Cripzen: A Manual for Survival [Paperback]

Lorenzo W. Milam (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0917320034 | ISBN-13: 978-0917320033 | Publication Date: November 1993

"Over half of the disabled commit suicide in the first few years of their new lives," says the author. "I wrote CripZen to show my brothers and sisters how to survive and in the process find love for others (and themselves.)"

Milam has been described as "a survivor's survivor." He has been disabled for over forty years. With rich humor and a sageness born of so many years in what he calls "the wilderness of the body," he shows his fellow disabled how to deal with their new world of rehabilitation specialists, SSI, wheelchairs, doctors and a new body.

There are several chapters on aspects of sexuality, including "Celibacy," "Gay Love," "Self Love," "Sex Surrogates," and "Fetishes." (Milam wrote a sexuality column for several years for Independent Living, from which these chapters are drawn.)

The heart of the book is the title chapter CripZen. "Zen Buddhism is a religion that emphasizes spiritual growth and the quiet mind over physical activities and the temporary pleasures of the flesh," he says. "The study and practice of Zen should be a natural for us."

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Citing a recent university study, the author states "over half of the disabled commit suicide in the first few years of their new lives." Surviving, or learning to live, with a new handicap is a side of the disabled world that is rarely discussed. Written with humor and realism, CripZen is a survival text for anyone facing a new world of rehabilitation specialists, nurses, and frightened family members. Milam, who has been disabled for over 40 years, defines "CripZen" as a time when you no longer own your own body. The most intimate functions must all be performed for you. Milam discusses having sex, coping with depression and anger, finding psychological help, and using such spiritual means of survival as meditation. Reading this pithy and honest book, TABs (temporarily able-bodied) will get a taste of how the disabled survive and hopefully use their insights toward creating a more compassionate world. For all collections.
- Emily Ferren, Carroll Cty. P.L., Westminster, Md.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Scientific American

CripZen is funny, wise and elegantly written. No one, disabled or not, should miss it... --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 255 pages
• Publisher: Mho & Mho Works (November 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0917320034
• ISBN-13: 978-0917320033
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,054,237 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Eloquent Crie du Coeur, September 30, 2008

By 

David Kiebert "Brer Davey" (Los Gatos, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cripzen: A Manual for Survival (Paperback)

Lorenzo Milam is a writer, reporter, and radio broadcaster who had polio in his youth and has become an outspoken spokesman for the concerns of paraplegics and quadraplegics of all kinds -- or "cripples," as he so defiantly calls them. This book is both a plea for compassion for the "disabled" and an eloquent manual for spiritual liberation, mainly for the disabled, but which can be read with benefit by anyone.