Flying Without Wings: Personal Reflections on Loss, Disability and Healing

“Give yourself a gift and read Flying Without Wings. You will be kinder, wiser, and more compassionate for having read it. I am.”—Abigail (Dear Abby) Van Buren

At twenty-four, Arnold Beisser was a recent medical school graduate and a nationally ranked tennis player. But overnight a devastating bout of polio left him permanently paralyzed from the neck down and dependent on an iron lung to draw his next breath. Polio robbed Arnold Beisser of his strength, his athletic ability, and almost his life. Yet he discovered in this unthinkable trap not only the expected sadness and despair, but wonder, delight, and the pleasure of everyday living.

This is the wise, deeply moving, and warmly humorous account of Arnold Beisser’s search for a new life and meaning as he comes to terms with his disability and then transcends it . . . to practice psychiatry, to fall in love, truly to soar without wings. His spirit and determination to fight for happiness will inspire any reader faced with unbearable loss. Dr. Beisser shows us why the contrast between winner and loser, athlete and cripple, is in our minds much more than in our bodies. And he shares with us the experiences that taught him life’s greatest truth: Nothing can keep you from love, laughter, meaningful work, or enlightenment—except yourself.

“A book of blazing honesty and openness. It goes right to the heart of the reader.”—Norman Cousins, author of Anatomy of an Illness

Arnold Beisser was a graduate of Stanford University and its medical school. He was a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA, a Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and a recipient of its Gold Achievement Award. He published over 100 articles, reviews, book chapters, and books, including Madness in Sports and Mental Health Consultation. Arnold Beisser died in 1991.