Loners

Some children are solitary and unable to adapt to the social and educational demands of school life. Some are gifted; most cope better once they leave school. This work discusses the nature and origins of their difficulties and compares them with autism, Asperger's syndrome and schizoid/schizotypal personality disorders. Sula Wolff illustrates follow-up studies with case histories of children and adults seen in the course of 20 years, as well as with discussions of the apparent eccentricities of some exceptional people who catch the public eye. The book shows the necessity of the clinical recognition of the condition.