Talks & Entertainment

Do you have a keen sense of direction, a love of puzzles, and the ability to assemble furniture without crying? You are likely a visual thinker. A quarter of a century after her memoir, Thinking in Pictures, forever changed how the world understood autism, Temple Grandin transforms our awareness of the different ways our brains are wired in Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions.

With her genius for demystifying science, Dr. Grandin draws on cutting-edge research to take us inside the minds of visual thinkers, from the photo-realistic object visualizers like Dr. Grandin herself, with their intuitive knack for design and problem solving, to the abstract, mathematically-inclined “visual spatial” thinkers who excel in pattern recognition and systemic thinking. She also makes us understand how a world increasingly geared to the verbal tends to sideline visual thinkers and their singular gifts, proposing new approaches to educating, parenting, employing, and collaborating with visual thinkers.

Dr. Grandin is a professor of animal science, an outspoken advocate for the autism community, and the author of the New York Times bestsellers Animals in Translation, Animals Make Us Human, The Autistic Brain, and Thinking in Pictures, which became an HBO movie starring Claire Danes.