Switched On

A Memoir of Brain Change and Emotional Awakening

By: John Elder Robison, Alvaro Pascual-Leon - introduction, Marcel Just

Narrated by: John Elder Robison

An extraordinary memoir about the cutting-edge brain therapy that dramatically changed the life and mind of John Elder Robison, the New York Times bestselling author of Look Me in the Eye

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST

Imagine spending the first forty years of your life in darkness, blind to the emotions and social signals of other people. Then imagine that someone suddenly switches the lights on.

It has long been assumed that people living with autism are born with the diminished ability to read the emotions of others, even as they feel emotion deeply. But what if we’ve been wrong all this time? What if that “missing” emotional insight was there all along, locked away and inaccessible in the mind?

In 2007 John Elder Robison wrote the international bestseller Look Me in the Eye, a memoir about growing up with Asperger’s syndrome. Amid the blaze of publicity that followed, he received a unique invitation: Would John like to take part in a study led by one of the world’s foremost neuroscientists, who would use an experimental new brain therapy known as TMS, or transcranial magnetic stimulation, in an effort to understand and then address the issues at the heart of autism? Switched On is the extraordinary story of what happened next.

Having spent forty years as a social outcast, misreading others’ emotions or missing them completely, John is suddenly able to sense a powerful range of feelings in other people. However, this newfound insight brings unforeseen problems and serious questions. As the emotional ground shifts beneath his feet, John struggles with the very real possibility that choosing to diminish his disability might also mean sacrificing his unique gifts and even some of his closest relationships. Switched On is a real-life Flowers for Algernon, a fascinating and intimate window into what it means to be neurologically different, and what happens when the world as you know it is upended overnight.

Praise for Switched On

“An eye-opening book with a radical message . . . The transformations [Robison] undergoes throughout the book are astonishing—as foreign and overwhelming as if he woke up one morning with the visual range of a bee or the auditory prowess of a bat.”—The New York Times

“Astonishing, brave . . . reads like a medical thriller and keeps you wondering what will happen next . . . [Robison] takes readers for a ride through the thorny thickets of neuroscience and leaves us wanting more.”—The Washington Post

“Fascinating for its insights into Asperger’s and research, this engrossing record will make readers reexamine their preconceptions about this syndrome and the future of brain manipulation.”—Booklist

“Like books by Andrew Solomon and Oliver Sacks, Switched On offers an opportunity to consider mental processes through a combination of powerful narrative and informative medical context.”—BookPage

“A mind-blowing book that will force you to ask deep questions about what is important in life. Would normalizing the brains of those who think differently reduce their motivation for great achievement?”—Temple Grandin, author of The Autistic Brain

“At the heart of Switched On are fundamental questions of who we are, of where our identity resides, of difference and disability and free will, which are brought into sharp focus by Robison’s lived experience.”—Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Effect

Enlightening

Well written account of cutting edge research into autism. The account is gives hope to the individuals who are impaired by their autism.

Fascinating new brain discoveries for autism

I am a therapist for autistic children, and I learned so very much about how the brain processes input in different people. The author, John, says he is not an expert. But all the research and study and reflection makes him an expert to me.
I liked to hear John read his own work so I could hear his voice inflections and his own emphasis. His word illustrations made sense to my visual brain, his humor was great and often I laughed out loud - even at the end of the credits.
I liked the way he talked about conflicting emotions for each situation.
Thank you, John for sharing yourself with me.

This is John's best book yet!

If you enjoy learning about Temple Grandin, John Robison's story is equally compelling. After being introduced to John in 2011 at IMFAR, I read his first two books. When Raising Cubby came out, I devoured that one too. This is his best book yet. If you have Asperger's or autism, or if you care about people who do, this book is for you. John does a great job of describing his life and experience with autism. He also tackles the job of explaining how scientists are using their knowledge gained from years of research to develop promising treatments that will eventually be available to those of us outside research institutions.
Read the book, treatments are within site. The next steps will include training the masses. It cannot come too soon!

Already reviewed - this could be me.

I wrote a review on this prior to listening to it. My assessment then remains true today. I was not surprised by how John reads; I am well aware of his work, and have been active in the autism awareness community long enough to have known what to expect.

What I was NOT expecting was that John's experience with TMS is eerily identical in many ways to my own response to a neurological treatment along those same lines. Like John, I was diagnosed as an Aspergian adult (37 in my case) and I began that treatment in my early 40s. I come from an audio engineering background, and did college and graduate school degrees to help me learn how to communicate and understand others better so I wouldn't feel so alienated.

My third treatment resulted in a few hours after the fact, having a sudden and inexplicable burst of crying, and I could SEE the emotions on the faces of those around me - and I understood what they meant. It was indeed very much like a dam of emotional awareness had been broken through, only I was not equipped to identify, manage, nor express what I was experiencing. It's taken years to achieve a relatively functional relationship with my emotional sensitivity, achieved through the support of my family, my educational background and experience in counseling psychology, and the aid of my therapist/practitioner combined with a LOT of reading and questions.

I had never met or heard of anyone who has had a similar experience before. So it was quite the thrill to find that a gentleman I have tangentially known (varying degrees of separation) and the author of books I have on my shelf has had this same sort of experience, as best I can tell. I have many questions about it. I did not participate in a research study and some things I did not experience (the hallucinations, for example, but I did have some very minor disinhibition after one session). But the parts I did do, knowing years elapsed between John's treatment and my own, give me hope for a longer-lasting recalibration of the brain.

My husband laughed with me as I cried that night, holding me close and saying, "Welcome to the human race" when I plaintively asked him if there was some way I could go back to being like Spock, because I was so overwhelmed and scared. Clearly that didn't happen. But when John relates the experiences he had early in, of feeling the music and being able to look into people's eyes and understand the emotions below the surface, it was as if I could have written those words about my own experience.

I listened to this in two days (part of which was at work). I am now wondering how many others have experienced the good, the bad, and the neutral effects of brain stimulation, and if there might be a need for someone to be a peer mentor with counseling credentials who has "been there, done a version of that" herself. ;)

This book has honestly changed my life - I don't feel so alone in my experiences anymore. I suspect it will have a very specific audience, but that's okay. I anticipate those who need to hear/read this will find it. As for me, I cannot recommend it highly enough, and am recommending it to my practitioner, family, and friends so they might get a sliver of insight regarding the incredible internal journey I have been on the last few years.

An Amazing Story (as always)

Both as a reader and a Cognitive Scientist, this story is phenomenal, educational, and breath taking. I would recommend it to anyone who has the faintest interest in: the brain and the mind, autism, struggles, life, love, humans.