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Hindsight
Joined: 02 Feb 2009
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 Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 5:55 am Post subject: The real rain man is dead |
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There was a savant who was the real life inspiration for the movie Rain Man. The movie's writer and later Dustin Hoffman met him. He was a remarkable person:
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By the time he was nine months old he was expected to be mentally impaired for life. His parents were advised to place him in an institution, but they dismissed the idea, deciding to bring him up normally alongside their other son and daughter.
They were soon astounded by his progress. At the age of 16 months Kim taught himself to read children's books. When he was three he consulted a dictionary to clarify the meaning of the word "confidential"; it was then that his parents realised that he could also read newspapers. Yet for all his brilliance, his oversized head required physical support because of its weight; and, unusually, he was unable to walk until he was four.
When Kim was six, a visit to Utah by the renowned brain surgeon Peter Lindstrom resulted in his being offered a lobotomy. His parents declined, and Kim went on to memorise the entire Bible before his seventh birthday.
At this point he was sent to a local school, but was expelled on his first day for being disruptive. The lack of provision in America in the 1950s for special needs children meant that his father had to have him tutored at home by a series of retired teachers. By the time he was 14, Kim had completed the high school curriculum, though the local authorities would not recognise the achievement and refused to award him a certificate. |
The whole article is very interesting. Think about this tidbit for a minute:
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He used telephone directories for exercises in mental arithmetic, adding each column of seven-digit numbers together in his head until he reached figures in the trillions |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/medicine-obituaries/6867567/Kim-Peek.html
and
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121774906 |
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proustme
Joined: 13 Jun 2009
Location: Nowon-gu
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 6:04 am Post subject: |
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| Thanks. This is an interesting story. I appreciate your link to an audio interview, too. |
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cj1976
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 8:06 am Post subject: |
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| i don't know if this is true, but I heard somewhere that he could read two pages of a book simultaneously by using his eyes independently of each other. In other words, his left eye could read the left page, while his right eye read the other side. |
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Jeonmunka
Joined: 05 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 11:34 am Post subject: |
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Don't know about the above statement but it is sure saddening reading this:
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| When Kim was six, a visit to Utah by the renowned brain surgeon Peter Lindstrom resulted in his being offered a lobotomy. |
because I have read accounts of parents agreeing to that and finding they made the wrong irreversible choice. |
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beercanman
Joined: 16 May 2009
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 4:46 pm Post subject: |
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| cj1976 wrote: |
| i don't know if this is true, but I heard somewhere that he could read two pages of a book simultaneously by using his eyes independently of each other. In other words, his left eye could read the left page, while his right eye read the other side. |
From the article:
Neuroscientists who conducted tests discovered that he had no corpus callosum, the membrane that separates the two hemispheres of the brain and filters information. This meant that Peek's brain was effectively the equivalent of a giant databank, giving him his photographic memory. He was also the only savant known to science who could read two pages of a book simultaneously � one with each eye, regardless of whether it was upside down or sideways on. His ability to retain 98 per cent of the information he absorbed led to his designation "mega-savant"'.
This is also remarkable:
The five universities which studied him in his adult life decided that he was a genius in at least 15 subjects, including music, geography, history and mathematics. Most savants reach a similar level in one or two subjects. Even more remarkably, doctors found that his powers increased as he aged.
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Saw him interviewed once on a TV program. An amazing person. |
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Hindsight
Joined: 02 Feb 2009
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 6:45 pm Post subject: |
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New Year's resolution:
Learn to read two books at the same time.
The part that really touched me was how the writer tried to get him to gamble in a casino, a la the movie, but he refused to enter because he thought it was unethical.
And his father refused to profit from his son's condition by taking fees for speeches.
Kim Peek lived a good life. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 7:10 pm Post subject: |
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| He's gone to the great K-Mart in the sky. |
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young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 9:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Anybody else in here absolutely disgusted by the people, DOCTORS, who wanted to lobotomize this guy. I'm serious!!!!!!! To the guillotine, death within 24 hours. The guy was very lucky his parents weren't cowards or fools. |
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Rusty Shackleford
Joined: 08 May 2008
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| Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 9:58 pm Post subject: |
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A very remarkable man.
I've seen two shows with him. One was just a doco about him and the other featured 6 or so famous savants. It was presented by a mathematical savant who was more highly functioning than men such as Peek. This guy could actually hold a conversation and gave some interesting incites into how he performed his mathematical feats.
My favorite from that show was obviously Peek. Simply for his ability to read two pages of a book at one.
Another savant I found interesting was man who had designed a city of 1 million people down to the minutest detail. Including the trees on the streets, the history, and every family that lived in the city!
Might try to dig it up and rewatch it. Will post it here if I find it.
EDIT:Here is the doco just about Peek. The other one is slightly better, imo.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/43806
EDIT@2: Here it is.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4913196365903075662# |
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