Switched On: My Journey from Asperger’s to Emotional Awakening - Hardcover

Robison, John Elder

3.89

1,386 ratings by Goodreads

9781780745510: Switched On: My Journey from Asperger’s to Emotional Awakening

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1780745516 ISBN 13: 9781780745510

Publisher: Oneworld Publications, 2016

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Six years ago, John Elder Robison published Look Me In the Eye, his memoir about growing up with Asperger's. Now he tells the remarkable story of how he met Dr Alvaro Pascual-Leone, a Harvard neuroscientist who proposed that John's emotional intelligence wasn't so much absent as dormant, and that by stimulating the appropriate neural pathways with powerful electromagnets they could awaken this part of his brain. So began a five-and-a-half year journey, during which John became a test subject for the world's foremost neurologists in a major effort to understand, and then be able to fix, the deficits in emotional intelligence that lie at the heart of autism. Being able to know the feelings of others for the first time brings both joy and melancholy, but in the end the overwhelmingly positive impact of this transformation cannot be denied. A compelling memoir, blending brilliant storytelling with cutting-edge science, Switched On is a message of hope for the millions around the world who live emotionally circumscribed lives.

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Review:

‘An eye-opening book with a radical message...The transformations [John Elder Robison] undergoes throughout the book are astonishing.’

(New York Times)

‘Astonishing, brave...Switched On reads like a medical thriller and keeps you wondering what will happen next...[Robison] takes readers for a ride through the thorny thickets of neuroscience and leaves us wanting more. He is deft at explaining difficult concepts and doesn’t shy from asking hard questions. This is a truly unusual memoir – both poignant and scientifically important.’

(Washington Post)

'Robison's writings are...logical, restrained, lacking in self-pity...Like Awakenings, this book raises deep philosophical problems'.

(Times)

‘John Elder Robison is an extraordinary guide... At the heart of Switched On are fundamental questions of who we are, where our identity resides, of difference and disability and free will, that are brought into sharp focus by Robison’s lived experience.’

(Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project)

‘Fascinating... Robison’s honest, brilliant, and very personal account helps us understand the perspective of someone living with autism.’

(Simon Baron-Cohen, professor, Autism Research Centre, Cambridge University)

‘A mind-blowing book that will force you to ask deep questions about what is important in life. Would normalizing the brains of those who think differently reduce their motivation for great achievement?’

(Temple Grandin, author of The Autistic Brain)

About the Author:

John Elder Robison is the author of the international bestsellers Look Me in the Eye and Be Different, memoirs of living with Asperger’s and raising a child with Asperger’s. He is also a high-profile activist for autism research and treatment. The older brother of Augusten Burroughs, John lives in Western Massachusetts.

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