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Blessing and a Curse
Growing up in Australia in the 1970s, Caiseal Mór was labelled `retarded' and `an idiot', and his parents were led to believe that physical punishment could cure his autism.In this courageous and captivating autobiography, Mór vividly captures his early experiences of dissociation from his true existence - a common reaction by children suffering from repeated abuse - and the various personas through which he lived through in his teens and early adulthood - the Mahjee, Charles P. Puddlejumper, Marco Polo and Chameleon Feeble. The rocky path towards discovering his true identity and finally accepting himself takes him on a spiritual pilgrimage via several different countries, once nearly getting caught unwittingly carrying drugs over the Moroccan border; forming relationships with people he meets but very often misjudges; to the revelation - the awakening - of love and acceptance.
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First published April 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 31, 2007
Finally another autism/"DID" account worth reading.
Australian fantasy writer and long time friend of Donna Williams, Caiseal Mor, has come out of the Autism Spectrum closet, with his newly published autobiography, A Blessing and a Curse: Autism and Me.
Caiseal grew up in rural Queensland in the 1960s, when virtually nothing was known about autism out here. Misdiagnosed multiple times, he was also severely physically abused by his parents with the sanction of the local doctor, to try to "cure" him of his autistic behaviours. Like Donna, he created what he calls "characters" to help him survive in the world.
I am halfway through this book and I am loving it. Caiseal is a born writer, and he evokes not just the horror of his treatment, but the beauty of the surroundings and his experiences of the world as an autistic person. This is not a book that gets you bogged down in the "trauma". It is a moving account of Caiseal finding himself, his own identity - that of an autistic man - and speaking out about it.
If you get a chance to read this, do.
A Blessing and a Curse: Autism and Me
Caiseal Mor
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN: 9781843105732
[http://www.jkp.com/catalogue/book.php...] JKP page for A Blessing and a Curse
[http://www.mahjee.com/] Caiseal's website
[http://mahjee.blogspot.com/] And his blog
[http://blog.donnawilliams.net/2007/04...] Donna Williams interviews Caiseal on her blog about his life, and the book.
There are some interesting points in this interview, in particular, the deception used by his former publishers and publicists, and the lengths they went to to hide Caiseal's autism from the public.
Australian fantasy writer and long time friend of Donna Williams, Caiseal Mor, has come out of the Autism Spectrum closet, with his newly published autobiography, A Blessing and a Curse: Autism and Me.
Caiseal grew up in rural Queensland in the 1960s, when virtually nothing was known about autism out here. Misdiagnosed multiple times, he was also severely physically abused by his parents with the sanction of the local doctor, to try to "cure" him of his autistic behaviours. Like Donna, he created what he calls "characters" to help him survive in the world.
I am halfway through this book and I am loving it. Caiseal is a born writer, and he evokes not just the horror of his treatment, but the beauty of the surroundings and his experiences of the world as an autistic person. This is not a book that gets you bogged down in the "trauma". It is a moving account of Caiseal finding himself, his own identity - that of an autistic man - and speaking out about it.
If you get a chance to read this, do.
A Blessing and a Curse: Autism and Me
Caiseal Mor
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN: 9781843105732
[http://www.jkp.com/catalogue/book.php...] JKP page for A Blessing and a Curse
[http://www.mahjee.com/] Caiseal's website
[http://mahjee.blogspot.com/] And his blog
[http://blog.donnawilliams.net/2007/04...] Donna Williams interviews Caiseal on her blog about his life, and the book.
There are some interesting points in this interview, in particular, the deception used by his former publishers and publicists, and the lengths they went to to hide Caiseal's autism from the public.
December 2, 2022
I liked the honesty of the author, of laying everything bare, even the unflattering and down right dirty parts. It also explains a lot of the inconsistencies in the authors earlier biographical stories, and even though I think that some parts of the story are still missing (which it seems the author agrees on, as well), it is easier to understand him now that I've read this book.
June 8, 2019
CW: Childhood Abuse
Caiseal Mor is a fantasy author and musician, although I confess that I had not heard of him before reading this book. Mor’s diagnosis of autism was unknown to the wider public until the publication of this book in 2007.
The book starts with a peculiar anecdote in which Mor refers to himself as Marco Polo and details an event in Morocco that had a profound impact upon his life. It then tracks back to Mor’s childhood and the first half of the book is predominantly concerned with his life before the age of ten. Mor himself is surprisingly forgiving of his family, his mother in particular, but readers will find it hard if not impossible to be anywhere near as forgiving themselves.
Since he wrote this book in 2007, it will come as no surprise or spoiler to anyone that Mor escaped from his family. The second half of the book is focused on his life as a teenager moving through young adulthood and onto his adult life. He also writes about how he was repeatedly taken advantage of and mistreated by those he thought were friends and went through dark periods of his life, even after he reinvented himself as Caiseal Mor. As the writing progresses closer to 2007, Mor writes about being diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder and autism, and how finding someone else who thought like he did help him in his own life. Which is where he feels that his life finally began to find some peace, and so he wrote this autobiography.
Caiseal Mor is a fantasy author and musician, although I confess that I had not heard of him before reading this book. Mor’s diagnosis of autism was unknown to the wider public until the publication of this book in 2007.
The book starts with a peculiar anecdote in which Mor refers to himself as Marco Polo and details an event in Morocco that had a profound impact upon his life. It then tracks back to Mor’s childhood and the first half of the book is predominantly concerned with his life before the age of ten. Mor himself is surprisingly forgiving of his family, his mother in particular, but readers will find it hard if not impossible to be anywhere near as forgiving themselves.
Since he wrote this book in 2007, it will come as no surprise or spoiler to anyone that Mor escaped from his family. The second half of the book is focused on his life as a teenager moving through young adulthood and onto his adult life. He also writes about how he was repeatedly taken advantage of and mistreated by those he thought were friends and went through dark periods of his life, even after he reinvented himself as Caiseal Mor. As the writing progresses closer to 2007, Mor writes about being diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder and autism, and how finding someone else who thought like he did help him in his own life. Which is where he feels that his life finally began to find some peace, and so he wrote this autobiography.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews