Rain Man movie good or bad for us?

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- Mental retardation
- Lack of abstract thinking
- Lack of ability to use applied knowledge
- Lack of even the most self-help skills



Government housings are far different from institutions. HFAs living in government housings, are typically neighbors with people who have severe bipolar, schizofrenia, and other people who can live somewhat independently and not with mentally challenged people. They do have medical personel and counseling available 24/7, though.

As previously mentioned, I work as a guard at a government housing where the inhabitants are mentally ret*d / borderline ret*d. Even the most severe autistic case functions better than Rain Man.



The clip shows just how inaccurate, one-dimensional, and exggerated Rain Man is.



I have some of these symptoms as well. They're far less pronounced than his traits, though. As far as fear go, the only thing I'm actually scared of is speaking to people I know a little, but do not know well.



Rain Man didn't know that 80 cents (or so) was twice as much as 40 cents. This implies a significant mental retardation.



I've seen severe autism at my workplace.



I've never seen Temple Grandin beat herself in the head while screaming and she's perfectly capable of both reasoning, almost normal language and abstract thinking.

When Rainman came out, I was around 12 years old, had never heard of autism and because of the american accent, thought they were saying that he was 'artistic' (obviously, I figured it out some way though the movie).
I like to think that we have come a long way since then, so it's not the most accurate portrayal, but it made people more aware.
I also feel that the film aimed to show that the NT brother was also 'dysfunctional' just in a different way.

I never realized I had Autism until I saw the movie rain man. I’m 47 and grew up in a freaky society that blamed my mother for my behaviour. (A Refrigerator Mother) My mother fled N. Ireland with me to England because she had a child out of wed-lock, being a catholic it bought shame on the family, she was only 17 at the time. To cap it all I popped out brown in colour and my mother was lily white.

I use to count birds the same way Kim Peek was able to count matches in the movie Rainman.
Thanks to my upbringing and the fact I was put in a normal school with teachers who didn’t have a clue, I now have a problem with the so called experts.

So yes for me, the Rainman movie helped me. It was my only clue at the time to what was happening to me with my behaviour.

Kurgan,

Hans had individuals with MR (he had the full range). Says it in the paper. Kanners did too.
Abstract thinking is there in Hans.
Same with applied knowledge
Same with self-help skills

You do know that Rain Man was only in that facility because his parents put him there? Most of those with AS live with their parents. Take that away and what do you have? They'll suddenly live by themselves? Please.

Pretty funny that you find it inaccurate when it's exactly how I am.

Yes, you have the symptoms; said symptoms go from "mild" to "severe". Rain Man's go from "mild" to "moderate" in the film.

So? He very well might know that 80 is twice 40, just not the "cents" part. This is typical of poor verbal abilities. He's said to be "high-functioning" in the film, and around that time it meant an IQ over 75. You do know that people with often have a splintered IQ pattern? He very well might be "ret*d" verbally, but his spatial knowledge might be in the genius level. He's a savant after all.

What's severe at your work? Severe is nonverbal (not talking), constantly rocking/doing other motor mannerisms, can't look after oneself (to the point of not feeding oneself); that's severe.

Go and watch a documentary called "Make Me Normal" (it's on YouTube), where the highest functioning individuals possible are shown; check out the meltdown of the one girl. She hits herself all the same as Rain Man.

Just to show the official line (Lorna Wing's book on high functioning individuals with autism):

watching rainman right now...one thing significant i find 36 minutes in is that his brother (tom cruise) is a sociopath i think....
and on wp many a post have been made about how sociopaths often manipulate us
also cartman is probably a sociopath and he uses butters often (southpark)

I agree there are some things not quite rightly depicted but they do say in the beginning that he is a savant....so while most of us are not savants..(who knows maybe some of you are) it is very rare even in the higher functioning/aspergers population to be a savant.....so i believe there in lies many of the differences, but i believe he would also be a lower or medium functioning not high functioning as is stated in the beginning of the movie.

46 minutes in he has a meltdown but it lasts like 2 seconds where as in reality it would last a lot longer and he would probably be unable to function afterward.

Last edited by legomyego on 09 Sep 2012, 2:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

In the begining he behaves like one.
But in the end, he even likes his brother and cares for him in a way, so he is deffinitly not a sociopath.
Propably just pissed of because he didn't knew about Rain man and so on.

ya but he was also using his girlfriend according to her and she said he lies to her.

He can have tendencies or propably just antisocial behaviour.
If he would have "fullblown sociopathy" he wouldn't care for his brother at all, even not in the end.

he manipulates him into counting cards...

he tries to manipulate the lady in the country by saying he works for some sort of tv company.....

also this is a movie...so while in real life a sociopath would not care about anyone....and just as hoffman is not a perfect example neither is cruise.

Not everyone who doesn't care much for others or who manipulates others has to be a sociopath, that's far too clichée.

And I don't think that they wanted to show a sociopathic brother.
I think they wanted to show a brother who doesn't care much in the beginning, but in the end he does.

His antisocial behaviour could have other reasons than sociopathy, the family history for example and that he started distancing himself from the world and that the symptoms got better in the end, with him caring for his brother.

