Book Review: The Autistic Brain

Book Cover

When I told my family that R was officially diagnosed with autism, my father went into research mode.  He knew I had already bought some books from MIBF 2017, but he then absolutely insisted I look up on Temple Grandin.

A few days later, my brother, who is currently studying overseas, called me over Facebook Messenger and asked how we were taking the diagnosis.  And, I guess in his way to try to cheer me up and make me laugh, we took this little quiz together.

The quiz is called the Autism and Asperger Quiz, or AQ for short.  As summarized on the page, this is a "screening measure to help you determine whether you might have an autism spectrum disorder (including Asperger's disorder). This screening quiz is not designed to make a diagnosis or take the place of a professional diagnosis or consultation. Please take the time to fill out the below form as accurately, honestly and completely as possible. All of your responses are confidential" (emphasis mine).

A list of 50 questions, people who are on the spectrum tend to score 32 and higher, while people not in the spectrum tend to score 31 and below.

My brother scored 29.

I scored 33.

After laughing about it between us siblings a bit, my brother then asked me if I wanted to order some books on autism since books where he currently is are cheaper.  He also happened to have an account with Book Depository (Yes, I finally got an account for myself, was that impressed with them!) and so we went hunting for books by Temple Grandin.

So when my cousin, who had been visiting my brother, came back home, he had with him the two books my brother ordered in my behalf.  I decided to read this one first, as I wanted to first know more about the brain on the spectrum before I could even think about tackling the other one.

But first, a little biography on the authors.

Dr. Temple Grandin was born on August 29, 1947, in Boston, Massachusetts.  She is the oldest of four, three girls and a boy.  Due to her lack of speech, she was diagnosed with a brain injury at age 2, though her mother suspected autism when Grandin was a teenager.  She was not formally diagnosed until she was in her 40s.  Dr. Grandin is widely known today as one of the leading experts on animal behavior, and an outspoken advocate for people on the autism spectrum.

Richard Panek is currently a fellow at Goddard College, with a master's degree in Creative Writing.  He is also the author of The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality.

And boy, this book is not what I would call an easy read.

In 8 chapters, Grandin and Panek laid out what Grandin saw as the strengths and weaknesses of the different editions of the DSM, which is still used by medical professionals today to diagnose conditions such as autism and other disorders.  Grandin also speaks, over several chapters, of her experiences with looking at her own brain scans, seeing how they differed or are similar to brain scans of people not on the spectrum, which she calls the neurotypical brain.

As the book progresses, Grandin then stresses on the importance on not getting caught up in labels, but instead start focusing on the individual strengths and weaknesses of each ASD case.  She also stresses her belief in the importance of keeping a child on the spectrum engaged, exposed to the outside world, and be taught the necessary social and life skills necessary for the child to grow up into a functional adult.

Grandin continues on to state that in her observations, she's come to realize that people thought in three different ways, and she calls them the picture thinkers, pattern thinkers, and the word-fact thinkers.  She bemoans at how the education system has short-changed the picture and pattern thinkers, by putting too much importance on the capabilities of the word-fact thinkers.  She also stresses the need for more research into SPD as this factor, she claims, has been highly ignored as a factor in the lives of people on the spectrum.

She has also brought into play the Autism and Asperger Test I mentioned earlier, as well as the The Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire.  Grandin took these tests to try and understand her thinking, as well as the thinking of others.

There were many times in the course of reading this book that I found myself heartily and readily agreeing with what was stated in this book.  As a person who is possibly on the spectrum herself, I agree that there needs to be more awareness and more research on this subject.  A lot of misconceptions on autism are still prevalent, and it's at times frustrating to hear people still touting these misconceptions are truths.  Sure, there's still a lot more for science to know about autism, and thus it's only the responsible thing to modify and clarify information as they come.  But it's also just as responsible to ensure that we do not spread misinformation, and it's pretty irresponsible to tout certain information as truth without checking the facts, pros or cons.

That said, this was a very rich book, full on insights and big on information.  It can get rather heavy on the mind, as I found I could only really take one chapter a day due to the richness of information presented.  But I can say I really learned a lot on how the autistic brain works, and I do hope it'll help us in our journey with R.

My favorite quote from Grandin and Panek?  "Neuroanatomy isn't destiny.  Neither is genetics.  They don't define who you will be.  But they do define who you might be.  They define who you can be."

And with that, I give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars.  The Autistic Brain can be purchased here from Book Depository for US$ 17.29 or PHP 881.88.  Shipping is free to all countries.