Book review: Thinking in Pictures

Ah, Temple. You've taken over my life. So far, I've read three of her books, watched the HBO movie about her life, and listened to her TED lecture. I don't even like TED lectures, that's how deep in I am in the Temple fascination.

I didn't really do things in order, however. I'm a rebel like that. (snerk) The movie was recommended over and over again, so I finally watched it. It was good: engrossing and heartfelt and totally outside the range of things I usually study. Then, I was given her latest book, The Autistic Brain, and read that in the post-holiday recovery. And then, I was hooked. I sent the SO after her other books, telling him to nab me "only the autism and brain ones. I don't care about animal husbandry."

But having read now three of her books (last, first, middle), it's impossible not to care at least a little about livestock and engineering. Because Grandin? She cares very, very deeply about such things, and that passion comes through in her writing and her lectures. She writes of having an intense satisfaction when the animals' lives are improved, when she can make the process of slaughter more humane and gentle, when she can calm the cattle and give them a good death.

...Now I'd love to see a Caitlin Doughty--Temple Grandin crossover. What do you think the odds are of getting Dr. Grandin to appear on Ask a Mortician?

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I understand a lot of what she talks about regarding disordered/hyperactive sensory processing. It seems to be similar to how my introversion and HSP manifests. Like Temple, I hate scratchy clothes and loud (especially unexpected) noises. I get worse at filtering and coping when I'm tired. So yeah, I get this. It's all a spectrum, yeah? And at a certain point, the spectrum tips over into "disorder" or "syndrome," but as Grandin writes throughout Thinking in Pictures, most (if not all) autistic traits exist in the neurotypical population to a lesser degree. Anxiety, fixation, sensory processing, visual thinking.

Now, the visual thinking - that "thinking in pictures" thing that this book is focused on? I don't relate to that so much. I'm definitely a verbal thinker - hence this blog that is full of words and words about words, rather than pictures. Despite the fact that she's a picture thinker extraordinaire, this book is well-written and interesting. It doesn't drag or overly repeat itself, though I must admit that, as is my wont, I skipped the journal entries and dream sequences. [1]

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Bonus material! Here's her TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn_9f5x0f1Q

Here's what I'm about to read: Don't Try This at Home and Amphigorey Again.

xo,
Devo

[1] For the never-ending list of literary things that annoy me: dream sequences. I just cannot stand them. They feel sort of cheap and hackneyed to me, a shortcut to emotional resonance that for me, just doesn't resonate.