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Doran: Child of Courage
A mother whose devotion impelled her to undertake a spiritual and medical ordeal recounts her own efforts, and those of her fellow villagers, to train young Doran and to raise money to send him to a renowned Philadelphia treatment center
287 pages, Paperback
First published January 7, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 23, 2011
This is a single mother’s story of how she rose to the challenge of having a baby with serious developmental issues. I read it numerous times in the late 1980s, when my wife and I were grappling with the same problem.
When local resources proved worthless, Linda Scotson found a way to travel with her son from the UK to Philadelphia – more specifically, to the very controversial Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential. Hers was neither the first nor the most recent memoir written by an “Institutes family,” but we thought it was the best. We gave copies to many of the volunteers who stepped forward to help us in our own similar (actually much more intense) campaign.
Drawbacks: The pace and tone are a bit giddy at times. Scotson does not dwell on any of the doubts or reservations she might have had along the way, and her boy’s progress once the program is underway is presented as a given. You really have to read between the lines to understand that he is still not fully recovered at the end. In that regard, I think the story lacks somewhat in terms of honesty.
On the other hand, it did wonders in terms of inspiring us to do our best with an extraordinarily difficult task, in the face of determined opposition from professionals who disapproved. We needed that inspiration.
Scotson’s book was a benchmark I always had in mind when contemplating the book I would write: I was going to present the experience of being “on program” as accurately as possible, and I was not going to beat around the bush regarding the effectiveness of what we did. My story may not be as uplifting, but I hope it will be more valuable.
When local resources proved worthless, Linda Scotson found a way to travel with her son from the UK to Philadelphia – more specifically, to the very controversial Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential. Hers was neither the first nor the most recent memoir written by an “Institutes family,” but we thought it was the best. We gave copies to many of the volunteers who stepped forward to help us in our own similar (actually much more intense) campaign.
Drawbacks: The pace and tone are a bit giddy at times. Scotson does not dwell on any of the doubts or reservations she might have had along the way, and her boy’s progress once the program is underway is presented as a given. You really have to read between the lines to understand that he is still not fully recovered at the end. In that regard, I think the story lacks somewhat in terms of honesty.
On the other hand, it did wonders in terms of inspiring us to do our best with an extraordinarily difficult task, in the face of determined opposition from professionals who disapproved. We needed that inspiration.
Scotson’s book was a benchmark I always had in mind when contemplating the book I would write: I was going to present the experience of being “on program” as accurately as possible, and I was not going to beat around the bush regarding the effectiveness of what we did. My story may not be as uplifting, but I hope it will be more valuable.
November 11, 2015
I wasn't a big fan of this book for several reasons. Number one reason is that it's not very well written and at times I felt quite confused. I felt like the process wasn't explained enough and the story kept jumping forward too quickly. It wasn't as easy to follow as most biographies and memoirs I've read before.
Number two reason is that I have quite mixed feelings about The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential (IAHP) and it's a major part of the story. Well, the feelings are not so much mixed as they are negative to be honest. The methods IAHP uses to treat disabled and brain-injured children isn't very scientific to say the least and people have been warned about their therapies several times, as early as 1968 for the first time and more than once in the 2000's as well. I won't go into details as you can read them online yourself if you're interested.
Even with all this I still gave it 2/5 because it was an interesting read. While I don't agree with IAHP about the treatment of disabled children, it was interesting to read about the process.
Number two reason is that I have quite mixed feelings about The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential (IAHP) and it's a major part of the story. Well, the feelings are not so much mixed as they are negative to be honest. The methods IAHP uses to treat disabled and brain-injured children isn't very scientific to say the least and people have been warned about their therapies several times, as early as 1968 for the first time and more than once in the 2000's as well. I won't go into details as you can read them online yourself if you're interested.
Even with all this I still gave it 2/5 because it was an interesting read. While I don't agree with IAHP about the treatment of disabled children, it was interesting to read about the process.
August 3, 2014
An amazing story of one woman's strength to get the best treatment for her brain-injured son. I am a little unsure how she managed all of this with no job/obvious income (although there is mention of a lot of fundraising within the book), as all of her time was spent doing therapy with her son.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews