INTRODUCTION
Oval Souls on a Round Planet
Darold A. Treffert, M.D.

This is a book about success and hope. Both are vital ingredients in my answers to the many, “I’ve got a son or daughter who...” e-mails I get every week on my savant syndrome website from parents nervously inquiring  bout what might be ahead and how to proceed with their child recently given a diagnosis of autism or Asperger’s syndrome.

I learned many things in medical school, but two lessons from a revered and wise professor have especially stuck with me and have been reinforced over and over again in my many, many years in practice as a psychiatrist with a special interest in autism: “Listen to the patient, he’s giving you the diagnosis” and “Never tell the patient there is no hope.”

So often it is the patient, the parent or the caregiver who is the real ‘expert’ when it comes to describing a condition, and even prescribing a remedy for what works best with certain problems. So it is with this book as we ‘listen’ to these scholars as they describe their highly individual journeys on the spectrum, and their successful outcomes. Embedded in those stories is the optimism and hope they inspire. I hope you make use of the glossary in the back for any words, acronyms or terms you need defined.

The message of hope in this book is a welcome and refreshing one because in the past, too many times ‘experts’ had recommended institutional care and ‘forgetting about them’ to parents of autistic children with impairments or limitations that seemed insurmountable. Fortunately many of those parents ignored that callous advice and unwarranted pessimism. Instead, they substituted unrelenting optimism, indefatigable patience, inspiring ingenuity, and unconditional love. And love is a good therapist too . . .

Oval Souls on a Round Planet
One of my patients described herself as an “oval soul on a round planet.” She described it thus: “We live on a round planet, so we assume that all the other planets are round like the one we live on. But what happens before you are born is that God looks out over the universe and sees all kinds of planets—round ones, square ones, oblong ones and oval ones. They are not all round like I learned in science class. What happens before you are born is that God sorts your soul out. If you have a round soul, he puts you on a round planet. If you have a square soul he puts you on a square planet. In my case God made a mistake. I’ve got an oval soul and he put me on a round planet. The school, Mom and Dad and even you, Dr. T, keep trying to file my soul round like everyone else’s. I’m decomposing in school, and when I graduate I’ll simply give up my seat to some starry-eyed cadaver to be.”

But after awhile my patient discovered, and her parents and everyone around her concurred, that there was plenty of room for her oval-shaped soul on this round planet, and there was no need to scrape and file and sand to make it round like everyone else’s. The story ended well. My patient grew up to be a very successful, content and accomplished professional.

The stories of the autistic scholars in this book, with their individually shaped souls, remind me of this patient’s struggles along the way. They have provided a sufficiently longitudinal look at their lives to see that they like my patient have concluded now that the shape of their soul, whatever it is, is fine just the way it is. For most of these scholars, their diagnosis was not made until they were almost mid-life. But with that diagnosis came the realization they were not alone with their strengths, as well as their weaknesses, often attached to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and with that acceptance and insight came some relief and peace of mind. Rollo May, in his book, The Discovery of Being, reports the case of a woman who was struggling with her identity and validity. Then one night there suddenly came an epiphany of what she called the “I am” experience. She described it this way: “This act of contact and acceptance with I am, once gotten hold of, gave me (what I think was for me the first time) the experience ‘Since I am, I have the right to be’.”

For most of these scholars, the growing up years was difficult with a great deal of misunderstanding about them and their condition. There was some ridicule, some bullying and some ‘filing, scraping and sanding’ to try to make their souls just like everyone else’s. But in each instance a reassuring and loving parent, or a special teacher, or a friend or a colleague accepted them ‘just the way you are.’

 . . . The success stories in this book serve a number of purposes. First, they provide hope and some specific advice for parents newly encountering the diagnosis of autism in their child. Second, they provide a reassurance to persons diagnosed with autism or Asperger’s that the unique shape of their psychological ‘soul’ is okay the way it is, and as such gives the person a validity—a ‘deed’ so to speak—to their own self and self-worth. “Since I am, I have the right to be.” Third, with the proliferation of diagnostic and treatment services for children with developmental disabilities of all sorts, the diagnosis of autism is made earlier now and helpful interventions can begin more promptly. Yet, as in most of the stories related here, often a formal diagnosis of Asperger’s, particularly, is not made until early adult or even mid-life in some individuals. The diagnosis does not in and of itself really change the mix of signs or symptoms of the individual, but finding out ‘they are not alone’ with that collection of puzzling traits, emotions and behaviors, provides reassurance to these persons as they learn more about Asperger’s and autism for the first time . . .