Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism

Autistic livestock expert and stockyard designer Temple Grandin talks about what thinking and feeling are like for her and for many other autistic people, including both the difficulties the condition causes and the advantages that her extremely vivid and concrete visual memory have provided in her

professional life. She also gives an overview of the current (as of 2005, in this updated edition) medical and scientific understanding of autism, incomplete as it is, and offers a considerable amount of advice on autism treatments and the education of autistic children. I think this is likely to be an extremely worthwhile book for those with autistic people in their lives, especially parents, but it's also an enlightening read for those of us who are simply interested in how human minds, both "normal" and otherwise, work.

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LibraryThing member SheilaDeeth

I read Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin last year and loved it. I found her insights and speculations about the thought processes of animals (and people) truly intriguing. Reading the book felt like taking a privileged journey into a world so different from my own that nevertheless exists

side by side with my own. In the case of my dog, that magical world lived entirely intertwined with my own, and I remember the absolute delight I felt when the author suggested that people and dogs might have co-evolved to distribute character traits.

Thinking in Pictures was, of course, first published a long time ago, and my only knowledge of it was references in Animals… and in one of Oliver Sachs’ books. But it’s been reissued recently to coincide with the HBO film, and each chapter includes updates that I suspect would make it a fascinating read even for someone who’d read the original.

For me, the book gave delightful insights into Temple Grandin’s different way of thinking, nicely narrated in a written voice that sounded in my head like that of a dear friend with Asperger’s Syndrome. Before reading, I hadn’t really understood how one might “think in pictures,” but the author explains it so clearly I found myself realizing that sometimes, like when we play memory games, I think in pictures too.

The author makes a point of showing how important her “difference” is to the job she does, and likewise how important it has been for many famous people. A small amount of Asperger’s might be a wonderful thing, might even be genius, but too much can mean disaster. Similarly depression and creativity often go hand in hand, and a world where all of us are “normal” would be sadly boring. Her comments about genius students with Asperger’s left behind in special ed classes were particularly disturbing, and went hand in hand with her many comments about each individual being different. I found myself wondering to what extent we’ve “normalized” our education system to a level where everyone’s expected to be the same, rather than where everyone can be treated as uniquely as they deserve.

I enjoyed the book and the many ideas, yes and word-pictures, it presents, and I’m very glad to have found it reissued and ready for new readers like me.

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LibraryThing member littlepiece

Fairly good overall, but Grandin often presumes that her experience of autism is universal across the autistic spectrum, and only belatedly corrects some of these assumptions in her updated postscripts to several of the chapters (added in the expanded addition).

LibraryThing member TimBazzett

I liked this book more than I did Grandin's Animals in Translation. This is a book crammed full of information - scientific, personal and medical - about living with autism. I would have liked more of the personal side, but I think Grandin is so focused on the problems and remedies that she doesn't

think details of her own life are really all that interesting or pertinent. Her explanations of how autistic people can never really fully understand the nuances of human relationships are both enlightening and sad in equal measure. Her thoughts on religion and an afterlife are also extremely interesting. She sees no differences between the various religions of the world, and doesn't feel there is - or should be - any "true religion," a sentiment I completely agree with.

While Grandin's writing style can be rather flat and unengaging - a symptom of her autism - I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone seeking more information about autism, and what it's like to live with this much misunderstood condition. I have nothing but admiration and respect for Temple Grandin and the way she has lived her life.

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LibraryThing member TheLoisLevel

Helped me understand a lot about autism but veered much more toward a nonfiction treatise on autism than the memoir-type book I was expecting...the nature of the syndrome, I suppose.

LibraryThing member nevusmom

What an incredible book. The author is an autistic woman who has managed to overcome her condition and carve out a career for herself first in livestock management, and now as an author. Her personal insights into autism are written with a poignant honesty, from the understanding that she isn't

like most other people, to the embarrassment of having a coworker explain to her that she needed to wear deodorant. She writes of her need for symbols, of various medications to treat anxiety often experienced by people with autism, and of her invention of a pressure machine to help calm her.

A fascinating book.

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LibraryThing member mullinator52

A fascinating trip into the mind of someone with autism, Dr. Temple Grandin, She describes how she thinks and how it effects or job(s), workplace and daily life. The only downpoint I felt was for chapter six about biochemistry (medications and treatment for Autism) where because of her systematic,

organized mind, it is very dry. As a teacher who dealt with autistic children, I found this journey into her mind extremely interesting.

