Customer Reviews

Children with Emerald Eyes

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My feelings about this powerful book are quite mixed. On one hand, you have to have tremendous admiration for Mira, the author. She obviously cares extremely deeply for the children profiled here. She dedicates herself to them, working with them day and night and in some cases even taking them into her home. The world of special needs children needs people like her.

On the other hand, I was quite upset by this book. This mainly was probably a case of changing times, as this book was written about the 50s and 60s, when thoughts were quite different about autistic children. But it's still a popular book, and I fear people reading it might be influenced by it. Mira overtly or not in most every case blames the parents somehow for the extreme problems of their children. At the end of the book it is even revealed that this damage to the kids might somehow be done by telepathy! She also seems to have a theory that autism has much to do with a fear of death, and most of the behaviors we see are attempts by the children to ward off death. She twists their actions to fit this.

It would be impossible in today's world, with the explosion of autism, for children to get the intense treatment profiled here by anyone but their parents. However, after reading this, it makes you feel like for children such as this, getting away from their parents is the best thing---Mira seems to encourage children to see HER as the parent. As someone quite familiar with the world of autism, books like this leave me feeling very upset. If you are simply interested in a dramatic presentation of highly disturbed children, you will find that here. However, if you are the parent of an autistic child, you might want to think twice before reading this highly outdated book.

Mira Rothenberg writes in an easy style, this is not a book full of clinical analysis. What does come through is the wonder of a life filled with caring and love of her patients - that care being as much of an influence on her techniques as her clinical training.

The stories are amazing, not all have a happy ending - but each gives an insight into the minds of the misunderstood, tortured souls Mira worked with. Such was her understanding, even the teenage ex-gangster mole's incarcerated in the children's prison, are shown to be truly innocent young girls, fighting to stay alive in an unforgiving and brutal world.

I first read this book when I was 15yrs old, it remains one of my most treasured possessions.

I share the concerns and doubts that another reviewer on the US boards have raised. While I admire Mira Rothenberg (who would later be credited for inspiring Thomas McKean, an author who has autism and who wrote "Soon Will Come the Light") for her dedication to her young clients, I, too found this book highly upsetting.

For example, one young client, "Anthony" has an insensitive teacher who makes homophobic comments about him. In a total about face, that same teacher complains that Anthony ogles the girls in his class. Mira Rothenberg does not appear to challenge the sheer illogic in these two contradictory arguments.

There were a number of things about this book that bothered me, such as when Mira Rothenberg expressed mysogenistic feelings and tried to avoid working with the girls. I also didn't like the chapter about "Peter," a young boy whose behavior was described as severely autistic.

While I salute Mira Rothenberg for her utmost dedication to the children at the facility called Blueberry, I was horrified by the attitudes toward people with autism in the 1950s and 1960s. Fallacies abound; during those Dark Ages, it was commonly believed that autism was an emotional disorder as opposed to being a neurobiological condition. Even when I first read the book, I found myself tensing up at the parent blaming. As another reviewer on the U.S. boards aptly noted, Mira Rothenberg even taxes telepathy for the problems that the children at Blueberry have. In her chapter about "Danny," a child described as having severe autism, she seemed to feel that Danny had an extreme fear of death. She does appear to try to apply this theory to everything her autistic clients did.

I first read this book when I was in high school, back in the pre-1990s Dark Ages when autism as viewed as a psychiatric condition. Even then, I found parts of this book hard to accept.

As someone who is quite familiar with autism and who encounters it on a routine, daily basis, it was hard for me to read this (in our more Enlightened Era) without feeling anger. I didn't like the way she portrayed herself as the only person her clients could count on. I also didn't like the parent blaming either. I had a lot of trouble with "Chaim's" treatment, which included hypnotism. According to Mira Rothenberg, Chaim, a client she had in 1965 had been so traumatized by his own mother, Channa's experience during the Holocaust and that Channa was responsible for her son's condition. Wether or not he was autistic, as she describes him is open to question. One can't help but wonder if the children's parents were able to give any consent or offer any input where their children's lives where concerned.

Blueberry closed in the early 1990s. Asperger's has only been included in the DSM since 1994. The number of autism births has increased. As the other reviewer noted, this book has a plethora of drama and, what seems to me misplaced blame. If you are an adult with autism, have a child or other loved family member with autism, work with people who have autism, you will want to think twice before reading this antiquated book.

I first read this book in 1979 and it had a profound effect on my life. It helped me make the decision to work with wounded children, especially since I, too, was a wounded child. Mira Rothenberg spoke to the very depths of my soul. I've read the book so many times over the years, I've almost memorized it. I am so glad to see that it has been updated. When I finally lost my copy, I despaired of replacing it. Imagine my joy to find that it's still in print. Anyone who wants to understand the depths of pain some children experience should read this book. She helps you see beneath the surface and comprehend what there.

This book is a wonderful presentation of the trials and tribulations that occur when working with these populations. I have listed it as recommended reading for my students during their Autism lecture at a University in New York.

Mira writes a very honest, emotionally captivating book. You will find yourself relating to Mira and her studies of these special children. I highly recommend this book.

Children with Emerald Eyes is eloquently written. I ordered two copies to share with other psychologists.