Inside the head of an Asperger

“I have the feeling that I live differently from others. From the image of being different that they reflect back to me. A feeling that builds up over time… with force… I imagine this other person living in a kind of dream, evolving in a foreign language. If he lives in a dream, I am inhabited by a drama. The same letters, slightly rearranged, and because of this anagram, you are plunged into a completely different environment. Incomprehensible, amusing, nightmarish…” In 2016, at the age of 57, René Maurice Dereumaux was diagnosed with Asperger’s autism. At the same time, his gift was revealed, a condition he had unknowingly carried throughout his entire life. In this rare and precious document, he shares how this syndrome has inhabited him, body and soul, since early childhood. With originality and an offbeat sense of humor, he invites us into his mind, revealing his deepest thoughts, his love of letters, words, and numbers—and his obsession with cars.