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LibraryThing member sjjk

An amazing book. Temple Grandin is a person extraordinary and gives us insight how it is to live with autism. She is very educated in brain science and animal science. Highly, higly recommended

LibraryThing member steve.clason

Grandin tries to cover a lot of ground:
1. depict life as lived by an autistic person;
2. survey and comment on treatments for autism;
3. describe ethical practices in livestock handling
4. reveal her own spiritual life through personal testimony.

#1 brought me to the book and that part was brave,

revealing, and well-written, though sometimes redundant -- worth reading, anyway. #2 was probably the best part of the book but not up my alley, #3 was surprisingly interesting when related to her description of her thought processes: "The one common denominator of all autistic and Asperger thinking is that details are associated into categories to form a concept."

She describes her thought processes, and those of autistic people in general, as "associational" rather than "logical", and the organization of the book perhaps reveals that, as the narrative takes up topics, drops them for others, then takes them up again later, instead of arranging chapters conceptually -- something that may explain the redundancy. It could also just be poor editing.

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LibraryThing member sriemann

Covered many of the same topics and stories as the HBO movie, but had updated information, and went into more detail about how to deal with autistic individuals in many different situations.

LibraryThing member herdingcats

Temple Grandin, the author of this book, has the asperger's form of autism. She has a Ph.D. in animal science and compares the thinking process of autistic people to that of animals. She explains how it feels to her to be autistic, and she has learned from other people with autism, what it feels

like to them as well.
She explains how she does not think in words, but rather visualizes everything in images. She believes that Einstein, Bill Gates and many other highly intelligent people have or had autistic traits and that autism is not necessarily a bad thing, just different.

She works designing livestock handling facilities used to dip the animals and to lead them to slaughter. The book talks a lot about animals. She has designed facilities that make slaughtering animals more humane. I wondered about that, but this quote helped it make sense to me: "Most people don't realize that the slaughter plant is much gentler than nature. Animals in the wild die from starvation, predators, or exposure. If I had a choice, I would rather go through a slaughter system than have my guts ripped out by coyotes or lions while I was still conscious. Unfortunately, most people never observe the natural cycle of birth and death. They do not realize that for one living thing to survive, another living thing must die."

I think this is a very interesting, well written book and that Ms. Grandin explains how her mind works and helps us to see into the minds of other people with autism.

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LibraryThing member slsmith101

After reading this book, I not only have a better understanding of how the autistic brain works but also how my own normal(?) brain works. It was very clearly written and even though it was repetitious at times, I found it hard to put down. I was especially fascinated with her insights on animal

behavior and how animals think.

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LibraryThing member Salsabrarian

Narrated by Deborah Marlowe. Very informative for learning about autism, particularly for parents thinking about how to raise and support their autistic child. It can get pretty technical especially as she discusses the latest research, brain science, and drugs. But it's offset with the more

practical and personal. Basically, know your child and find ways to support their interests and who they are.

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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

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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LibraryThing member KamGeb

Temple Grandin is a fascinating person. As with all her writing, there are a lot of interesting facts. She has a unique perspective, being a well-spoken autistic adult. It's a dense book, but interesting.

My problem with all her writings is that opinions and facts are often meshed together and I

don't always agree with her opinions. Also, many times she makes general statements about autism based on her own experiences, and a lot of these general statements are not true to my personal experience.

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LibraryThing member JenniferRobb

Despite the fact that I probably relate more to this style of thinking than I did to the other memoir on autism that I read recently, I found it harder to be engaged with this book. There seemed to be much more talk of the research that's being done on visual memory and less about the experiences

of the author.

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LibraryThing member deborahrice

Temple Grandin is a high functioning Autistic woman who has over six decades helped the world better understand the world of Autism through her eyes and perspective. Temple is a visual thinker and she sees in pictures. Each challenge in Temple Grandin's life has led her to open new doors of change

and discovery. She overcame moral obstacles and shared her discoveries to achieve her vision. She opened doors that never existed and asked us to walk through those doors with her!

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LibraryThing member eyja

This was one of those books that I learned a great deal from and treasure. A good eye opener. Highly recommended.

LibraryThing member kslade

Good account of her autistic life and how she found a career dealing with cattle and other animals.
Her visual thinking helped her relate to animals. I recommend the HBO movie also, which is really good, called Temple Grandin.

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