Was rainman low or high functioning?

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I agree completely - no idea if it's actually going to do any good. Hopefully it will, but no reason to expect it will.

I'd like to know how the changes of the DSM-V will effect the next ICD. I have an ICD diagnosis so I'm curious about what will they do with F84.5 Asperger's. Or more so, what a single autism spectrum diagnosis would do to most specialists here and some of their very individual interpretations of how AS and classical are supposed to look like.

He's verbal, and can do things like dress himself, has normal motor skills, can express certain emotions like fear appropriately, comprehends cause and effect of abstract things (which is why he wants to fly Quantas), so in my mind that makes him definately High Functioning.

High functioning in the 80's is very different from what it is now. I can't recall if in the film they said he was high functioning. I think they did.

He was based on a few autistic people and Kim Peek who isn't autistic at all but had to be taken care of by his father until he died.

Rigid routines, meltdowns (or poor emotional regulation), can't carry a conversation, needs to be cared for, doesn't know how to interact properly in society.

That doesn't sound very high functioning by todays standards. These days he would be LF/MF.

The film was made when not a whole lot was known about autism so he doesn't portray an autistic person very well.

His exceptional memory was just a bit of Kim Peek.

The Psychiatrist they met during the road trip described him as high functioning - but the Doctor from the Institution where Ray lived, tells Ray's brother (Tom Cruise) that Ray is a severely disabled individual.



Good point. Movie was made before Asperger's was even formally recognised or even named.

middle-low functioning.

Its hard to say but based on the movie, I would say he was low to moderately functioning. I don't think he was ever capable of living independently which is why he was in a mental institution for so long. He also had extreme autistic savant abilities...he could count the number of toothpicks in seconds, could multiply huge numbers in his head and always be right, and even memorized part of a phonebook. He also had extreme emotional meltdowns...he wouldn't get on a plane with his brother Charlie when he had to go to LA because he read about all these airlines that crashed before, which made him scared of flying. Another thing he would do when he got nervous was recite 'Who's On First' from Abbott and Costello. One thing is for sure...he definitely wouldn't have been classified as having Aspergers.

I think Dustin Hoffman did a great job in this movie, BTW!