Read ADHD Confessions Rousseau as selfhelp Richard Orange 9781520313122 Books

Product details Paperback 62 pages Publisher Independently published (December 18, 2018) Language English ISBN-10 1520313128

ADHD Confessions Rousseau as selfhelp Richard Orange 9781520313122 Books Reviews

• Diagnosing the dead, especially if the diagnosis is psychological, is always a dodgy business. Something author Richard Orange is well aware of and addresses in this fantastic book with a lifetime's worth of corroborating evidence largely from the subject’s own pen.
  
  Rousseau’s restless mind is legendary. So much so it served as the title for an award-winning biography of the man by Leo Damrosch. And nothing spells ADHD so much as a restless mind.
  
  ADHD or, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, can seem like a curse to those afflicted with it. We are eternally square pegs attempting to force ourselves through the round holes of social conformity. However, for Rousseau, if Orange's hypothesis is correct, ADHD ultimately served as his greatest asset allowing him to develop his radical ideas on everything from politics to child rearing that made him famous throughout Europe and the first celebrity author.
  
  If it is easier to make a firm diagnosis in Rousseau’s case more than others it is chiefly because he left so much of himself on paper. Rousseau was a man with a deep need to explain and defend his oddity, something ADHDers know only too well, and this drive ultimately led him to write the first modern autobiography. In it, we learn much about the man that more restrained people would have sensibly taken to their graves. Among other things we discover, Rousseau enjoyed being spanked, and that when young would expose his bare bottom to pretty girls in the street in hopes that they might indulge him in his fetish. And then the more mundane, but very telling ADHD trait, of keeping a cup-and-ball in his pocket while at parties so that, when he became bored and was at a loss at what more to say, he had something to occupy his energies.
  
  The whole of the Confessions is one long exercise in the impulsive blurting out of whatever came to his mind, a form of openness and total honesty that makes ADHDers both warm and friendly, and at the same time often figures of ridicule due to our social backwardness and easily mocked enthusiasm; humiliation which, sensitive creatures that we are, continues to haunt long after, and in some instances lamentably leads to a distrust of all people entirely.
  
  Sadly, this was the fate of Rousseau who in later life would one by one cast off his friends for perceived slights or assumed dishonesty. However, as an author whose books had been publically burned and his person and home attacked by zealots, Rousseau had more excuse for paranoia than most.
  
  Although his life did not end like a fairy tale (who’s does?) it does at least serve to give hope. If Rousseau did indeed suffer from this strange way of viewing the world, and Orange has made as strong a case as can be made that he did, then the many remarkable achievements this odd little man made in spite of it should warm the spirits of all who feel they wander aimlessly, unable to see the final shape their lives will take. And, for those of us who share this mental wiring, it may, in addition, give us one more thing on which to focus and so, at least alleviate a little of that signature boredom that has come to dominate so many of our lives.
• ...especially for those of us fed up with the oversimplification 'ferrari brain', clinical pathogolists or boo pharma chums writing on ADHD. a book with a new uplifting and scholarly twist to an old debate!
  
  while the book could go on for hours (let's collaborate on more authors? a few are mentioned in your work), i find the author is underselling his research that went into this. To date the best selfhelp book for anyone with erudite thinking and looking to deal with their own confessions of underperformance in those periods of binary solitude.
  
  i have passed this on to my uni pals and decided to study rousseau at the sorbonne for a short, yet productive stint. curious to dig deeper.
• Interesting short read. Looks at Rousseau's life to dive into ADHD. Since I work with Special Needs children, I read to stay informed. It was a quick discussion about reasons for this special gift. I agreed with a lot of the a it's ideas. A good read.
• As the mother of an adult son recently diagnosed with ADHD, it’s refreshing to hear the personal experience and professional perspective to embracing ADHD, rather than the traditional medical approach to medicating it. We continue to learn about this brain disorder, but have had many frustrations over the lack of success from traditional medicine. I believe with continuing therapy and support, our son can reach objectives when he understands how to use his differences as his strengths. This doesn’t mean I’m opposed to the science and practice of medicine. Everyone must find their own balance. This book introduced me to alternative thinking.
• This book is a revelation for someone with ADD as it makes you think about it more as a gift than a course.
  
  It definitely lacks the answers you may have been looking for, but it has helped me get a new perspective of the condition (if it can be called like that)
• Easy read covering his experience with the disorder.
• It was a very good book, and a short reading as well be able to absorb some very interesting knowledge.
• Would recommend to anyone experiencing ADHD or bipolar disorder. A great, quick and engaging read. Two thumbs up from me!