From the Preface...In this book, I describe my life as a person who stutters, and I tell the story of how my experiences of stuttering set me on a journey of discovery that transformed the way I perceived the world. The journey really began in my early teens, following a number of experiences of the stutter going into remission. Although I relapsed and my symptoms returned, those early experiences impressed upon me the extent to which changes in my beliefs about stuttering appeared to have the capacity to bring about corresponding changes in the stutter itself. As I became aware of this, I started to wonder whether it may be possible to arrive at an understanding of stuttering that would permanently reduce its severity and perhaps even stop it from arising at all. This book describes my search for that understanding.
I have divided the book into two parts: The first part – which is largely autobiographical – covers my life between the age of fourteen and forty-two. It describes the period during which, despite my efforts, the stutter remained partially out of control, and although its symptoms became substantially less severe, I was nevertheless still afraid of it. This first part ends with a description of how my understanding suddenly changed, and the fear finally relented. In the second part of the book, I describe how my life changed after the fear had gone. In particular, I focus on my experience of returning to university – first to study speech therapy and then to research stuttering, and I discuss how this study and research deepened my understanding of the disorder and helped me to further consolidate my recovery. I hope The Perfect Stutter will prove both useful and entertaining to anyone whose life is in some way affected by stuttering, including not only stutterers themselves but also researchers and therapists – and, indeed, anyone who is interested in the wider relationship between the ways we perceive and our ability to communicate.
‘The Perfect Stutter’ is currently available… · in paperback format from Amazon (you will need to search for it in the Amazon website that supplies your own country) ISBN: 979-8508738822 · in e-book format (e-reader) from Amazon (you will need to search for it in the Amazon website that supplies your own country) · In e-book format (original page layout) from Google Books
· Visit Google Books for a free preview of the initial chapters of the book
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