Switched On and Autistic Feeling
Switched On has gone on sale today, and people are already reading and talking about it. The book tells the story of my participation in experiments where Harvard neuroscientists used high-powered magnetic energy to “switch on” the ability to see emotions in other people. One effect of the experiments was a “stepping up” of emotional response in me.
You can order your own copy here
This is what the NY Times has to say about my book
You can order your own copy here
This is what the NY Times has to say about my book
Want to hear me talk about it in my own words? Listen to me describe it on NPR “Here and Now.”
Skip forward to minute 8 if you want to hear my thoughts on this.
Here's an interview I did on NPR's SNAP JUDGEMENT
In this video from CSPAN the doctor who led the research and I talk together on stage
Skip forward to minute 8 if you want to hear my thoughts on this.
Here's an interview I did on NPR's SNAP JUDGEMENT
In this video from CSPAN the doctor who led the research and I talk together on stage
One of the things that is happening now is that some non-autistic people are commenting on the book in ways that are hurtful to me, and probably other autistics. I don’t think they mean to be hurtful, but they are. If I may, I’d like to illustrate what I mean.
One reviewer wrote: “Imagine you are a robot. A smart robot. Now imagine scientists flip a switch, and you suddenly have feelings.” That is the premise of a Star Trek episode, folks, but it’s not the premise of Switched On.
In my book I talk about how someone said I looked like a talking robot in a video long ago, and how hurt I was by that comment. Then, after TMS, I felt I could understand why they said that, because my face was very fixed and rigid. But here’s the thing: understanding did not make it any less hurtful to hear. If you were called a freak all through your childhood, how do you think that would feel to hear as an adult?
In Switched On, I explain in several different ways that we autistics have deep and strong feelings. What’s different about us is that we may not express them in the expected ways, and we may not have typical responses to things that might trigger an emotional response in you.
That is not robot behavior. That is autistic behavior. Read my book for the scientific studies that explored that, why it can be beneficial, and what it means.
I’m not going to give away the whole book in one blog post but I would like to say this: Switched On is a story of expanding my ability to engage other people by turning on my ability to read their unspoken social cues. It’s not a story of me going from “having no feelings” to “having feelings.” That was Mister Spock on TV.
Make of my book what you will, but keep in mind that I – and every other autistic person you are likely to meet – has the same ability as you to feel things. In fact, as you will read, our emotions often run deeper and longer than those of non autistics. So please be mindful of what you say. Words do hurt.
Turning on the ability to read other people is a remarkable achievement that strikes at a central feature of disability for many autistics. For many of us, the most painful thing we live with is social isolation. For too many of us, the pain is overwhelming, and we turn to suicide. Did you know the rate of suicide for bright autistic teens is over nine times that for the general population? So it’s no laughing matter.
The autism spectrum is very broad. Some autistics are pretty good readers of other people. Others (like me) are very poor indeed. That was what sparked my interest in the study. I saw a chance to maybe get past something that had caused me lots of pain and loneliness for 50 years. If you’d lived with that ache all your life, and saw a chance to escape it, would you take it?
Not every autistic person would want a therapy like this, should it become widely available. Not everyone wants TMS or other depression treatment. That is their right (to choose.) For others, it can be life changing or life saving.
Best wishes, and enjoy the story.
John Elder Robison
John Elder Robison is an autistic adult and advocate for people with neurological differences. He's the author of Look Me in the Eye, Be Different, Raising Cubby, and Switched On. He serves on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee of the US Dept of Health and Human Services and many other autism-related boards. He's co-founder of the TCS Auto Program (A school for teens with developmental challenges) and he’s the Neurodiversity Scholar in Residence at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia and a visiting professor of practice at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.
John Elder Robison
The opinions expressed here are his own. There is no warranty expressed or implied. While reading this essay will give you food for thought, actually printing and eating it may make you sick.
Comments
I sound sappy and ridiculous, but it's true. You had most of the audience in tears thinking about the world without you, and we hated the idea.
The fact that you would question certain parents' love and devotion to their children, implying that they might only seek treatments for their children out of convenience hurt a lot of parents also. So it really can cut both ways.
I read your book and found it interesting, but you really should not give people the idea that the experiments you participated in were a form of therapy, rather than just general research to measure brain plasticity in some people on the spectrum. Casanova and endicott's experiments though did have a clinical purpose.
At the back of the book I reference the paper that they published from the original cognitive studies.
And you are right, Casanova and Enticott also do cognitive work.
The experience you've had with TMS? I had something very similar with a Tomatis based program known as TLP (The Listening Program), basically those are systems that use music through a bone conduction headphone set to deliver both auditory and vestibular stimulation at the same time-also other methods are used to modify this effect such as filtering different frequencies at different parts of the treatments, gating (a sound effect), surround sound features, doing physical excersies during the therapy, combining it with other neurodevelopmental therapies, developmental and/or behavioral treatments, OT, speech therapy or other things.
I did it with Sensory Enrichment (before that was advertised as "Mendability") and intensive vestibular training methods. I got an experience that seems pretty much identical to what you experienced with TMS. I don't know why, however.
For me, the effects stayed long term, (they sort of matured over time) and while there were stressful times in the beginning, I feel that on balance the improvement in my life has been excellent.
Eur J Neurosci. 2011 Jul;34(1):158-64. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2011.07726.x. Epub 2011 Jun 16.
Brain stimulation over Broca's area differentially modulates naming skills in neurotypical adults and individuals with Asperger's syndrome.
Fecteau S1, Agosta S, Oberman L, Pascual-Leone A.
My one tiny plaint is that whomever wrote the dust jacket mis-placed your experiences at age forty instead of fifty - "Imagine spending the first forty years of your life..." Gaah!
Here's wishing you second, third, fourth, etc. editions where this gets corrected.
All the best, Karen Davis
My one tiny plaint is that whomever wrote the dust jacket mis-placed your experiences at age forty instead of fifty - "Imagine spending the first forty years of your life..." Gaah!
Here's wishing you second, third, fourth, etc. editions where this gets corrected.
All the best, Karen Davis
Thanks for your great work, Gordon
I've always dug your rock n roll (and car) experiences, and appreciate your candidness when it comes to Asperger's.
I hope more people with ASD/Asperger's speak up someday, and hope we see more from you on this blog too: photos and experiences and the like.
Kind Regards,
Kevin Holy / Kevathens
I suspect that I may be on the high end of the spectrum, although when I was a kid the spectrum was unknown, and only low-functioning autistics were noted.
If an intense, life-changing experience can be induced with specialized hardware, then there is much more hope for humanity to get itself healed. Good luck!