Nobody Nowhere

September 28, 1992
Victims of the complex, much-misunderstood and professionally baffling disease of autism will find an eloquent voice in Australian-born Williams, one of its victorious survivors. After 25 years, this daughter of abusive parents, shunted from school to school, began to emerge from a private, protective, hallucinatory world in which she was inhabitated by multiple personalities. Here Williams recounts how she learned to communicate and live with others. Inspired by an empathetic therapist, and determined to ``take herself apart and put herself back together,'' Williams resumed schooling, graduating from college with honors. While she will always be autistic, her moving memoir and clear analysis of the nature of her illness shows how she was able to transcend it at least partially. Photos not seen by PW.