Look me in the Eye is about growing up with Aspergers syndrome a high functioning form of autism overcoming my limitations, and ultimately becoming a successful adult. Its a lonely story at first, because I didnt have many friends. I didnt know how to act, or how to respond. As a child, my best friends were all machines. When I got bigger, my understanding of machines led me into a career in electronics, and I found myself on the road with Pink Floyds sound company, and then the musical group KISS. Ive told how I moved into a real job, as a designer for a major toy company an Aspergian passing for normal in polite society. But then it fell apart. I couldnt pretend anymore. I quit my job and started fixing cars in my driveway.But something happened when I started my business. I started to understand people, too. And one of the people was an insightful therapist, TR Rosenberg. TR told me about Aspergers and that knowledge changed my life. Imagine you are five or six years old and one of your classmates comes up to you and says look at my Tonka truck! How do you respond? a. I have a helicopter b. I want some cookies c. My mom is mad at me today d. I rode a horse at the fair e. Thats a neat truck! Can I hold it? I was so used to living in my own world that I answered with whatever I had been thinking. If I was remembering riding a horse at the fair, it didnt matter if a kid came up to me and said look at my truck! or my mom is in the hospital! I was still going to answer, I rode a horse at the fair. The other kids words did not change the course of my thoughts. It was almost like I didnt hear him. But on some level I did hear, because I responded. Even though the response didnt make any sense to the person speaking to me. A family acquaintance is visiting your home. She tells your mother about the death of a neighbors son who was hit and killed by a train while playing on the tracks. You do not personally know the neighbor or her son. How would you react? What would you say or feel? I smiled at her wordsI knew they thought it was bad for me to be smiling, but I didnt know why I was grinning and I couldnt help it. I didnt feel joy or happiness. I didnt know Eleanor. And I had never met her son. So there was no reason for me to feel joy or sorrow on account of anything that might happen to them. Here is what went through my mind that summer day: Someone got killed. Wow! Im glad I didnt get killed. Im glad Varmint or my parents didnt get killed. Im glad all my friends are okay. He must have been a pretty dumb kid, playing on the train tracks. I would never get run over by a train like that. Im glad Im okay. At the end I smiled with relief. Aspergers is not a disease. Its a way of being. There is no cure, nor is there a need for one. -John Elder Robison