The remarkable memoir of a Touretter’s journey of self-discovery—now back in print!

Lowell Handler has Tourette’s syndrome, a disorder characterized by exaggerated facial tics, sudden jerking movements of the body and limbs, and explosive public outbursts, usually in the form of expletives and racial epithets. Although he is a successful and acclaimed photojournalist, Handler has often seen himself as an outsider—a social outcast.  With courage and candor, he recalls the difficulties he suffered growing up, the confusion he experienced when doctors misdiagnosed his bizarre behavior as a psychological aberration, and finally how, restless and despairing, he embarked on a quest for answers.  

In Twitch and Shout, Handler sets out, camera in hand, on a journey through less than savory parts of America.  From a transvestite bar in Tampa to a flophouse in New Orleans to a community health center in New York, he meets a variety of people who, like himself, don’t conform to the standards of conventional society. With a keen eye for detail and an acute sense of humor, this memoir perfectly captures the unique and unforgettable life of a Touretter.
 

Lowell Handler is a photojournalist whose work has been published in, among others, Life, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, and the Sunday Times Magazine (London).  He served as associate producer and narrator of the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary Twitch and Shout, an exploration of Tourette’s syndrome.  He he is on the tenured faculty of the Department of Performing, Visual Arts, and Communications at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, NY. 
 

"With candor and humor, Handler describes the people and places he saw, touched, loved, and hated as he set out to discover himself, armed with a camera, a keen sense of the real, and the Tourette’s Syndrome."—SciTech Book News

"The first memoir by someone with Tourette’s syndrome . . . It is a mind-bending account of a mind-boggling affliction."—Entertainment Weekly

"A most engaging account of a rich and creative life."—Oliver Sacks, M.D.

"Driven along through the pages fascinated by the characters, the symptoms, the kinds of behavior and above all by the compassion this man has for both his work and his fellow Touretters. The strength of this account is in the very personal story it tells."—Metapsychology

"Handler gives a clear account of Tourette's all right, but that is the least of what is impressive about Twitch and Shout. The book is herky-jerky like the illness, zippy and zestful and interspersed with moments of despair. Handler is a voyeur and an experience junkie and an optimist. He is good company."—Peter D. Kramer, author of Listening to Prozac

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