Autistic Savant Syndrome in the Film Rain Man

Autistic Disorder: Savant syndrome

The Hollywood film Rain Man is about the Autistic disorder Savant syndrome. In Rain Man, Raymond Babbitt (played by Dustin Hoffman) has Savant Syndrome and his brother Charlie Babbitt (played by Tom Cruise) finds out about Raymond being his brother and that he is good with numbers so Charlie decides to use his brother to make money. Over the course of the time that Charlie and Raymond are together, they become closer and Charlie is not just using Raymond for money. Hollywood portrays Savant syndrome accurately compared to what the APA says about Savant.

Savant is a unique form of autism that has its own special skills, which set Savant apart from all other forms of autism. The most common skills found in savant patients are splinter skills. Some of the most common behaviors associated with splinter skills are memorization of, music, sports, trivia, maps and historical facts. There are two other forms of savant, talented savants and prodigious savant. Talented savant is when a patient is very talented in one given field such as math or music. The other form, prodigious savant is extremely rare, at most fifty people worldwide have this form. Prodigious savant is like talented savant but on steroids, the skill level that prodigious savants have would classify them, as a ‘prodigy’ even for a normal person the skill level is outstanding. There have never been more than one hundred prodigious savants in one century, which shows how rare this for of savant is.

There are many different ideas on what causes savant, yet not one of the ideas can hold true for all savants. One theory, which quite consistently provides an increasingly plausible explanation for savant abilities in many ca...

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...ow Raymond did amazing mathematical calculations in seconds, without even thinking about it. This is believable because one of the skills that savants have is lightening quick mathematical capabilities, which is not possible for a normal person to have. Raymond had to do a series of math problems from the doctor, who was doing it on a calculator. Raymond got every problem correct within seconds after the doctor asked it. Rain Man overall is a very accurate portray of savant syndrome not only because Hollywood showed the skills which savants have, but Rain Man also shows the bad side to savant syndrome which in this case, is autism. Raymond has autism, which means he has a social interaction problems and he cannot break his routines for doing things. If an autistic’s routine was to be broken or altered they will panic and often scream and whine, like a toddler.