Customer Reviews

Living the Good Life With Autism

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This is quite a deep book which looks at love, theology, politics and autism, through the eyes of Edgar Schneider, misdiagnosed with schizophrenia in middle age and only correctly diagnosed as autistic in retirement in 1995. In his first book, `Discovering my Autism' he tells of his life and how his diagnosis came about, and begins to explore some of the topics this second book covers in greater depth. There are things I disagree with him on, but I respect this book because I think autistic thought and philosophy has a place in emerging autistic culture. I enjoyed the gentle and reflective pace, and was very pleased to discover an interesting collection of appendices filled with recipes, sonnets, and brief explorations of metaphysics and ethics. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's thought provoking... people who don't like thinking and prefer to just be told stuff probably won't enjoy it or like what they think it's telling them.

Who better than a person with autism to speak to and about the Autism Experience? Edgar Schneider is plainly a gifted man whose extensive knowledge of art, mathematics, philosophy, religion and semantics is discussed in this book as well.

Schneider, who from his own accounts and description of his behavior sounds like he has Asperger's Syndrome, which is the spectrum partner to autism. I like the way he suggests that neurotypical (NT) people gain a greater understanding of the Autism Experience. I could not agree more. It IS true that people with autism are often judged quite harshly by the NT world when viewing behavior that is perplexing at large. When one is provided with an understanding of what prompts certain behaviors, then one can see the logic in autism. It is there.

I agree with Schneider when he says the "best source of information about autism is autistic people who are able to communicate." If you have autism, consider yourself lucky if you have Asperger's. People with Asperger's generally don't suffer from delayed language and can certainly provide not just a glimpse, but a panoramic view behind the Autistic Curtain.

Like many people with Asperger's, Schneider was incorrectly diagnosed and as a consequence suffered from inappropriate treatments and placements. In 1995 when he was finally diagnosed with autism/Asperger's (a/A), he was relieved to know just what the undefined differences were that he has been coping with for years.

Schneider was born in the 1930s prior to the creation of the word "autism" which Leo Kanner coined in 1943. Hans Asperger's findings were published in 1944, thus raising the curtain on further studies of this form of autism.

While Schneider's experiences clearly holler "Asperger's" at those directly involved with the a/A spectrum and/or are on it, one will certainly appreciate his brilliant insights into this condition. Having autism in any form does not preclude a person from having a good life as Schneider has demonstrated. He has been blessed with his own family; he has a myriad of interests and talents. His observation that people with autism can be perfectly happy, even though their NT counterparts might question their decisions. And how does one determine whether or not another person is happy? They can't.

It is impossible to apply NT standards to the a/A world and a/A standards to the NT population. The needs between these groups are too disparate, too individualized. Schneider's description of the downside to having autism is the negative impact it has in social settings; e.g. difficulty decoding nonverbal communication; tactlessness; trouble understanding certain verbal expressions.

The best thing about this book is that it is a book of self acceptance. The one thing I take issue with is Schneider's claim that it is best to ignore NTs because to him they are "lunatics" and defines love as a form of manipulation. I disagree with both statements. I also take issue with his claim that autistics don't show emotion, which just isn't true. Also untrue is his statement that NT children are selfish whereas autistic ones are not.

I also did not like the claim that autism in varying degrees separate people. As the Beatles said in their 1968 classic, "All Together Now," such walls and barriers only divide people. Yes, there are many people with forms/degrees of autism. Yes, there are those who are not on the a/A spectrum. Still, there is more to a/A and NT than detente, mutually co-existing. Nothing is so clear cut, black and white, all or nothing. There are overlapping shades of gray in between. Autism, as with any condition, NT included will have overlapping behaviors. For example, many if not all people with AS will display some autistic traits/tendencies and behaviors.

Still, this was a very interesting book. However, I far preferred his first book, DISCOVERING MY AUTISM: Apologia Pro Vita Sua (With Apologies to Cardinal Newman). That is a much better book.

Rather than dwelling on what makes autistic people different, Edgar Schneider delves into what makes those on the spectrum uniquely qualified. In his book, Living the Good Life with Autism, his second regarding the subject, Schneider takes on the role of spokesperson for all people diagnosed with a pervasive developmental disorder. His perspective, one that is decidedly Asperger's, attempts to illuminate how NT's (a term Schneider uses to describe neurologically typical persons) can benefit from a base-level understanding of autism and its effects. NT's are likely ignorant of autism resulting in misinterpretation of its symptoms; consequently, "autistic person(s) [do] not get a fair shake". Schneider believes that the "best source of information about autism is autistic people who are able to communicate". This book is his attempt at creating such a source. Prior to diagnosis in 1995, Schneider was bewildered by his behaviors. Now, he is enlightened by them. The knowledge that he has gained through diagnosis has provided him with clarity, and this clarity is what his book attempts to convey.

