Very interesting personal reflection by a man with aspergers syndrome who participated in a research project using transcranial magnetic stimulation to try to enhance his social capacities. He describes the short and longer term changes he experienced, both positive and negative; as well as the discussions he had with the researchers about what might be going on in his head. There were insights posed by the professionals as well as some otheres he met along the journey. There was some brief exploration of what might be the impact if TMS became used to "treat" children, criminals or for military purposes. ( )

Maybe more like 2.5 stars. Not my favorite of Robison's books. He shares his experience with TMS (a type of magnetic brain stimulations) as part of a research study involving people with autism. The science doesn't seem to quite bear out that others will experience the same type of "emotional awakening" that Robison did. Still a promising area of future research. ( )

He lived a life full on insecurities and doubt. But then TransCranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) changed all that by opening him up to feel the wild swings of emotion that he had not felt before. The results faded over time, but he was a changed person.

"It has always bothered me that many people, doctors included, tend to view anything that deviates from the typical as being abnormal or broken. The common medical perception f synesthesia illustrates this perfectly. Doctors don't generally say, "This is an incredible gift; how can we gift it to other people?" ..." (Page 170)

On the deterioration of his marriage with Martha: "Now I realize that autism had made us compatible. (Page 174)

"Sometimes I think of autistic people like you as nature's engineers, ... you were able to observe things and teach yourself engineering skills without the benefit of a university." (Alvaro, Page 184)

"... I was still preoccupied with the "zero-sum game" idea, the thought that enhancing my emotional sensitivity could somehow dull my mechanical awareness. ... I'd quickly learned that it takes practice to handle the strong emotions." (Page 197)

“One of the hardest things about my emotional awakening was the way it reshaped so many of my memories. It may sound crazy, but all too often, it turned formerly good memories bad. And there’s no balance. There’s not a single bad memory that’s now turned to good. (Page 211, the first paragraph of the “Rewriting History” chapter) ( )

This is a great book -- as long as you don't believe a word of it.

Let me be clear. I am an autistic person -- proudly and happily autistic. Because, while it has made me socially unsuccessful, it has given me great skills and abilities -- in mathematics, music, language, and memory -- that very few ordinary people have. Would I trade that to have a better social life? You have to be kidding.

But -- and this is a very big but -- I am nothing at all like John Elder Robison. I don't play nasty practical jokes. I don't walk out on my wife because she gets depressed. I don't make people deaf with loud cars and loud electronic instruments and pyrotechnics.

So: Do I think the world would be better if Robison were more socially skilled? Yep. And I'll give him this: he tried.

This book describes how Robison and a handful of others with autism took part in an "experiment" to see if transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) could improve his social understanding.

You'll note that I put "experiment" in quotes. That's because what the researchers did really wasn't science. They didn't do proper controls. They didn't have valid measures of success. They didn't have a large enough sample -- and it shouldn't be hard to find people with autism to work on; there are plenty of us out here! But here's the worst part: They told Robison what to expect. And then -- guess what -- they got it.

That's not science; it's placebo effect.

The problem is so severe that the local Autism Society has filed the book under biography, not science. Because what was done wasn't science.

Now what's interesting is that Robison really does seem to have gotten an effect from TMS. So did several others in the study -- but, for them, it was very brief and not helpful. For Robison, it lasted. Lasted enough that he now says he regrets taking part; he finds that he doesn't like all those feelings flooding in on him. This raises the obvious question of why he got an effect that no one else got.

I can only hypothesize an answer, but remember: I'm just as autistic as Robison. And -- guess what: I read emotions pretty well, and I empathize strongly with people in pain. (That's why I don't like Robison's practical jokes: They make people hurt!) Why? Because I learned. I learned how to read emotions, how to communicate better, how to feel people's pain. Not everyone with autism can do that, but many can. Robison is smart; he must have been gathering data the same way I did. Then -- briefly -- the TMS helped him to read others, and he suddenly realized that he had all this experience. And started using it.

I don't know that that's right. But it makes more sense to me than that Robison somehow had magic done unto him by an electromagnet that worked no such magic on anyone else.

So I came away from this book with a very bad taste in my mouth. The science was atrocious. That's not Robison's fault; it's the researchers. But it was atrocious. I don't know if any papers were written about this work, but if there were, the peer reviewers should have rejected them instantly. And Robison, even though he isn't a scientist, should have done enough reading up to realize that this isn't science. He never brings that out. As a book that's supposed to be about science, it is a severe defect.

Other than that... well, this may give you some idea of what autism is about. It's a decent autobiography, if you can stomach the fact that Robison walked out on his wife for the basic fault of being human. But please, please, please, don't assume that other people with autism are like this, or that there is some magic cure for autism -- or that there ought to be a cure for autism. It is likely that it was autism that made Albert Einstein (for instance) both a genius and a jerk. Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. And sometimes the bad isn't all that bad.

[Addendum 2/5/2018: I just read a Scientific American article -- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brain-stimulation-is-all-the-rage-mda... -- indicating that the scientific evidence for various forms of brain stimulation is weak, and that there is some indirect evidence that it cannot work. That's one analysis, which obviously isn't the last word. But it's something to keep in mind as you read about Robison's experience.] ( )

This author amazed me by what he has accomplished in his life having Asperger's disease and autism.
He's done more than most of us. I was fascinated with his mind and his eagerness to learn and improve his mental and emotional well being. This is an account of his experience with early studies of increasing the abilities in autistic brains with electrical stimulation. He has written other books about his life with autism. I found I was compelled to read what happened to him as he participated in the study. His writing is so real, raw, and vulnerable. I applaud his efforts and am very glad I finished his book. Reading it encouraged me in my own search for improving my life, my health, and my mind.

I highly recommend reading Switched On. I was given a copy by Net Galley for my honest review. ( )