Today, “observable neurological and genetic evidence” is beginning to reveal how a multiplicity of causes, including environmental factors, may be responsible for particular symptoms. She reviews how understanding of autism has developed since 1947, when she was born and so-called refrigerator moms were targeted for blame. Describing the labels given to autism and other developmental disorders as “a clumsy system of behavioral profiling” that shifts with every new edition, she is critical of the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual and its revised diagnosis of “Autism Spectrum Disorder.” With the assistance of science writer Richard Panek, Grandin applies her experience and interviews with others on the autistic spectrum to the latest neuroscientific research.

Temple Grandin, whose life has been an inspiration to millions, warns parents, teachers and therapists of the danger of getting locked into diagnostic labels. Both introspective and uneven, the outspoken author wraps everything up with an ethereal final chapter draped in the kind of mawkish Zen goodness that will work wonders for those in need of a morale booster.ĭespite pages of platitudes, Burroughs provides plenty of worthy material on the absurdity of the human condition and the unpredictability of contemporary life.īurroughs will speak and sign copies of his book at 7 p.m. Some chapters focus constructively on self-esteem and positive affirmations, while others meander, as in a heartfelt piece on love that veers off to describe the benefits of residing on the southern tip of Manhattan. Burroughs offers smart counsel on keeping communication honest (with yourself and others), the right to personal freedoms and the best mindset for a job interview he also gives personal perspectives on his suicide attempt and how he conquered alcoholism. Most sections straddle the line between supportive empowerment and tough love and are written with the author’s characteristic dark humor, which consistently entertains and, as the pages turn, earnestly educates. His tongue-in-cheek guidance, predictably couched in personal anecdotes, opens with a chapter on rejecting the “superupbeat umbrella” of positive affirmations, and proceeds to deliver the straight, though clichéd, dope on bad love (“Abusive people never change”), the search for romantic connections (“get out of your own way”) and weight loss (“real beauty comes from the inside”).

With a cinematic novel and a series of best-selling memoirs under his belt, Augusten Burroughs moves on to life advice that’s as unconventionally scattered as one would expect.

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