Born and raised in Brooklyn in the 1930's prior to a PDD diagnosis, Schneider "was looked upon as little more than an anti-social brat. After a bout with scarlet fever and whooping cough at age 3, the cause to which Schneider attributes his Asperger's, he became "an emotional idiot". As a result, he has always felt like an outcast. The rest of his life reads like the stereotyped Asperger's: he did not date in high school, he received an MA in physics and mathematics, he met his second wife on the internet, and today he is a retired computer programmer. Despite this almost formulaic Asperger's life, he does offer some unique insights into what it means to be autistic, and what is even more pertinent to the book, what advantages can emerge from it.

Among the more interesting of his insights is evident in his stated purpose for writing the book: to show people that it is possible to "live a good life with autism". Schneider contends that, if "left to his or her own devices", an autistic person can live a life that is both "rewarding and fulfilling". Autistic people are entirely capable of creating their own happiness; problems arise only because this happiness is often not what NT's would consider to be happy. Schneider notes that NT's often deduce that autistic people must be unhappy and that their self-image must be low; "This is because they see a penchant for solitude and other such things and apply NT standards to those". Quite the contrary, Schneider maintains that "autism can be self-compensating" and that for autistics, the world of the NT can seem just as foreign, and just as unhappy.

Sans what Schneider describes as the advantages of autism, his post-diagnosis life is not without setback and negative effects. He refers to the limitations on his ability to interact socially resulting in an inability to detect subtle nuances and motivations in others. He attributes his divorce from his first wife to the disorder. He does not respond well to motivating managers and group activities at work. He often puts his "foot in (his) mouth", and prior to diagnosis spent much of his time wondering why. Arguably even more debilitating, however, are the PDD behaviors to which Schneider merely alludes through his writings, and may not even realize.

Because he fully embraces his Asperger's diagnosis and the associated traits that it suggests, Schneider allows himself the freedom to be an extreme, if not an oppressively cynical person. He believes that the only way he "can peacefully coexist with any of the other six billion human souls on this planet" is to ignore them; the rest of the "planet (is) populated by a bunch of lunatics". He believes that love is altogether "insincere because it is so much dependant on manipulation" and "undependable because it can vanish without any warning"; further, seeking love can only be describe as an instance of "masochism".

As an author, Schneider is also quite self-glorifying. Conceivably, he does not realize that mentioning your autobiography 18 times and citing yourself 15 times is somewhat smug, and so then, socially intolerable. Perhaps this is due to one of his more compulsive traits to, when he discovers "something very wise or clever, (he) cannot resist the desire to tell it to everyone (he) know(s)". He has a gross inability to appreciate the perspective of a non-autistic person as evidenced by his classification of the two types of "peculiarities" presented by autistic people: The kind that are considered "harmless oddities", and the kind that force NT's to question the values by which they "judge the world, themselves, and each other". It never occurs to him that the world may not be a `them versus us' struggle between autistics and typically functioning people. In an unexpected twist on the concept of disorder, Schneider wholly believes that his perspective is one of clarity, not disordered. Rather than misinterpreting the world as it is through the eyes of Asperger's, the rest of the world misinterprets truth through socially belabored ritual and miscomprehension.

Schneider's collection of opinions is entirely resolute about everything. His world is clearly and easily classified and defined in terms of right and wrong, true and false, and black and white. He dedicates no time to the grey areas in between. Because of this absolutism, I often read into his writings a certain degree of contradiction. He seeks to convey that he is not only special, but in many arenas, exceptional; yet, he damns the government and insurance companies for not providing coverage for Asperger's. He adamantly refuses to be a victim, yet claims such a status with regard to diabetes, obesity, and even Asperger's. He defines autistics as not showing emotion, and later claims that the difference between an autistic child and a non-autistic child is that the NT child is selfish and the autistic child is loving. His contradictions are subtle, and at times almost imperceptible, but they nevertheless shape the book and the message that he sends through it.

He states in one of his musings that "the differences between (Asperger's) and other autistic people are of degree rather than kind". I wonder if it has ever occurred to Schneider that the delicate balance of degree is all that separates any of us. We are all the same kind. We just vary in degree. Perhaps his inability to see beyond the delineated borders of black on white is his greatest and most incapacitating symptom of all.