Customer Reviews

Bright Splinters of the Mind: A Personal Story of Research with Autistic Savants

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This is a very interesting book that reflects extensive research of the small minority of people with autism who fall into the savant category. People so categorized tend to be highly talented in a specific area, e.g. music but display severely autistic behaviors. Savantism affects less than 10% of people with autism, so its rarity makes for a more interesting study.

This author observed people with savant talents and compared them with neurotypical (NT) counterparts and compares the different results. Some of the people included in this book are gifted linguists; poets; musicians; painters; sculptors and mathematicians. Respect for people with autism is paramount - the very term "splinter skills" is callously dismissive of real talent. The NT population is always afforded the more accurate and gracious terms, "talented;" "gifted" and "expert" which recognize genuine talent and ability. Splinter skill is only applied to the autistic population and its very connotation is that people to whom it is applied lack abilities in all other spheres. Instead of viewing areas of expertise, e.g. artistic gifts as mental "splinters," a more accurate and helpful description would be "gifted aspects of the mind" and "areas of talent."

Due to the stereotyping of the autism/Asperger's (a/A) population that the 1988 movie "Rain Man" has caused, the very term "Rain Man" is considered a slur among many a/A circles. One fictitious character does not represent the a/A population and savantism, although rare, is as varied as there are individuals who have this form of autism.

A very fascinating book indeed.