MawtheMerrier
^My brother was 85 last week. A absent minded, wonderful professor- who did a PhD at Grenoble Uni in 1963-64, when we didn't even know what IT was?^
No diagnosis then- but he clearly was different. He didn't like sport, prefered classical music and wrote and read poetry. Hugely intelligent, as no one else was- and it was what it was
Not sure of the relevance of IT (which was in fact first given its name in 1958) but whether or not your brother was high functioning autistic is very little to do with autism. But perhaps you just meant to emphasis it.
My DH was very much what you describe as are many men and women I know. Preferring music and classical music to sport is hardly a diagnosis!
Whether Rain Man did the understanding of Autism any favours is debatable. It is a film about two conditions — autism and Savant Syndrome. Not all autistic persons are savants, in fact only one in 10 autistic persons have any savant abilities, let alone the prodigious skills of Raymond Babbitt.
From The Guardian
^”Many say that Rain Man is now damaging to autism awareness, and I see their point,” says the autism advocate Chris Bonnello of Autistic Not Weird, who has Asperger’s syndrome. The film, he believes, “should be regarded as a piece of history now”. When I put this question to Bonnello’s Facebook community, views were mixed. Although some enjoyed Rain Man, many found it “dated” and “inaccurate”. One individual on the spectrum called it “the Apu of autism ... despite not being malicious in its portrayal, it’s still a poor representation and a stereotype.”^
Thanks for the Babbitt comment, very interesting, And I can see what he means. However, for me, watching the film made me realise that Rainman had traits which reminded me very much of my brother. In those days, late 30s- there was no diagnosis or label. Yes, IT was first mentionned in 1956- but practicall unknown to the vast majority of the population. His PhD batch was the very first ever. And it is relevant, 100%. People with high functionning autism/Aspergers- have brains which are particularly suited to maths/physics, numbers and complex calculations- so IT in those early days was perfect, including inventing some of the earlier languages, as he did.
Of course Rainman was an extreme version, and as such not plausible and too far stretched. But the features were there and very clear.
