Twitch And Shout: A Touretters Tale

(Paperback)

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Description

Lowell Handler has Tourette's syndrome, a disorder characterized by exaggerated facial tics, sudden jerking movements of the body and limbs, and explosive public outbursts, usually in the form of expletives and racial epithets. With courage and candor, he recalls the difficulties he suffered growing up, the confusion he experienced when doctors misdiagnosed his bizarre behavior as a psychological aberration, and finally how, restless and despairing, he embarked on a quest for answers.

Reviews

"With candor and humor, Handler describes the people and places he saw, touched, loved, and hated as he set out to discover himself, armed with a camera, a keen sense of the real, and the Tourettes Syndrome."SciTech Book News

"The first memoir by someone with Tourettes syndrome . . . It is a mind-bending account of a mind-boggling affliction."Entertainment Weekly

"A most engaging account of a rich and creative life."Oliver Sacks, M.D.

"Driven along through the pages fascinated by the characters, the symptoms, the kinds of behavior and above all by the compassion this man has for both his work and his fellow Touretters. The strength of this account is in the very personal story it tells."Metapsychology

"Handler gives a clear account of Tourette's allright, but that is the least of what is impressive aboutTwitch and Shout. The book is herky-jerky like the illness, zippy and zestful and interspersed with moments of despair. Handler is a voyeur and an experience junkie and an optimist. He is good company."Peter D. Kramer, author of Listening to Prozac

Author Bio

Lowell Handler is a photojournalist whose work has been published in, among others,Life,Newsweek,U.S. News and World Report, and theSunday Times Magazine(London). He served as associate producer and narrator of the Emmy-nominated PBS documentaryTwitch and Shout, an exploration of Tourettes syndrome. He he is on the tenured faculty of the Department of Performing, Visual Arts, and Communications at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, NY.