RainMan was "High Functioning?"

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I just watched Rain Man last night for the first time since I self diagnosed myself. I caught a line in the movie that almost made me choke on my supper. They called Raymond a high functioning autistic.

If he was what they used to consider "high functioning," no wonder my parents couldn't get a diagnoses for me in the 60's.

Rain Man is a very bad example of autism as a whole. I've worked as a guard at a sheltered housing; the people with moderate autism and mild MR were generally higher functioning than Raymond Babbit.

Dustin Hoffman spent months with one Autistic person studying him in particular to become like him to play the role and from the interview I read about how he prepared for the role, he got that one guy very very well. But he is only one person. The Autism spectrum is huge so Rainman can't be used as a measure for all Autistic people. And remember, in that time, so much less was known about Autism than is known now. So during that time, he would have been considered high functioning. In fact, back then, I am not even aware that there was an Autism Spectrum. just Autism and people who were recognized were much lower functioning. I think the Spectrum is relatively new. And with Rainman, that was the first that many people had ever even heard of Autism. So it was not at all like it is now.

The guy, Kim Peek, whom it is based upon more than likely does not even have autism at all. More than likely, He had what is called FG syndrome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FG_syndrome

I just read the article. Thanks for posting it. Just goes to show how little we knew about Autism back then compared to what we know now.

Here is Kim Peek on CNN:

Kim Peek

He is a savant, but Autistic?

I don't think he was high functioning. It was the 80's so autism wasn't known as the whole spectrum so that was high functioning then. Plus Kim Peeks turned out to not be autistic so does that mean Rain Man isn't autistic?

Rain Man is not Kim Peeks.

If it turned out that Jesus was a bad person, that wouldn't make Aslan a bad person, because he exists independently of his inspiration.

I know that Raymond wasn't high functioning, that's my point. And also my point as to why I never got diagnosed... lol.

Kim Peeks was not Autistic, correct.

Hoffman's portrayal did not seem very high functioning at all, I don't know if that level of functioning would ever have been considered "high," but that's Hollywood. They exaggerate everything for effect.

OTOH, I do find Raymond's behaviors and reactions to be essentially authentically Autistic. I may not be quite as rigid where routines are concerned, or have a meltdown every time one gets a tiny bit disrupted, but internally, my emotional reaction is not that far off from his. I'm just less likely to freak out loudly in public.

And I can't count cards. No, I definitely can't count cards. Definitely can't count cards. But I am an excellent driver.

Since autism was not a mainstream issue at the time, I'm guessing the definition of functionality was more like that of other developmental disabilities: able to feed and wash oneself.

Good one! LOL!!

I think that too. And he had his books and he was fairly self sufficient. I think the definition of HF has changed dramatically with understanding the Spectrum.

For some reason this reminds me of a documentary I saw years ago on gymnastics. They were showing gold medal Olympic routines from the 60's and saying that those routines are now what any average 8 year old gymnast can do. So I think these definitions are pretty relative to our knowledge of the subject at the time.

He was based on him.

The story of Rainman was not based on Kim Peeks. However, when Hoffman wanted to study Autism, he spent time with Peeks. Unfortunately, Peeks was not an Autist.

But Willard makes a very good point. Even though Kim Peek may have not been Autistic, the behaviors and reactions were authentically Autistic. I have experienced a lot of those same reactions and behaviors but to a much lesser degree.