Passing for Normal - a Memoir of Compulsion
You'll find Passing for Normal in the
psychology section of your local
bookshop. Really, it shouldn't be
there. Perhaps there is no specific category
into which this book fits comfortably, being
relevant to both clinicians as well those who
fancy a damn good read.
Amy Wilensky tells of her battles with
the neurological disorder Tourette's syn.
drome and how they shaped her childhood
and adolescence. During this time they were
dismissed as "too much nervous energy."
She goes on to tell us how she dealt with her
condition and later the development of
obsessive compulsive disorder. She
describes the events with honesty and
simplicity. She tried to lead a normal life
while being hampered enormously by her
physical and mental tics. Combined with her
near pathological penchant for hoarding,
her story is genuinely engrossing.
The condition seems like a shopping
trolley of thoughts, constantly needing to be
filled yet impossible to control. The occasionally voyeuristic insight into the disorders
and their treatment makes this book difficult
to put down. The passage describing her first
Tourette's "class" is deeply thought provoking yet funny at the same time.
Far from being the stereotypical
Tourette's sufferer, Amy Wilensky is a pretty, articulate, intelligent woman. The frankness
of her memoir goes a long way to oppose
the image of the raving, coprolalic Tourette's
patient. Many do not realise that only 10% of
sufferers swear spontaneously. Skilfully, yet
not vindictively, Wilensky exposes the
ignorance at large in the community where
diagnosis and treatment are concerned. Passages concerning the onset at 8 years old
and the process of realisation that a
neurological disorder was present are most
revealing, with taunts from peers and
parents alike seeming particularly wounding
to the fragile mind. At such a young age,
who can know for certain that their head
won't fall off if they don't stop twitching?
You can't help but read the book and
feel a strong sense of admiration for the
author who, having come to terms with the
essentially untreatable nature of the disease,
has had the courage to record her personal
experiences as eloquently as this.
Rhys Thomas, fourth year medical student, Imperial College London
Email: r.thomas@ic.ac.uk
studentBMJ 2001;09:1-42 February ISSN 0966-6494
