Autism Does Not Equal Rainman!

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I just want other people's feelings on how autism is portrayed in movies and books. I swear, every time I mention to someone new that my son has autism, I get the same question, "So, he's like Dustin Hoffman in that movie Rainman?"

Many books I read with autistic characters are all the same. The character is portrayed as a robot - no emotion, idiot savant, no idea what's going on in the world around them. It's enough to make me scream! That is why I decided to write fiction books where autism is portrayed realistically (at least as far as my son is concerned). It is amazing to me when I get reviews and am told that I have no idea what autism is. My son is fifteen and was diagnosed at age three. SMH.

So, sound off! How do you feel about how autism is portrayed on film and in literature?

It's better than it was, at any rate. The best example of a realistic aspie child on TV is Max on Parenthood. At least, realistic enough that it makes me uncomfortable to watch any scenes with him as it reminds me too much of me growing up. Brick from The Middle has definite aspie qualities, but he's written more as generally weird than as an aspie. I don't watch Big Bang Theory, so I couldn't tell you if Sheldon is appropriately aspie-like.

I watch BBT and I would say Sheldon definitely has aspie symptoms - at least compared to what I've seen with my son.

Yes Rainman is not even autistic. However this is the way people like to see autism. I just read a webpage where they are associating autism with Rainman. In anycase Rainman was idiot savant and his condition is due to split brain not because of autism at all.


This is from wikipedia.

Wow, Highlander, that's very interesting!

This is the reason why my own family don't believe I'm autistic. "But you don't look dopey like those people on TV! You don't have a monotone voice!" Of course a don't. Hollywood LOVES their stereotypes. I'm disappointed in the writer/director of the new Asperger's film "The Story of Luke." He should've known better than to portray Luke as a bumbling, super naïve idiot. Same for the makers of "My Name Is Khan." This movie was such a joke I couldn't look the rest of it. These cartoon characters irk me as if they represent us. They're but a tiny minority but that is what Hollywood zeros in on at all times. The majority of us actually blend right in with society; some you can't even tell they're on the spectrum. The portrayals are annoying. At least the character of Dr. Spencer Reid isn't over the top.

defnetly not rainman defnetly

For people to say that we're all like Rainman is wrong. He's a movie character for crying out loud. Rainman is only the figment of imaginations of many people around the world who's seen that movie. I know a leader of a certain band who represents autism more than Rainman does. I just don't want to say it, because I know that there are people standing around the corner on this site who are ready to slam my opinion. Maybe I could put the opinion in my blog.

Rainman is a decent portrayal of one type of autism (aloof variant of HFA). That's the movie character, which was based on several individuals with autism in addition to Peek.

I relate far more to him than many other depictions of ASDs.

Doctor: Raymond, do you know what autistic is?

Raymond: Yeah.

Doctor: You know that word?

Raymond: Yeah.

Doctor: Are you autistic?

Raymond: I don’t think so. No. Definitely not.

In my opinion, the only part of Rainman I could relate to as far as MY son's autism was the rocking back and forth and repeating of words or phrases. He doesn't have echolalia anymore, but he still rocks and stims from time to time.

Heh, this is so stupid it's actually kinda funny. I don't mean to express any sort of supremacy or superiority, but those NTs, eh?

It pisses me off that society can fall so easily to these stereotypes? Don't they know that not all people with mental disorders act the same? Not even if they have the same disorder?

So very true! I think a lot of people hear the word autism and think that ALL autistic people are alike. The do the same things, eat the same foods, etc. Unbelievable!

This just in from the Romero Institute: Dr. N. S. Sherlock reports that most people are ignorant and take stupid short-cuts in their thinking, based on incorrect data that is easily obtained.

What is even more bizarre is that Simon Baron-Cohen has actually made this goof. As in, calling Kim Peek autistic. If a supposed world-renowned expert on autism is going make an error like that, I'd suggest that the bulk of the population be cut a bit of slack as well. (Baron-Cohen makes this error in The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty, 2011 p. 166.)

Of course, Baron-Cohen also asserts that autism is a form of brain damage, with the sole caveat that the exact area of the brain so damaged to render one autistic has not yet been determined. (Baron-Cohen offers up this gem in Mindblindness: An Essay on Autism and Theory of Mind , 1995 pp. 94-95.) Since this particular essay is now close to twenty years old I'd like to think he's disavowed this statement somewhere or other along the line. But, if so, I've yet to read that he has.

Do wish I'd scanned those particular pages from the books in question. But I did my specifically cite both page references when I wrote brief reviews of both books on my Goodreads account.

Anyway, with "friends" like Baron-Cohen, is it any wonder we don't seem to get the best of media portrayals?

The way the guy was portrayed in "House Rules" was pretty irritating to me. He has AS and was supposed to be very high functioning but he would melt down if his clothes weren't hung in the closet exactly as he wanted them and if his mother served a food that wasn't the right color on the right day. They also had him keeping a notebook and writing down information about his favorite tv show, over and over and over. He also seemed to not be able to understand that the reruns would always be exactly the same, he would watch it over and over to see if it changed. I don't think someone with high functioning AS would not understand that a rerun of a show will always be exactly the same as it was before.

I do think they got the stereotype of some mothers of kids on the spectrum right though. She completely rearranged her life to accommodate every preference of his. Not every need, but also every preference. Her actions did nothing to help him learn to function in a world that doesn't accommodate him the way she did.

He was also written as unable to understand many basic concepts.