Rain Man Mental Illness

The awareness of mental illnesses has slowly become greater over the years. We’re starting to hear more about them in the news. In schools, students are learning about and with people with mental disabilities. In our society, practically everyone has an idea of what some of the common disorders are (OCD, ADHD, etc). Therefore, it comes with no surprise that we see these mental disorders depicted in movies as well. The movie I decided to watch for this assignment was Rain Man starring Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, and Valeria Golino. In this movie, the high-functioning autistic savant characteristics were depicted by Dustin Hoffman, whose character in the movie was Raymond Babbitt. Most researchers would agree that the causes of high functioning

One symptom of autistic savants is their resistance to change in the environment. When Charlie takes Raymond to a hotel in LA, Raymond immediately begins to express some panic. He complained about how his books weren't there and how his bed wasn't in its proper place. He even tried to leave the hotel to go back to the mental institution, but Charlie stopped him. Then, Susana (Charlie’s girlfriend) fixed his bed to be right by the window, just as Raymond likes. Charlie, on the other hand, handed Raymond a phone book to read. Another symptom beautifully portrayed by Hoffman’s character, was his high-functionality. Raymond is diagnosed as being high-functioning due to his great memory and mathematical skills. In one part of the movie, the morning after Charlie hands Raymond a phone book to read, they went to a restaurant for breakfast. When the waitress (Sally Dibbs) comes to take their order, Raymond recites her phone number. Raymond managed to memorize every phone number in the phonebook of people whose last names were A-G. In the same scene, because Raymond demanded toothpicks, because he typically eats his pancakes with a toothpick. When Sally goes to get the toothpicks, she drops them all on the floor. In less than a minute, Raymond announces that there are two hundred forty-six toothpicks that fell to the floor. His counting skills are remarkable. The last symptom best expressed by Rain Man was the strong reaction to sensory stimuli. In a scene towards the end of the movie, a fire alarm goes off in the hotel Raymond and Charlie were staying at. Raymond couldn't handle the sound of the alarm, so he began banging his head on the door until Charlie turned it it