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Soomander
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06 Apr 2015, 3:21 am

Hey Everybody, recently someone in my high school's counselor's office someone was arguing about "symptoms" of Autism(I put quotations around symptoms because symptoms are generally used to describe traits of illnesses and I consider the traits of ASDs to be characteristics). She used the movie Rain Man when arguing(I'd like to say I'm fairly certain the two individuals arguing are not on the spectrum and are relatively uneducated on the subject of ASDs) about communicative issues people with ASDs have(is there a name for the general population of people with ASD? e.g. Aspies=Asperger's and Auties=Autism). She stated that "Rain Main and the others like him" are not able to communicate and express emotional feeling. I was wondering how you all feel about how the film Rain Man still affects(<--did I use that word properly?) the ASD community today. Sorry if this was a subject previously addressed on the forum. Also how do you feel about people all of a sudden caring about Autism because Autism Awareness Month?



vermontsavant
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06 Apr 2015, 3:27 am

i always liked the movie.i was taken out of school by the S.W mid morning to see its mattenee in worcester,MA


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League_Girl
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06 Apr 2015, 9:23 am

Rain Man was just one person with autism. But the real Rain Man turned out to not have it so did that mean the Rain Man in the movie was also misdiagnosed and the real Real man scored at the IQ of 58 so did that mean the Rain Man in the movie wasn't very smart either? I even wondered if his IQ was even accurate because he was very smart with knowledge but did he understand it? He was a savant so he could remember 98% of things he's read. He could read well.

But he was just one person with autism. I have seen it a few times and I found it a frustrating movie I would have had a breakdown in that situation so I guess that is the difference between a normie and someone with anxiety disorder.


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Fnord
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06 Apr 2015, 9:25 am

"Rain Man" is only a movie, about a fictional character that was loosely based on a real person who did not have Autism.

Mere Hollywood hokum.



CharityGoodyGrace
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06 Apr 2015, 7:57 pm

What bothers me the most is that the "autistic" guy in Rain Man was low functioning, and we aren't all. And he had very particular gifts. Some people think those gifts are the only gifts autistics have, and that if we don't have those we have nothing else so we're stupid. Also, we're not all the same, in other instances too.



ASPartOfMe
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07 Apr 2015, 12:45 am

"Rain Man" was or should have been a start. At time time "Rain Man" was a big leap forward. Previously most representations were cute mute young children constantly flapping their arms and spinning things.
Wrong Planet Autism representation 1946-1975
It was the first time an "adult autistic" was seen by the masses and was by far the "highest functioning autistic" seen by the masses. Google news archives is crap these days but a couple of years ago when the site was useful I did search of articles on the movie from 1988-1989 and it received universal praise from Autism advocacy groups and if I remember correctly even Temple Grandin. A theme was it made Autistic's seem human. IMHO the film had some influence the spectrum starting to became recognized during the 1990's

That was then, this is 2015 and the portrayal is stereotypical and dated. Yet if the fictional character was real and presented himself to competent Autism specialist today he would probably receive a diagnoses of ASD Level 2. That many can't get beyond the stereotype is not the fault of the filmmakers


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Dox47
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08 Apr 2015, 10:33 pm

I learned to do a pretty good Rain Man impression in order to convey to people what autism does not look like in my case; it's served me well over the years. Really, the movie exists, you can complain about it all you like, but having a plan to deal with its influence is much more effective in my experience.


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Jaden
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10 Apr 2015, 11:59 pm

Fnord wrote:
"Rain Man" is only a movie, about a fictional character that was loosely based on a real person who did not have Autism.

Mere Hollywood hokum.

Yeah, I don't know why people put such stock in movies when it comes to reality. Reality is literally the antithesis of movies, so using one to make comparisons in the other is quite honestly rather stupid.


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