How accurate was the portrayal of Autism in Rain Man?
In Rain Man, Raymond Babbit has the following attributes:
- Eidetic memory
- Crazy counting and maths skills
- Obsessive compulsive about schedule (ie. meals, TV)
- Dislike of human touch
- "Random" fears - rain, flights, ect
- Minimal interest in people
- Doesn't understand money
- Unusual way of talking
There are probably others. How realistic is this?
Best Answer
Many, many references exist detailing that Dustin Hoffman's character was based in large part on Kim Peek, an autistic savant who exhibited a lot of the characteristics that Hoffman portrays. I think the key here is that there's a difference between being autistic and being a savant -- those are two distinct syndromes, and they don't often go together. Some of the things in your list would be a symptom of being a savant (eidetic memory, counting skills, etc), while others would come from from autism (and many of the things you list -- obsessive/compulsive nature, fears, minimal interest in people, etc. are known symptoms of autism in varying degrees). So what you see in Rain Man does happen, but is quite rare.
As a side note ... when I was 12, Kim Peek came to speak to our Junior High, and he really was like you see in the movie -- you could give him a date in history and he'd tell you what day of the week it happened on (adjusting for leap years, changing calendars, etc.), and he memorized the order of 3 shuffled decks of cards in a matter of seconds.
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Does Rain Man have autism?
It was a tale of two estranged brothers, their journey and then their fragile redemption.\u201d Released 30 years ago this week, Rain Man begins when self-centred hustler Charlie Babbitt discovers he has an older brother, Raymond; an institutionalised autistic savant who has inherited all of their father's $3m fortune.What is the message in Rain Man?
In summation, Rain Man articulates a powerful message about the importance of understanding autism and how doing so can transform perspective of a neurotypical individual and make them more empathetic in the process.Who has savant syndrome in Rain Man?
Kim Peek While Raymond from 'Rain Man' was fictional, the character was actually inspired by the true story of Kim Peek. In the movie, Raymond is portrayed as having autism, however, Kim actually had a condition where the bundle of nerves that connect the two hemispheres of the brain was missing.An Autistic Person Reacts to Rain Man (Is it Accurate?)
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Answer 2
It is realistic in the sense that it is not impossible for someone to be like this. However, this sort of person is extremely rare and is the combination of several different character, mental and physical traits all at once.
My daughter is autistic and she has the following out of your list:
Eidetic memory (she remembers things from years ago, a big deal when you are 3)
Obsessive compulsive about schedule (pretty standard for autistics)
"Random" fears (she is terrified of some loud noises, dogs etc).
Minimal interest in people (she lives in her own world a lot of the time but interacts happily with alter egos)
However, some of these are typical for a 3 year old anyway.
I have mild autism and I had several of these traits but have learned coping strategies. I used to have very good memory for things I had heard and could repeat some conversations from years previously word for word, if I watched a film a few times I pretty much knew the script etc. This has lessened now - now that it would be very useful.
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