Smart But Stuck: How Resilience Frees Imprisoned Intelligence from Learning Disabilities, Second Edition

by Myrna Orenstein

Overview

Learn how smart people with learning gaps struggle, survive, and achieve

Smart But Stuck, Second Edition is an updated look at how smart people with learning gaps can not only overcome them, but become successful in learning—and life. The new edition of this classic explores the emotional aspects of learning disabilities and imprisoned intelligence, showing how—and why—smart people with learning disabilities are resilient in getting help in order to struggle, survive, and achieve. The book also includes new material on the relationship between learning disabilities and neuroscience and a new foreword by Joseph Palombo, Founding Dean of the Institute for Clinical Social Work in Chicago.

This unique and compelling new version takes into account that the reader may have a learning disability, so it's easy to read and understand. Topics build on each other so the reader's knowledge becomes cumulative without dramatic effect and so emotional, biological, and social issues are easily integrated as the reader learns to turn a learning disability into an advantage.

From the author:
“Resilience is the capacity to bounce back; in individuals with LD it's a powerful tool. When people hit the chasm, shame is the outcome. People can withdraw and give up. (Some people take solace in substance abuse to ease the emotional pain.) Others keep trying. In the process of not giving up, people learn to keep hope alive because eventually new opportunities for learning become possible.”

Smart But Stuck, Second Edition examines:
* imprisoned intelligence and resilience—how does it happen?
* shame and resilience
* discovery and diagnosis
* learning to live with the diagnosis
* new reflections
* resilience and fulfilling potential
* neurocognitive foundations of learning disorders
* self-psychology and imprisoned intelligence
* psychotherapy
* fortitude and flexibility in people with learning disabilities
* and much more

Smart But Stuck, Second Edition is a must-read for people with learning disabilities and their families, psychotherapists, social workers, educators, parents, vocational counselors, and college counselors. Please visit www.smartbutstuck.com for more information.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780789029454
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/11/2007
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

• Foreword (Joseph Palombo)
• Author’s Note
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Imprisoned Intelligence in Resilient People
• SECTION I: WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT LEARNING DISABILITIES, IMPRISONED INTELLIGENCE, AND RESILIENCE
• Chapter 1. Imprisoned Intelligence: How Does It Happen?
• True Grit
• What Sort of People Have Undiagnosed Learning Disabilities
• Understanding Undiagnosed Learning Disabilities
• Information About the Research
• Some Reflections
• Chapter 2. Shame and Resilience
• Shame
• Resilience: The Antidote to Shame
• Chapter 3. Something Is Wrong with Me: A Chasm in Learning
• Bewilderment
• Being Stuck: The Chasm
• Struggle: Impasse and Bypass
• Resignation
• Chapter 4. Discovery: The Diagnosis
• Awakenings
• The Test: Pleasure
• The Test: Pain
• The Aftermath: Making Sense
• Chapter 5. Learning to Live with It: After the Diagnosis
• Facing the Music: Becoming Resilient
• Grief: It’s Here to Stay
• Identifying Helpers and Hinderers
• Avoiding Pitfalls
• Taking It In
• Chapter 6. New Reflections: A Different Mirror
• Personal Definitions
• Acceptance
• Personal History Reinterpreted
• Personal Perspectives
• Chapter 7. Resilience and Fulfilling Potential
• Facing the Problem
• Facing the Chasm: The Biggest Challenge
• Finding Support
• Finding Appropriate Professional Help
• Chapter 8. Conclusions
• SECTION II: PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC, HISTORICAL, AND THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
• Chapter 9. Psychotherapy: A Lantern for the Darkness
• Is Psychotherapy Necessary?
• What Can Be Expected from Psychotherapy?
• Things Learned in Therapy
• Chapter 10. Treatment: A Chapter for Therapists and Interested People
• Introduction
• Recognition: Helping People Become Aware
• Integration
• Conclusions
• Chapter 11. Resilience: Fortitude and Flexibility in People with Learning Disabilities (Myrna Orenstein and Fred Levin)
• Introduction
• Resilience: Some Further Background
• Fortitude: The Driving Force
• Flexibility
• Environmental Releasers: The Self’s Experience of the Input of Others
• Competence
• Conclusion
• Chapter 12. Neurocognitive Foundations of Learning Disorders and the Chasm Experience (Jay Einhorn)
• Neurocognitive Foundations of Learning Disorders 8 Neurocognitive Basis for Learning Disorders
• Neurocognitive Basis for Learning and Attention Disorders
• Neurocognitive Foundations of Self
• Chapter 13. Historical Review
• Why LD Is So Difficult to Spot
• Categories of Symptoms
• Life Span Development
• More to Be Learned
• Emotional Fallout: Frustration
• Emotional Fallout: Trauma
• Resilience
• Chapter 14. Self Psychology and Imprisoned Intelligence
• Learning and Imprisoned Intelligence
• The Impact of Imprisoned Intelligence on the Self and Selfobjects
• The Impact of Imprisoned Intelligence on Development
• Imprisoned Intelligence and Deficits
• Imprisoned Intelligence, Shame, and Fragmentation: The Chasm
• Imprisoned Intelligence and Emotional Distancing: Disavowal
• Conclusions
• Recommended Reading
• Bibliography
• Index
• Reference Notes Included

