Thinking In Pictures: and Other Reports from My Life with Autism

by Temple Grandin

Other authorsOliver Sacks (Foreword)
Paperback, 1996

Status

Available

Call number

RC553.A88 G74

Description

Biography & Autobiography. Family & Relationships. Psychology. Nonfiction. HTML:Temple Grandin, Ph.D., is a gifted animal scientist who has designed one third of all the livestock-handling facilities in the United States. She also lectures widely on autism because she is autistic, a woman who thinks, feels, and experiences the world in ways that are incomprehensible to the rest of us. In this unprecedented book, Grandin writes from the dual perspectives of a scientist and an autistic person. She tells us how she managed to breach the boundaries of autism to function in the outside world. What emerges is the document of an extraordinary human being, one who gracefully bridges the gulf between her condition and our own while shedding light on our common identity. "There are innumerable astounding facets to this remarkable book...Displaying uncanny powers of observation . . . [Temple Grandin] charts the differences between her life and the lives of those who think in words."�??Philadelphia Inquirer… (more)

Publication

Vintage (1996), 240 pages

Pages

240

ISBN

0679772898 / 9780679772897

Collection

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1995

Physical description

240 p.; 5.13 inches

Rating

½ (212 ratings; 4)

Library's rating

User reviews

LibraryThing member dickmanikowski
A high-functioning autistic woman who has created a successful career designing humane livestock holding and slaughterhouse facilities shares her insights into what makes her different from other persons. Starting from an almost entirely visual thinking process, she elaborates the perceptual,
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social, and emotional life of an autistic. As a person with Asperger Syndrome (which is part of the autism spectrum) myself, I found this book to be both helpful and hopeful.
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LibraryThing member leslieg
I'm the mother of 4 kids. One with brain injury that sometimes looks like autism, one with Aspergers. Both with sensory issues that affect their lives. And a husband with Aspergers. A good friend has a severely autistic child. For me, this book has been mind-blowing. Amazing - she has made amazing
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progress and insights. Stunning - to see glimpses into how the brains of my children and husband work at the times when I usually just cannot understand them. It is fascinating to realize that I am reading a usually well-written book by a fully autistic woman. I am in awe of her talents and abilities, and grateful for the education she has given me.
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LibraryThing member donkeytiara
when starting it, i thought temple grandin wrote rather repetitively (as many autistics), and i thought i'd never make it through this book.....but once my thinking adapted to her writing, this was a phenomenal book. I have interests in both cattle and in counseling, so HOW BIZARRE to find a book
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where the 2 unlikely topics intersect. Grandin not only tackles her thinking processes, but touches on religion, slaughterhouse ethics, geniuses, learning empathy, biochemistry (although dated) and other topics. fascinating reading for those who like to step into someone else's world where things are very very different... this one will stay on my bookshelf.
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LibraryThing member IFAware
on a journey to think out-side-of-my-usual box; invitation to see things from another level adds to wider skill set for information gathering and thinking
LibraryThing member aliciamalia
This is an interesting, important book that I completely failed to respond to. It's written by an autistic woman, and deals with what's it like to be autistic (as well as what's it's like to be a cow--the author really likes cows). I definitely learned a lot, but finishing it was painful.
LibraryThing member paperhouses
A very elucidating view into autism, from the grande dame of autistics, as it were. I completely respect her and hope that I can one day hear her speak. I'm in awe of all she accomplished. She shattered the bullet-proof plexiglass ceiling of autism, opened herself to the world and her world to us.
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I'm simply astounded. I wish I was one iota that smart. Pure genius.
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LibraryThing member KatyBee
This is an extraordinary book - it is wonderfully written view about what is like to be autistic. Highly recommended.
LibraryThing member govindthange
This book is a good read and explains a great deal about how a pure visual thinking brain thinks.
LibraryThing member TerriBooks
The book tries to do two things -- present the author's experiences as a person with autism and educate about autism diagnoses, treatment, and education. I think both are fine, I just don't think they combine well into a single book. Maybe because I don't have a need for the latter, and was only
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interested in the former, I found that discussions about medication, diet, teaching methods and such got in the way of my enjoyment. I would have preferred a book that was simply about Ms Grandin's life; for those sections I would have give 4 or 5 stars.
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LibraryThing member ThePinesLibrary
This book offers Temple Grandin's insights into autism and the way people with autism think and act. Shows how Temple Grandin managed to move beyond the confines set by autism and function independently.
LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
Wow. We learn about Grandin, and autism, and cattle handling, and the cognitive abilities of other animals.... Fascinating and enlightening - especially recommended for parents and teachers.
LibraryThing member homeschoolmimzi
I give this book one star. I know most people will probably disagree strongly with me, but I found this to be a difficult and tedious read. While I admire Temple for her talent, ingenuity, courage and determination in pursuing her education and career goals, I find her writing to be all over the
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place, rambling, difficult to follow and limited- in that she makes sweeping generalizations about autistic people, based on her own personal experience of course. What she fails to realize is that not all autistic people are like her! Not all autistic people are visual learners, they all *don't* 'think in pictures'...This is of course, one of the ironies with autistics: their own theory of mind issues come in to play in their writing about autism. If you want to read a good book written by someone with autism/aspergers, read Born on A Blue Day, by Daniel Tammet, or Asperger Syndrome, the Universe and Everything, by a delightful boy named Kenneth Hall. There are many others too.
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LibraryThing member piemouth
I was very interested in it at first, but as it went on, I actually got bored. It seemed repetitious. I think as the book went on my impression of it became colored by the fact that I find autistic people very, very hard to deal with. Temple Grandin reminded me strongly of someone I knew in school
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and had to partner with in a cooking class. While it was fascinating to see how she’s found a way of life that works for her, everything about her was annoying me and I couldn’t help thinking how irritating she’d be if I met her.
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LibraryThing member LibraryCin
3.5 stars

Temple Grandin is autistic, and grew up to earn a PhD in animal science. This book is an autobiography combined with information on autism, with plenty of animal anecdotes thrown in, as well.

This was good. No question my interests are more in line with the animal portions of the book, but
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the autistic information was interesting, as well. I was particularly interested in Temple's own childhood and how she thinks in pictures (hence the title) – some autistics do that, but not all. She included plenty of psychological and scientific information on autism, in addition to the anecdotes from her own life (and the lives of other autistics she knows or has heard from), as well as advice for parents of children with autism.
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RC553.A88 G74
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