment and its tendency to
over-diagnose, then over-medicate. Even more, he ventures into the elusive but
essential realm where one has to question the difference between tolerating
eccentricity - with all its potential for creativity as well as suffering - and
pharmacologically enforcing normality, with its undertones of blandness,
uniformity, and mediocrity.
Lawrence Osborne has written widely about medical issues for The New York
Times Magazine and Slate, and is the author of three previous books.
Detailed information and order possibility:
Lawrence Osborne
American Normal
2002. Hardcover, 240 pp.
Euro 29.95 (net price); £21.00; $27.50; sFr 51.50
ISBN 0-387-95307-8
Contact and review copies:
Joan Robinson
Springer-Verlag Press and Public Relations
Tel.: +49- (0) 6221-487-8130,
Fax: +49- (0) 6221-487-8141,
E-mail: robinson@springer.de
website: www.springer.de
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