Quote
March 01, 2013
119 notes
"To look deep into your child’s eyes and see in him both yourself and something utterly strange, and then to develop a zealous attachment to every aspect of him, is to achieve parenthood’s self-regarding, yet unselfish, abandon. It is astonishing how often such mutuality had been realized - how frequently parents who had supposed that they couldn’t care for an exceptional child discover that they can. The parental predisposition to love prevails in the most harrowing of circumstances. There is more imagination in the world than one might think."

— Andrew Solomon, Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity (via sometimesagreatnotion)

Tags: andrew solomon Far From The Tree parents children

Photoset
November 30, 2012
1,142 notes

The 10 Best Books of 2012 from The New York Times Book Review, including our own Andrew Solomon’s powerful, groundbreaking FAR FROM THE TREE: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity. Congratulations, Andrew!

Read an excerpt of Far from the Tree or watch the trailer here.

Tags: new york times best books of 2012 andrew solomon far from the tree

Video
November 09, 2012
203 notes

How do parents love children who are extraordinarily different from themselves? That’s what one of the fall’s biggest nonfiction books, Andrew Solomon’s Far from the Tree, is asking.

“A landmark, revolutionary book….compulsively readable.” - Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad

“A brave and ambitious work, bringing together science, culture and a powerful empathy.” - Malcolm Gladwell

Watch the trailer above and read an excerpt.

(Source: vimeo.com)

Tags: andrew solomon far from the tree family parents children autism down syndrome schizophrenia prodigies disability

Photo
June 04, 2012
49 notes
Andrew Sullivan’s Quote of the Day at The Daily Dish: “Depression is the flaw in love. To be creatures who love, we must be creatures who can despair at what we lose, and depression is the mechanism of that despair. When it comes, it degrades one’s self and ultimately eclipses the capacity to give or receive affection. It is the aloneness within us made manifest, and it destroys not only connection to others but also the ability to be peacefully alone with oneself. Love, though it is no prophylactic against depression, is what cushions the mind and protects it from itself. Medications and psychotherapy can renew that protection, making it easier to love and be loved, and that is why they work. In good spirits, some love themselves and some love others and some love work and some love God: any of these passions can furnish that vital sense of purpose that is the opposite of depression. Love forsakes us from time to time, and we forsake love. In depression, the meaninglessness of every enterprise and every emotion, the meaninglessness of life itself, becomes self-evident. The only feeling left in this loveless state is insignificance.” -From The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon

Andrew Sullivan’s Quote of the Day at The Daily Dish:

“Depression is the flaw in love. To be creatures who love, we must be creatures who can despair at what we lose, and depression is the mechanism of that despair. When it comes, it degrades one’s self and ultimately eclipses the capacity to give or receive affection. It is the aloneness within us made manifest, and it destroys not only connection to others but also the ability to be peacefully alone with oneself.

Love, though it is no prophylactic against depression, is what cushions the mind and protects it from itself. Medications and psychotherapy can renew that protection, making it easier to love and be loved, and that is why they work. In good spirits, some love themselves and some love others and some love work and some love God: any of these passions can furnish that vital sense of purpose that is the opposite of depression. Love forsakes us from time to time, and we forsake love. In depression, the meaninglessness of every enterprise and every emotion, the meaninglessness of life itself, becomes self-evident. The only feeling left in this loveless state is insignificance.”

-From The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon

Tags: depression andrew solomon the noonday demon