The greatest geniuses are the people that we classify as "retarded"

[10slena]

I recently watched an incredible documentary called "The Musical Genius" about a man named Derek Paravicini, who is a musical savant. Savants are people with profound brain capacities and abilities which are far above what is considered to be "normal". Savant syndrome is also extremely, extremely rare. Musical savant Derek is, in every aspect, a true genius. However; while Derek can play the most difficult musical pieces after hearing them just once, and can remember - and play - every piece of music he's ever heard in any key or style, he is also considered to be "handicapped". Derek is blind and suffers from severe autism. He cannot count up to the number ten or tell his right foot from his left, yet he is absolutely brilliant musically. Handicapped people, or autistic people, are often called “retarded”, yet all savants that are known have had some sort of syndrome such as autism. The people that we call retarded, actually can use their brains in ways so incredible that scientists still can’t understand how they do it. Savants were made famous in the late 80’s by the popular movie Rain Man (based on a true story), in which Dustin Hoffman plays an autistic man with an extraordinary talent for mathematics and memorization. Since then, savants have become phenomenons when they are discovered - savants such as Derek. Watching Derek play piano, one would never think that Derek suffers from the hardships that he must go through. Even when Derek speaks, he is joyous, aware, and well spoken, despite his child-like mannerisms. Derek doesn’t know his age, and when requested, doesn’t know how to hold up three fingers, but can tell any pitch from another and repeat them effortlessly. Watching this documentary, and learning about savants, has made me question what it means to be a genius. How dare we, as a society, condemn and ridicule people with mental handicaps, when in fact they are commonly known for being able to do things in their minds that we can’t even begin to fathom. I really wish everyone would watch this documentary, as well as another in the same series (“Extraordinary People”) called "The Boy With The Incredible Brain", which is about another savant, who also suffers from less disabling autism, but is a genius none the less. Watching how extraordinary these people are makes be feel so ashamed to have viewed people with neurological disabilities as being less intelligent than the average person. We need to fix this perception in our society. The fact that all the pure geniuses of our world have disabilities is so telling, and shows that "genius" and "disabled" or "retarded" are not oxymorons, but one and the same.

[10sthai]

Our ability to do this, particularly with those that are mentally and emotionally “handicapped” is one of the most shameful parts of our society and it angers me every single day. I find it ridiculous that we still to this day hold so much judgment against the mentally unstable when time after time we have seen cases in which those that are not “normal” have changed the course of our history with their contributions to society. The endless individuals who have had everything from minor social disabilities to severe disorders and handicaps is astounding, yet these are the men (and women) who have literally changed our world permanently. Allow me to enumerate them…John Nash, Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking, Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Beethoven, Helen Keller…the list could literally could go on forever.

We’ve got it all mixed up. We call these people “disturbed” or “retarded” because they embody something we don’t understand. But the only thing that is disturbing, the only thing that is broken and dysfunctional, is our inability to see the disabled as something to accept and acknowledge instead of fear. Like you said, the disabled can often do things that nobody else can. The last thing we should be doing is shaming those people if there is so much to learn from them. We need to learn how to understand these people’s limitations and their internal struggles so that we can also learn all that they are capable of. I think the first step in this is eliminating separatism. Right now, we separate ourselves from the disabled and disordered by assuming an “us against them” mentality. What we need to see is that people come in all shades of gray; there is no “us” or “them”, there is only varying degrees of what it means to be human, and what we see as being different, is usually that which has a stronger connection to humanity. Those that are mentally ill are not “crazy,” they simply feel the world in a stronger, more intimate way. Those that are handicapped are not “retarded,” in fact most experience the world too fast—causing them to get overwhelmed by what’s around them and “slow down.” It is our job as a society to acknowledge that those that are different may in fact be that way because they are connected to the world and to the human experience in ways far beyond what we can comprehend. In this vein, I do believe that we can learn so much more about the human condition from the disabled than we can from anyone else.

[3JulianG]

The movie entitled "Temple Grandin" is about a (now 67 year old) woman named temple Grandin who suffers from autism, but is still high functioning. Skip to the end of the biographical movie and you see her develop a new and more humane way to kill cattle in a slaughter house. As a savant, she was not only was she able to use her intellect to better the agricultural industry, but she also provided scientists, doctors, and researchers insight into the mind of an individual who suffers from autism. Because she is high functioning, she is able to maintain conversations and conduct her self more "normally" in society than other people with autism.
Being autistic, she was humiliated, and had a difficult experience growing up, especially because she pursued a college education. Enduring harsh treatment from many through the beginning of her adult life as she developed her career, she was eventually able to become incredibly successful. Temple Grandin shows how someone who is labeled "retarded" can succeed farther than most people without mental disabilities can.