Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self

I sat and read this book in one sitting, completely ignoring the party that was going on around me. I couldn't stop feeding my own and Fiedler's fascination for people who would fall into the "Freaks" category for whatever reason.Fiedler, who had an unnatural feeling his whole life that he had a missing twin, had such an obsession with the history and humanity of freaks, he finally had to quench it by writing this book.The book is a history of freaks before surgery made it possible for many of them to have the appearance of normalcy. It's also the story of their humanity and their struggles to survive under difficult and often unkind conditions. I came away with a much deeper understanding of what it means to be human, in any and all forms. I found myself seeing everyone as normal, rather than as "other."If you've always had a hidden passion to understand what is typically considered unnatural, I recommend this book. Ultimately, people are people.

Fiedler's largely psychoanalytic history of the exhibition of the "differently abled" {deformed, disabled, grotesque, or freak] provides excellent material for anyone interested in the freak phenomenon. Although dated, this work has a very helpful history of freak shows, containing historical photos.