Lowell Handler has Tourette's syndrome, a disorder characterized by exaggerated facial tics, sudden jerking movements of the body and limbs, and explosive public outbursts, usually in the form of expletives and racial epithets. Although he is a successful and acclaimed photojournalist, Handler has often seen himself as an outsider--a social outcast. With courage and candor, he recalls the difficulties he suffered growing up, the confusion he experienced when doctors misdiagnosed his bizarre behavior as a psychological aberration, and finally how, restless and despairing, he embarked on a quest for answers. In "Twitch and Shout, Handler sets out, camera in hand, on a journey through less than savory parts of America. From a transvestite bar in Tampa to a flophouse in New Orleans to a community health center in New York, he meets a variety of people who, like himself, don't conform to the standards to conventional society. With a keen eye for detail and an acute sense of humor, this memoir perfectly captures the unique and unforgettable life of a Touretter.

With candor and humor, Handler (performing, visual arts and communications, Dutchess Community College) describes the people and places he saw, touched, loved, and hated as he set out to discover himself, armed with a camera, a keen sense of the real, and Tourette's Syndrome (TS). He describes other people with extraordinary bodies and attitudes along the way, including a major league basketball player who integrates TS barks and grunts into his game, twins who tic in unison, and a community of Mennonites in which TS is rampant. He explores the lives of people whose TS is accompanied by obsessive-compulsive disorders, the sensationalism of the media, and his own work on a prizewinning PBS documentary. He includes appendices with information about TS and resources. This is a reprint of the 1998 Dutton edition.
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In this revealing memoir Handler tells of how Tourette's has shaped his life and provides insight into the strange symptoms that are often debilitating and alienating. As the title suggests, Twitch and Shout is no plea for pity; it is a heartfelt and often humorous effort to reclaim and humanize a disorder that can keep others at a distance.