How to Apply Running with Scissors
A true story of the boy whose mother legally handed him over to her own psychiatrist
About This Book
At twelve, Augusten Burroughs watched his mother's psychiatrist scoop a bowel movement out of a toilet and declare it a message from God. A few years later, that same psychiatrist became his legal father. Running with Scissors is Burroughs's own account of growing up inside a household that ran on bible-dips, staged suicide attempts, and a standing rule against ever telling anyone what to do, including a teenager having a relationship with a grown man living in the barn. This is not a self-help book, it is the raw material other books get built from: a real family that mistook total freedom for love.About the Author
Augusten Burroughs is the writer behind Running with Scissors, his own account of the years he spent, from roughly age twelve, inside the household of Dr. Finch, the psychiatrist his mother handed him over to after her marriage and her mental health both collapsed. Within the story, Burroughs is repeatedly told by his friend Natalie that he should become a writer rather than a hairdresser, and this book is the answer he eventually gave. He writes from inside the chaos he describes, as the child who lived it, rather than as an outside expert, which is exactly what makes his account of that household's strange rules so credible.
Biggest Takeaway
Listening to this, you'll start catching yourself asking for things sideways instead of saying what you actually need, and you'll notice when a sign you're leaning on is really just something you already wanted to believe. You'll recognize the small, controllable rituals you reach for when the rest of your life feels unmanageable, and use them on purpose instead of drifting into them. You'll spot the difference between total freedom and having no support at all, and between being loved and simply being paid attention to. Small, specific shifts in how you ask, how you cope, and who you stay loyal to, and why.
Key Insights from This Book
Explore the most important ideas and learn how to apply them in your life.
The psychiatrist who banned indirect questions from his own chaotic house
A psychiatrist convinced an entire household that screaming was medicine
A psychiatrist decided his own bowel movements were messages from God
The strange comfort a terrified child found in a perfectly ironed crease
What happens when literally no one in your life tells you no
Nobody in the house thought a Christmas tree in May was strange
How one teenager got through anything without ever really feeling it
Two teenagers fell for the adults mistreating them, and for the same reason
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