Dear Psychiatrist

Tom was born with Asperger (or Asperger's) Syndrome, a form of Autism that affects both mental and physical development. He changed from a happy, achieving nine-year-old to an uncommunicative adolescent requiring psychiatric treatment after years of bullying by his peers because he was different. A minor shoplifting offence and the resulting court case brought the psychiatrist's report to the attention of Tom's parents. Failing to recognise bullying as a probable cause for Tom's behaviour it blamed instead his parents for "poor understanding of their son's limitations, consequently they have placed unrealistic expectations upon him leading to his deep sense of failure." Very alarmed by this, the parents were further disturbed on being refused a meeting with the psychiatrist to discuss their concerns, a major result of which was the mother's decision to write this book. Written as a series of letters (mainly fictional to highlight the author's frustrations) to Tom's psychiatrist, DearRead less