Fixing My Gaze

A Scientist's Journey Into Seeing in Three Dimensions

By: Susan R. Barry

Narrated by: Barbara Longo

When neuroscientist Susan Barry was 50 years old, she took an unforgettable trip to Manhattan. As she emerged from the dim light of the subway into the sunshine, she saw a view of the city that she had witnessed many times in the past but now saw in an astonishingly new way. Skyscrapers on street corners appeared to loom out toward her like the bows of giant ships. Tree branches projected upward and outward, enclosing and commanding palpable volumes of space. Leaves created intricate mosaics in 3D. With each glance, she experienced the deliriously novel sense of immersion in a three dimensional world.

Barry had been cross-eyed and stereoblind since early infancy. After half a century of perceiving her surroundings as flat and compressed, on that day she was seeing Manhattan in stereo depth for first time in her life. As a neuroscientist, she understood just how extraordinary this transformation was, not only for herself but for the scientific understanding of the human brain. Scientists have long believed that the brain is malleable only during a critical period in early childhood. According to this theory, Barry's brain had organized itself when she was a baby to avoid double vision - and there was no way to rewire it as an adult. But Barry found an optometrist who prescribed a little-known program of vision therapy; after intensive training, Barry was ultimately able to accomplish what other scientists and even she herself had once considered impossible.

A revelatory account of the brain's capacity for change, Fixing My Gaze describes Barry's remarkable journey and celebrates the joyous pleasure of our senses.

©2009 Susan R. Barry (P)2012 Susan R. Barry

Great! I have a lazy eye and cannot see 3D

After visiting an eye doctor, he suggested I buy this book before beginning vision therapy. This book gives you an in depth view of what a doctor without stereo vision went through to get it. Gives you hope!

Excellent book

Very full of information and well written, hard to follow when tired or multitasking but absolutely incredible resource not lacking

Hope for Strabismus Sufferers

What did you love best about Fixing My Gaze?

How Susan explained all the scientific portions in an easy to understand manner.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Fixing My Gaze?

When Susan describes the first time she sees in 3D.

Which scene was your favorite?

When Susan describes the first time she sees in 3D.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes and no. You need to take time to digest some of the information so taking more than a couple sessions to finish it is ideal.

Any additional comments?

This is a must read for anyone with strabismus; especially if you have had it since you were a baby. Susan explains the condition in an easy to understand manner and guides you through her transformation from seeing as a strabismic, to seeing in 3D. The journey she takes you on is worth the read in itself, even for someone who doesn't know what seeing with strabismus is like.

I have had esotropic strabismus for as long as I can remember (just like Susan) and have always been told by Optometrists and Ophthalmologists that I will never see in 3D. They have recommended surgery purely for cosmetic purposes and snark at the idea of vision therapy stating there is no scientific evidence that suggests it works. Susan touches on this topic and makes some very good points, especially for someone who is in "the business" herself.

This book gives people like me hope that perhaps there is a "cure" for long-time strabismus sufferers and that it is time the eye care professionals take a second look at vision therapy as that potential cure.

Enlightening!

I am grateful for this peek into the experience of those living with and adapting to these conditions.

Essential for anyone intrested in the brain

I was literally pausing every 10 minutes to capture a comment or insight. Susan's story is an amazing example of the brains ability to change and gives such a profound insight in the way science is both illuminating and important, whilst at the same time often being terribly misguided and arrogantly wrong. The take home message is a reminder of the message from the brilliant late Dr Karen Pape (The boy who could run but not walk) that brains CAN recover and that habits hide recovery. Most importantly, this book gives us fascinating clues into HOW the brain recovers. Susan's story undeniably illustrates the problem with current thinking in rehabilitation where the push to teach splinter skills and compensatory strategies leaves much of the disability community with sub-optimal participation. Her story of vision recovery is a promise of what's possible if we keep striving to figure out how to best target gaps in the way the body/brain is functioning rather than projecting our own current limitations in knowledge as the brains limitation in ability.