Oliver Sacks is one of my favorite writers, in general, and certainly my favorite among the authors we’ve read for this class. I was pleasantly surprised (though not actually surprised) to find Sacks’ forwards in some of our recent readings. In Exiting Nirvana he perfectly sets up the following text, and provides a historical context in terms of prior research on the autism spectrum, and an emotional context by providing certain details of the family portrayed in this book that the author did not provide. Additionally, I appreciate how he sees the benefits, as well as drawbacks of each disorder he studies. He includes some of this insight in his forwards. As we’ve discovered, especially after reading “Prodigies,” among other chapters from our reading, and watching films such as Rain Man, etc., there are many remarkable individuals with autism. The level of artistic and other skills in the cases we’ve encountered are staggering- not simply considered in the realm of individuals with certain deficits, but among “healthy” children and adults.
Exiting Nirvana discusses “theory of mind” at length, and how people with autism are characterized as not being able to see from another person’s perspective. Immediately upon reading the first few pages of Thinking in Pictures, I was stunned by Grandin’s ability to create such effective designs mostly due to her ability to see through the eyes of the livestock (both emotionally and literally- creating humane ways to move these animals by thinking about their emotions and physical comfort, and literally seeing through their eyes with the aid of her vivid visual mind). This raises a lot of questions for me. First, if humans are animals, why then can certain individuals with autism see from only certain animals’ perspective, and not humans? Why is there a disconnect here? If a person with autism possesses an innate ability to empathize with livestock, can this person learn to empathize with other humans easily? Additionally, as Katie mentions in her post, is there a link between autism and sociopathy (“given that a lack of empathy is also a hallmark of the antisocial personality disorders, the connotation feels a bit negative.”)?
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