Finding Ben: A Mother's Journey Through the Maze of Asperger's / Edition 1

by Barbara LaSalle, Benjamin Levinson

Overview

"Barbara LaSalle's new book . . . beautifully chronicles her own journey to understand her son with the encyclopedic mind and distressingly separate world."

—Washington Post

Born with a superanalytical mind, Ben could store information like a minicomputer. Yet beneath his gift for facts lay a great fear of change and social aloofness. Ben had Asperger's Syndrome —a neurobiological disease similar to autism. Honest and beautifully written, Finding Ben is both a look at a mercurial disease and a powerful story of one mother's journey from frustration and resentment to love and acceptance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780071431941
Publisher:	McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date:	02/25/2004
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.88(d)

About the Author

Barbara LaSalle, Ph.D. (Los Angeles, CA) is a marriage and family therapist and documentary filmmaker whose films include It's Not All in Their Mind, and Living with A.D.D.

Table of Contents

	Preface	xi
	In Ben's Words	xiii
	Prologue	1
1	A Child Is Born	7
2	The Pause	11
3	The Other Mothers	17
4	Just Like a Real Day	25
5	Mommy, What's Wrong with Me?	33
6	Persons and People	39
7	Player Piano	47
8	His Own Little World	55
9	Batter Up!	65
10	The Adventures of the Sneezer and the Kerchief	77
11	The Middle of Imagination	85
12	The Streets of San Francisco	91
13	The Big City and the Giant Spaceship	97
14	Losing It	103
15	All I Had to Do	109
16	How Was Your Day?	119
17	Driving for Everyone	131
18	Fire!	141
19	The Nut House	149
20	Transitional Living	153
21	Request Denied	161
22	Four-Point Restraints	171
23	How Do You Plead?	181
24	Endless, Sparkling Ammonia-Bleached Corridors	191
25	Passes	203
26	The Happiest Day	211
27	Family Ties	223
28	Asperger's Syndrome	229
29	Now What?	239
30	Living Under Ben's Skin	247
31	The Token of the Turmoil	251
32	Finding Ben	263
	Afterword	271
	Recommended Resources	273
	Acknowledgments	277