American Normal: The Hidden World of Asperger Syndrome

by Lawrence Osborne

Book Overview

Asperger's Syndrome, often characterized as a form of "high-functioning autism," is a poorly defined and little-understood neurological disorder. The people who suffer from the condition are usually highly intelligent, and as often as not capable of extraordinary feats of memory, calculation, and musicianship. In this wide-ranging report on Asperger's, Lawrence Osborne introduces us to those who suffer from the syndrome and to those who care for them...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0387953078
• ISBN13: 9780387953076
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Copernicus Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Intelligent book that helps keep things in perspective

Excellent book that really puts things in perspective. It makes the reader realize that just because one has certain strange qualities that are "out of the norm," does not mean they have a disorder. The pharmaceutical companies capitalize on illnesses and we need a more objective perspective. I do not believe that anyone should make light of real illnesses. Asperger's is an illness. People with Asperger's have trouble in many areas of their lives. But we must also realize that not everyone who has certain traits should jump to the conclusion that they have a disease. We need to be aware that our society may be the cause of many symptoms people seem to be experiencing, such as isolation, loneliness, not fitting in... The cause of some of these feelings may not necessarily lie in any illness, but in the way we are socialized. People today seem to be more isolated. They don't know their neighbors, they are fake at work, they smile when they feel sad because it is not acceptable to show any "negative" feelings. The focus has become on work, money, achievements, and less on friendships and community. All of this, no doubt, contributes to an increase in people feeling like outsiders in their own lives. So we need to distinguish a real illness from a cultural "illness" and not jump to quick conclusions. I did enjoy this book and it is well written and shows the other side of these "symptoms."

The next evolution?

I agree with many of the reviewers who have expressed their thoughts below. Lawrence Osbourne is a brilliant writer and I totally enjoyed reading this book. Like other reviewers, I often wondered if the book was really just an excuse for a rather self indulgent exploration of his own Aspie symptoms, but I was willing to put that aside and enjoy his wonderful, descriptive prose and his engaging profiles of son many unique and gifted individuals. I picked up the book because as the mother of an Aspie (and yes, I have a lot of the traits myself), I have always wondered if autism might represent the next step in the evolution of our minds. As we move into this computerized age, so many of our guides seem to be imbued with noticible Aspie traits - I've even heard that everyone in Silicon Valley for example is somewhere "on the spectrum". I appreciated Osborne's humourous but respectful portrayal of Asperger's Syndrome and as I finished the book I felt more positive than I have in a while about my son's future and the incredible potential that he has.

Should be read carefully and with an open mind

I think Osborne made a strategic error in the way he wrote this book. I believe his intent was to identify and empathize with those who suffer from Asperger's Syndrome. To this end he showed us how he, a "neurotypical," does things that might be considered Aspergerish, such as giving in to an obsessive need to circle lamp posts or to watch every episode of the Japanese TV show "Iron Chef" or to only feel comfortable at Red Roof Inns, etc. In his interviews with Aspies he took a sometimes playful tone, and in his retrospective of people who may (or may not) have had AS, he emphasized the eccentric nature of their lives, not their suffering. The effect of this approach on Aspies themselves was to make them feel that he was trivializing AS. Some even felt he was making fun of them. Furthermore, in his effort to suggest that AS can be seen as an alternative approach to life (or at least an attempt at one) he ran into those who want to make it clear that Asperger's is a neurological disease and that most (if not all) who suffer from it are not curious "little professors." They and their friends and relatives (and the therapeutic community administering to them) do not want to read anything that in any way might mislead the general public into thinking that Aspies are just weird eccentrics. In other words, he missed the psychology of the larger AS community. People who are distinct minorities in a larger community, as Aspies are, and who feel discriminated against because they are different (and the larger society surely does discriminate against them)--such people are not likely to welcome a satirical or playful approach to their situation. They tend to be serious and understandably intolerant of anything that might threaten their dignity. And they are right in feeling this way because throughout human history it is only one step from making fun of people to ostracizing them. Also one gets the sense that more than anything Osborne was satisfying his curiosity. He became the journalist who travels around interviewing AS people to find out what they are like. He reported what he saw and heard. For readers who know little or nothing about AS, this approach has its merit. For those who have AS or are friends or relatives of people with AS, this approach is not only not interesting, it is of little value. The AS people also feel that such an approach does not best serve the general public. What they want are books that inform the larger community about AS in a factual manner complete with an understanding of the problems that Aspies have to deal with vis-a-vis governmental bureaucracies, school administrators, daily life, etc. They are not going to be pleased with a book about AS that is largely an entertainment. Osborne missed all of this. I am sure he was absolutely shocked and dismayed at the reception his book received from the AS community. On a more positive note, like me say that Osborne is a very good writer. He worked hard t

A Lively View of a Strange Disorder

One of the syndromes medical students learn about is Medical Student's Disease: one thinks one has the particular malady being taught about. Symptoms are diverse, as all of us have some sort of ache or pain now and then; and certainly all of us have mental symptoms, too, whether these be just ups and downs, occasionally hearing ourselves being called when no one is calling, obsessive interest in an oddity that turns into a hobby, bursts of energy or self-esteem, and so on. Lawrence Osborne has taken on the task of reporting about Asperger Syndrome in _American Normal: The Hidden World of Asperger Syndrome_ (Copernicus Books) and has filled it with his own symptoms tending toward the condition: he is fixated on the television program _Iron Chef_, for instance, and he is fond of lingering in airports, and as a child he was nuts about playing the lute. He is willing to call these "Aspergerish" (and he has met people with the diagnosis that share this sort of trait), but he wisely withholds the diagnosis from himself. He gets along far too well; like so many other diagnoses, Asperger's can't apply if one is unimpaired socially or occupationally, and Osborne shows he can get along socially even with some very peculiar people, and he can write with wonderful clarity and vigor. His book goes a long way to illustrating the condition, even if the illness, and the philosophy behind diagnosing it, remain largely unexplained.The illness is specific, with a definition of check-off symptoms in psychiatry's standard diagnostic manual. It is probably a high-functioning form of autism, but not as crippling. People with Asperger's are often highly intelligent, and although they are frequently preoccupied with one area of restricted interest in which they have sometimes astounding intellectual capacity, they can blend into society with bumbling facility. However, they can't do things that the rest of us take for granted, like looking at a human face and knowing what emotions are being shown. Osborne gets to interview or research patients who have, for instance, memorized all of _Babylon 5_, or every fact about hotels in their state, or about vacuum cleaners. It might be that Thomas Jefferson had the illness, and maybe Albert Einstein and Béla Bartók. The main Asperger poster boy is the famous pianist Glenn Gould, who gets a chapter here. Gould certainly had the concentration on a limited sphere of interest; his recordings, especially of Bach, are among the most famous of any classical records. Gould displayed (or perhaps harnessed) the social inability of Asperger patients in an unusual way; retiring from the concert hall, he tirelessly argued for the virtues of electronically recorded performances.This is not a book of firsthand experience with the illness, although Osborne wisely lets us in on enough of his own idiosyncrasies to show how close to normal Asperger people are. And it is not a book by a medical expert or specialist. Osborne is simply a

Literary and irreverent.

Though this definitely isn't an advice book for parents of children with Aspergers, I loved it anyway. Lawrence Osborne writes beautifully, and the book really shows you what the lives of adult Aspergers sufferers are like. It IS a mostly sad story. Maybe he's a little short on therapeutic sympathy, but he's an incredibly observant and witty writer. I keep thinking about the lives of the kids and especially the adults who appear in the book.