Meg B. (nuttmeg) reviewed on 12/31/2009 + 29 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

This book fascinated me because of my work in adult psychiatry in a major urban hospital.
None of my colleagues would have believed that someone diagnosed with autism or it's cousin, asperger's, could be as "functional" or as successful as this gal, Temple Grandin, has been in her life!
This malady is nothing to sneeze at and has had many a parent and relative pulling their hair out trying to understand what is often a disabling condition with it's victims
I'd give it 6 stars if I could. unable to ever live an independent life.
On a primitive level that is at once earthy and transcendant otherworldy, Grandin claims to understand animals better than the non autistic person, regardless of how long someone has been working with animals or how skilled the person is.
This book leaves no doubt that she's right.
A simple thing like a shadow falling across the pathway in a shoot cattle are to be lead to their slaughter in can make them stop in their tracks. Wild horses can't get them to move, but Grandin understands them too.
She gets on her hands and knees and see things the way cattle do as they are to move through these narrow corrals to their death. It doesn't take her long to figure out the problem.
Is she unusually tuned in to animals or could any of us discover the same things she does if we're just quiet and calm enough and stop seeing things only one way? Could we learn what Grandin already has in her brain's circuitry or is this a matter of the heart?
This book is a fascinating read for both animal lovers and people curious about autism or just want to understand that we may not be as limited as we think, and people with autism may not be either.

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