Birger Sellin didn’t escape autism, but he was able to take many steps on the path to greater autonomy. What seems so natural to us “people of the upperworld” are for him, the “deserter,” achievements of enormous effort. Birger Sellin played himself in a film (the prize-wining “wie ein wuchernder erdklumpen auf der seele,” WDR 1994), attended a college for adult learning, received individual instruction, learned foreign languages. These texts bear witness to his joy at these accomplishments, his frustration following setbacks, his unquenched hopes.