All of Asperger's original children had normal or above intelligence and all showed age appropriate self-help skills. His research paper says nothing about abstract thinking or apllied knowledge.

Lorna Wing includes some mildly ret*d children—a decission that's highly controversial today.



I've seen the movie. You're aware of the fact that he actually needed supervision by his brother, right?



If you say so...

For a realistic portrayal of Asperger's, take a look at Adam or Mozart and the Whale.



Severe is probably more right, allthough his problems are magnified by his retardation.



I was calculating with money at age 3, with mild language difficulties. Rain Man is ret*d in every single way apart from his memory skills. As far as self help goes, I could disassemble stuff without destroying it at 4 and change tires at the age of 5.




I've read their medical papers. None are high-functioning, one is a severe case. They all need help looking after themselves allthough only the most severe case has problems with excessive stimming.



I have seen it. The girl who narrates is HFA and the rest of the Kanner's autistics are mid-functioning. They're all higher functioning than Rain Man, though.

The aspie kid is no more autistic than I am. If he grew up in a less dysfuntional family, he'd be able to go to a normal school.

I didn't get why his brother's girlfriend kissed him.

That struck me as very odd when I watched it, especially since if I remember right it doesn't have any subsequent relevance to the plot.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUwa6ZkHtnY[/youtube]

Kurgan,

Wrong. He had several hundred patients of all levels of intelligence; the difference being they all spoke whereas some of Kanner's didn't.

-Abstract thinking: thinking outside the box and not taking it literally (people with ASDs are concrete thinkers)
-Applied knowledge: knowing how to apply knowledge; if you have poor verbals skills, how can you apply it? You'll note Rain Man says "yes" a lot to questions he seems unable to answer; he probably knows what the answer is, he just can't communicate it. My nephew did this a lot when younger (AS).

You're aware that nearly all people with an ASD will require some form of supervision, right? Barring the most highly functioning, but even then they'll probably need people to check up on them from time to time to see if they're coping with self-care and such. Besides, he had no "autistic routines" when his brother stole him across the country; I'm surprised it showed him functioning as well as he did there. That one boy in "Make Me Normal" required constant supervision when he was walking around in the world; check his meltdown when there was a change of routine with the bus.

O, I do. Though I technically have HFA rather than AS, but I won't go there. "Mozart (well, "Whale")" would be a good depiction of the "active and odd" subtype of AS/HFA:

Good for you. I wasn't doing any of that, but I'm "high functioning" all the same. You did see the library that he had in his room though, right? As I said though, you wouldn't know if his spatial knowledge was in the genius level, and going by how quickly his mind counted the number of toothpicks that fell, it's safe to say it would be. If you have a poor verbal subscore but a high spatial score, they meet in the center and you can have an average IQ overall. The only deficit I really noted that was marked was his ability to answer certain questions, and I've read this in the literature (it's in the DSM-IV-TR's expanded text), and also seen it in my nephew when his verbal ability was poor.

Wrong. It doesn't say what they have (only the one with AS; funnily, it says he has some of the most challenging behavior in the school). "Mid-functioning" isn't a label. All of them are described among the highest functioning at the school who you couldn't tell any had anything wrong (they look normal). But that's not the point. The point is even those highest of functioning individuals hit themselves, which you alluded to them not ("Temple Grandin not doing it"). A member here, superboyian (don't know if he posts anymore), knows the girl who I was speaking of in person, so he'd probably know what her specific label is.

You also don't address my direct quote from Lorna Wing saying that Rain Man is high functioning.

I'm guessing you probably won't like another quote from Lorna Wing I have from a book stating that the boy Simon from Mercury Rising has Asperger's (not HFA).

I'd like some proof that he actually had ret*d patients. He did specify that self-help skills weren't lagging behind their peers, though.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_thinking

Most autistics are perfectly capable of this.



The only time you need verbal skills to apply knowledge, is when you explain it to other people. The money example is a perfect example of this.



If they get therapy, social skills training and all that, the vast majority of everyone with AS can live independently just fine. Most people with AS that I know get some supervision from the employment agency, but that's about it.



Again: Never go full ret*d in a movie. That's why I am Sam or Dreamcatcher failed at the box office.



That boy is ten years old, was raised by a mother with her own set of problems and had behavioral problems because of this.

Notice how "normal" the boy actually looks and sounds and also bear in mind that he did not at all identify with the other autistics.



Both Isabelle Sorenson and Donald Morton are usually cited as severe cases of AS.



Actually, many moderate functioning autistics with mild MR love to read if it's a subject they're interested in. They also show extreme concentration when doing this.



Savant abilities do not automatically indicate high IQs. Kim Peek (who was far more intelligent than Rain Man) had an IQ of 87.



They're described as higher functioning than the rest; that does not automatically denote HFA, as many high functioning autistics go to regular achools.




I already have adressed it. High-funtioning autism today implies some basic self-help skills, language skills that extends beyond "uh oh" and echolalia as well as an IQ above 75.

Simon is higher-funtioning than Rain Man, and could probably pass for severe Asperger's.

haha ya i was going to post about that >< confused me as well.