A Thorn in My Pocket [Paperback]

A Thorn in My Pocket is Eustacia Cutler???s story of raising her daughter, Temple Grandin, in the conservative ???Leave-it-to-Beaver??? world of the fifties: a time when children with autism were routinely diagnosed as infant schizophrenics and banished to institutions. She tells of her fight to keep Temple in the mainstream of family, community and school life, how Temple responded and went on to succeed???as Ms. Cutler puts it, ???beyond my wildest dreams.??? Ms. Cutler also explores the nature of the autism disorder as doctors understand it today, and how its predominant characteristics reflect our own traits in an exaggerated form.PrologueChapter 1: And Baby Makes ThreeChapter 2: As the Twig Is BentChapter 3: ChildhoodChapter 4: The Separate Worlds BeginChapter 5: Things Fall ApartChapter 6: And Start All Over AgainChapter 7: The End of ChildhoodChapter 8: Then What Happened?Chapter 9: Looking for the SourceChapter 10: The Legacy of GenesChapter 11: What It Means to Be HumanAcknowledgementsI laughed, I cried, I was shocked and amazed. Her story is one that will stay with me especially on the days I have trouble with my child.The mother of the most famous person with autism today, Temple Grandin, Ph.D., tells the story of her death-lock struggle with medical authorities and her husband to keep her daughter from being warehoused in an institution, delving into myth and reality, angst and guilt, family and society ultimately defining the travails of all of humanity.