Book Review: Handicap This

Title: Handicap This: A Disabled Life Guide

Author: Thomas Whitney

Date: 2021

Publisher: Fulton

ISBN: 978-1-63710-303-6 (digital)

Length: 104 e-pages

Quote: “The author Thomas J. Whitney was born in a small town in Central New York. Shortly after birth, his mother was injured in a car accident which left her paralyzed from the chest down permanently. It was right here where Thomas began to develop the “life is dark, so let it be” attitude. Growing up in a disabled family really taught him some hard values and perhaps overdeveloped his dark humor. Early in 2020, there was a life-changing event, and Thomas became an amputee himself. Life experience has led Thomas to a life of giving back through philanthropies. The main goal of life should be to help each other learn and grow.”

Personally, I felt that this book was deceptively advertised. The Amazon page led me to expect it to be funny. Going by the cover art and the blurb I was expecting a snarky look at the way Americans have and have not complied with the Americans with Disabilities Act. There are jokes, mostly in the first and last chapters, but Handicap This is mostly a study of psychology and philosophy. I paid hard-earned money to study psychology and I’ve never objected to a study of classical philosophy, so I didn’t mind reading the book. It’s just not what I expected it would be.

Well, this web site exists to help my readers avoid being disappointed by misleading cover art. Now we know.

What’s in Handicap This: an introductory rant about the benefits of snarky thinking over Positive Thinking, summaries of some studies about the medical benefits of laughter and sarcasm, a salute to Murphy’s Law that summarizes the life of the real Edward Murphy, more summaries of some studies of the benefits of “organizing” life and work space, some studies of the benefits of having a hobby (which, for Murphy, means something that involves physical activity), and summaries of Plato’s and Aristotle’s advice on the pursuit of happiness.

Edward Murphy, for whom Murphy’s Law is named, was not a comedian (no relation to Eddie Murphy). Murphy did serious physics research and used himself as a test subject, feeling that animal subjects wouldn’t yield accurate results and not wanting to injure other humans. His life story contains a fair bit of irony. Scientists and engineers are encouraged to enjoy the ironic implications of Murphy’s Law and its elaborations in order to think seriously about how any new device or application could go wrong. It’s an approach this web site took to bill reading when we were watching the legislature in session: try to think like a total paranoid, imagine the worst, work with the possibility that some real-life version of Hannibal Lecter wants to use a bill (or a computer or an airplane) to destroy the world. Those who appreciate the usefulness of taking this grim view of things we liked, at first, should enjoy learning more about Murphy. However, Whitney also discusses studies that show some psychological benefit in knowing when to ease off the exercises in pessimism that help troubleshoot any new idea. After a few hours of thinking about how almost any good thing can be turned to bad purposes, it’s nice just to go to the lake, get some exercise, and enjoy the company of friends.

As a serious guide to being a Real Grownup, Handicap This is addressed to Generation X. They may well prefer it to Walker Percy’s Lost in the Cosmos, which delivered a similar message (with a Southern accent) to my generation. Reading Handicap This at fifty...it’s not that I found no new information in this book, because several of the psychological studies discussed are recent ones and I hadn’t read much about Edward Murphy before, but I have read a lot of books that reached conclusions very similar to Whitney’s. So if you read a lot, for you, too, the decision to buy this book may depend on your age.

Then again, as I read my way into the substance of this book, I kept thinking, “Term paper. This section reads like an A+ term paper.” About halfway through the book I found a mental picture forming in my head: Here’s a young man, suddenly disabled, saying “I’ll do something. I’ll write a book. Where's that box of term papers?” I respect that kind of X'er. If I had any money to spare I'd buy a hardcover copy just to encourage him.