Discovering My Autism: Anxiety, Aggression, Depression and ADHD ¿ A Biopsychological Model with Guidelines for Diagnostics and Treatment [Paperback]

Edgar Schneider (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999

This text provides an account of Edgar Schneider, a high-functioning autistic, with attention deficit disorder (ADD), who was misdiagnosed as a schizophrenic in the late 1970s. However, 16 years later, after the chance reading of an article on autistic savants Schneider was alerted to the possibility that he had been wrongly diagnosed. Schneider examines his difficulties with relationships, his high pain threshold, his lack of concentration and his highly absorbent intelligence, all of which are related to his autism. He also describes the pleasure he derives from art, music and literature, the importance to him of his religious beliefs and his work with parents' support groups.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Edgar Schneider is a highly articulate former mathematician and computer programmer. He discovered his autism in middle age, after being misdiagnosed as schizophrenic for many years. Schneider's detailed and dispassionate account of his autism deserves a wide audience. He explains his life as an emotional loner, his need to intellectualise feelings such as love in order to experience them, and his use of his self-knowledge to help others in a way which will inform and enlighten those concerned with high-functioning autism and Asperger Syndrome. He describes the implications of his emotional deficit, comparing it to a missing faculty such as blindness. It is a moving and inspiring book. By the end, One understands a great deal more about Schneider's "country". -- Laura Fransella, Times Educational Supplement, 23 April 1999

From the Author

I have Asperger's Syndrome, the highest-functioning form of autism, and found it out approximately four years ago, as a result of reading a magazine article. Following that, at the suggestion of a priest friend (who had been a psychologist before that), I wrote an explanatory autobiography about my discovery, how it has explained my whole life (which had been, before that, a mystery to me and everyone who knew me), and my thoughts on autism as well as other topics, which show how the world looks to the autistic mind. Through the Internet (and via "snail-mail"), I had sent it, upon request and without charge, to parents of autistic children, professionals (including teachers and therapists), and to high- functioning autistic people themselves as well as their significant others. Many to whom I have sent it have told me that it gave them new insights into autism. The story of how his book came to be published commercially is quite interesting. One recipient, in England, sent it to the publisher, who then e-mailed me offering to publish it.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 126 pages
• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers; 1 edition (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853027243
• ISBN-13: 978-1853027246
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,137,759 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a perspective!, December 6, 2000

By 

Lars E. Perner (Los Angeles, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Discovering My Autism: Anxiety, Aggression, Depression and ADHD ¿ A Biopsychological Model with Guidelines for Diagnostics and Treatment (Paperback)

Edgar Schneider's writing very convingly illustrates the fallacy of the common misperconception that high functioning individuals lack the ability to think abstractly. Drawing from his immense reservoir of knowledge of the humanities and his professional field of mathematics, Schneider draws parallels that few scholars could hope to match.

One problem that I had as a reader was with the task of separating Schneider's own story and functioning from his generalizations and observations about autism across the larger affected population. For example, Schneider repeatedly explores his experience that he represents as largely devoid of emotion (although he does acknowledge a great deal of anxiety associated with uncertainty). Such an absence of affect is, however, far from a uniform characteristic among all autistic individuals. While most autistic individuals tend to be somewhat limited in their EXPRESSION of emotion, this is does not mean that--as appears to be the case with Schneider--it does not exist among a spectrum of others. Schneider does show a great deal of sympathy for Temple Grandin's idea that autism is reflected on a continuum. However, this point, although it is made abstractly, may not come through as strongly as one could have hoped.

Schneider's insight into the "neurotypical" world is impressive, and he makes some some sharp points--albeit occasionally with some repetition. His language and sense of humor are also quite refreshing--especially his wise-cracks. For someone who supposedly thinks of women largely in the intellectual sense, he does come across as having at least a slightly dirty mind when he reflects on the only activity in which the performers get to rate their own performance.

In as much as there are parts of the book to which even I--as someone with a very high functioning case of of Asperger's Syndrome--have difficulty relating, there are passages in the book where I could have cried. And I have to feel a certain kind of brotherhood with someone who shares my fondness for footnotes that frequently run several to the page!

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book!, February 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Discovering My Autism: Anxiety, Aggression, Depression and ADHD ¿ A Biopsychological Model with Guidelines for Diagnostics and Treatment (Paperback)

I would recommend it to anyone looking for an inside view written from a fresh perspective. Not only does Ed give an inside view but I learned many, many helpful things besides. If you liked Temple Grandin's books you will love this one!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Important Book for Those With Autistic Loved Ones, June 30, 2002

By 

K. Shelly (Tallahassee, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Discovering My Autism: Anxiety, Aggression, Depression and ADHD ¿ A Biopsychological Model with Guidelines for Diagnostics and Treatment (Paperback)

I found this book interesting on several levels. It illustrated autism in a way that I as a non-autistic person could relate to and feel. I read the book at the suggestion of an autistic friend. Since that time, I have met several families with high-functioning autistic children. It not only let me see them in a different light than I would have had I not read the book, but the book was appreciated and helpful to the parents, as well.

Schneider paints pictures with words and the range of feelings that I experienced while reading the book went from laughter to tears and back again. The book let me see that people with this diagnosis are not autistic people, but people with autism.