This book constitutes an excellent attempt at explaining the problems of what it is like to be autistic. Author Donna Williams was born in Australia in 1963 and raised in a working-class inner-city area.  She was assessed as psychotic at age two, labelled disturbed throughout childhood, and like many able people with autism born in the 1960s and earlier, she wasn't formally diagnosed with autism until adulthood.

Here in her challenging new book, written by an autistic person for people with autism and related disorders, and the professionals who work with them, is a practical handbook to understanding, living with and working with autism. Exploring autism from the inside, it shows clearly how the behaviors associated with autism can have a range of different causes, and in many cases reflect the autistic person's attempt to gain control over their internal world. The sensory and perceptual problems that challenge a person with autism are described in depth, together with strategies for tackling them so as to enable that person to take more control of their lives. Donna Williams comments on the various approaches to autism, drawing out those strategies that are of real use, and explaining why some approaches may prove counterproductive, leaving the autistic person feeling even more isolated and misunderstood.

Taking the view that understanding autism is the key to managing the condition, Donna Williams' book will bring illumination to all those who have felt baffled and frustrated by the outside appearance of autism. It contains a wealth of helpful suggestions, insights and new ideas, exploding old myths and promoting a view that all those involved with autism will find empowering and creative.