What People are Saying About This

Nan Freund

"Perceptively and sensitively describes the feelings engendered by learning challenges in adults with undiagnosed learning disabilities (ULD) and the ways that those feelings imprison intelligence. Liberally illustrated by excerpts of interviews with people who have ULDs, she outlines in clear language the stages that they pass through as they discover the true cause of their learning difficulties and the dynamics that foster the resilience that leads to successful management of learning difficulties. The second part of the book contains the historic, theoretical, and pragmatic information that can guide professionals who intervene therapeutically. Smart But Stuck is IMPORTANT READING for anyone with learning disabilities and the professionals who work with them."--(Nan Freund, MEd, BCET, FAET, Board Certified Educational Therapist, past president of the Association of Educational Therapists)

Susan K. Lane

"A REVELATION OF WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE A CHILD WITH AN UNDIAGNOSED LEARNING DISABILITY (ULD). . . . Reading her book was like being inside my son's head, knowing his painful perception of the world. She described his learning disability so well. . . . In describing how to successfully move from the shame to resilience, Myrna has a wonderful capacity to explain complex emotions in bite-sized pieces so we can really understand how our emotions can work to enhance our humanity and success. . . . Tells us how innate qualities and values we learned as a child can work for us in practical and unexpected ways. . . . Helps lessen the fear of seeking help, and shows how even a parent can empower a child to be gentle with himself or herself and be successful."--(Susan K. Lane, Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism; Immediate Past President, Mental Health Association of the North Shore, Evanston, Illinois; parent of children with ADD, LD, ADHD)

Susan A. Vogel

"ACCURATELY, PASSIONATELY, AND POIGNANTLY provides adults with the opportunity to describe in their own voice the profound, pervasive, life-long impact of learning disabilities on their emotional adjustment, self-esteem, relationships, and every day behavior. Her focus is mainly on adults whose learning disabilities were identified or addressed late in life, but her insights pertain to ALL adults with learning disabilities. One of the major contributions of this book is that Dr. Orenstein TAKES A PROACTIVE APPROACH TO HELPING ADULTS WITH LD build resiliency through self-understanding and self-nurturance. She describes clearly and pragmatically how adults with learning disabilities can use self psychology and assistance from others in the mental health field to help them overcome the emotional impact of learning disabilities and to achieve their highest potential."--(Susan A. Vogel, PhD; Distinguished Research Professor Emerita; Director, Enhancing Success Institute, Northern Illinois University; author, College students with learning disabilities, 8th Edition)

Constance Goldberg

"Outlines significant and convincing connections between psychology and neuroscience as factors in the understanding of resilience. . . . Most importantly, this lively and informative book is of interest well beyond the world of ULD. For any professional or lay person who has struggled to move beyond seemingly stubborn limitations, Orenstein's ideas about the interface of creativity and resilience will be a breath of fresh air."--(Constance Goldberg, MS, Faculty, Institute for Clinical Social Work, Chicago)