RUNNING WITH SCISSORS - Brief Analysis

By Felicia McCaw

This story is a compelling autobiography of Augusten Burroughs and has very unique qualities of true life events and mini events that has affected the writer’s life.

A brief analysis based on Cynthia Crosson-Tower Understanding Child Abuse and Neglect.

The family identified in the book is a nuclear family. The family has no true steady home but is relocated several times throughout the book.
The mother’s role was actively dysfunctional along with the son’s role with no chance to establish normalcy.

Communication was done reflective of silences, mood swings, facial expressions and voice tones and conveying all messages.

No established rituals, family traditions but some holiday celebrations with life rituals.

As per Crosson-Tower as reference the criteria for completing basic tasks have not been met:

1. Failure to complete basic task which involve everyday living established procedures and normal habitual requirements.

2. Failure to adapt to changes brought on by developmental tasks – improper or lacking of ability to evolve and develop emotionally, develop relational values, moral values and mental acquiesce to stability.

3. Failure to deal with crises – inability to deal with miniscule to higher levels of crises. (For example, rejection at poetry reading, arguments with husband, homeless state.)

4. Failure to deal with societal pressures:

Inability to go to school, pressure and stress allowed admittance to mental hospital.

Parent – Child Relationship

Established later in book mother has a mental condition.

A. Unstable
B. Mental condition does not allow the ability to fulfill childhood needs of son (Augusten).
C. Consistent quality time lacking and structure.

Limited psychological energies to deal with son.
Adolescence Period
Sexual Abuse
Traumatic Sexualization
Rewarded by positive reinforcement, grooming, fondness, compliments
Betrayal
Manipulation and intrusion in anus – seduction by older man and rough sex
Powerlessness
Unable to leave mother (psychotic episodes)
Unable to control any interactive actions between his lover and himself due to age disparity
Stigmatization
Augusten suffered levels of emotion that equate to shame, guilt and troubled feelings that allowed stigmatization and resulted in isolation and low self-esteem. Levels of self-control established with varying sporadic changes from low to high. Internalized control lacking due to poor parenting
Impaired Socialization
The inability to form natural attachments which include affective communication and isolation.
Victim of a pedophilc relationship.
Despite Augusten’s troubling upbringing he was able to become a writer and he is the author of this book and try to evolve to a better life.
Notes on Book
He is still attached to parent.
Has dreams of being a pilot.
Like uniforms.
Knows routine
Dog named Cream
Overly attached to parent
Dresses up the dog (7 years old) (Cream)
Mom wears wildly colored gowns and long crocheted vests
From Cairo, Georgia
Dreams of wearing his mother’s dress and going to a poetry reading
Distinctive and refined southern inflection
He wants to be a star like his mother, like Maude (actress)
Likes his hair perfectly combed
Like albums (Barry Mannilow, Tony Orlando and Dawn and Odetta)
Loves the New Yorker
Father – professor of mathematics, University of Massachusetts, alcoholic
Arthritis (gout)
Parents hated (loathed each other and their life together
Prematurely aged – dad
Loved clothing, jewelry, medical doctors, and celebrities
Weekly allergy shots – 11 in each arm
Constant verbal fighting
Dr. Finch aroused
Mother represses her anger
Loved motels
Left son at the Finch’s house
Picked him up and she was seemingly abstracted/dazed
Gay
Discussed his ability to be more comfortable because he wasn’t the only gay person in a houseful of girls.
Became homeless stayed with a minister and wife…relocated them to a basement apartment
Fern (minister’s wife) and his mother lovers (lesbians)
His mother – psychotic
His mom had a black nanny
Mother published in Yankee magazine (poetry)
Finch believed that anger was the crux of mental illness and should be expressed
Older brother – 7 years older … intro technology
Augusten arrested for drunken loitering
Reliable
Years later diagnosed with a mild form of autism known as Asperger’s Syndrome
Fascinated with cars
Peculiar way of speaking and his abrupt nature
Highly specific intelligence
Oral sex – 13 years old with older guy (33 years old)
School daze
Envious of student – black girl, articulate, smart, outgoing, popular
Lots of hollering and shouting from him to his mother
No emotional backing from her P. 121
He was miserable, felt he didn’t fit in, felt trapped, depressed and wanted to be left along..go to movies and write in journal
Didn’t want to go to school
All he wanted was a normal life P. 124
Gave him some pills to take with some bourbon so he could be admitted to the mental hospital
Bookman was rough with him sexually
Bookman not very stable P. 135
Neil and him pressed against each other P. 136
Became her son’s legal guardian P. 138 (Dr. Finch)
Natalie and Terrance – 13 years and 41 years P. 140
Semi-Professional tennis player
Attempted to put in a sky-light
Start studying cosmetology before taking classes easy to upset
Neil and Augusten had anal and oral sex P. 158
Neil introduced Augusten into anal sex
Playing with shit P. 167 – 169
Unable to play the piano but compelled the Finch’s to play for them in the mental facility
Finch’s children raised in a nut house (mental facility)
Mother broken up with Fern (minister’s wife)
Mother met a guy both mentally ill P. 207
Mom – psychotic episode
Mother had a relapse