Diana Zamora
Department of Psychology
CASE PRESENTATION OUTLINE
ASD ‘Rain Man’ Raymond Babbitt
Professor Debra Davis
23 November 2021
Introduction
Rain Man is a film released in 1988 with the main characters Raymond and Charlie Babbitt played by Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. This movie is an example of DSM-5 Autism Spectrum Disorder, specifically Savant Syndrome, and how it can affect others. How you can learn to adjust to those with it and help them. The movie starts off showing Charlie struggling to keep his car business up and running while he’s in huge debt. Soon after he finds out his father, who he was not close with for years, died. The time comes where the will needs to be read and Charlie feels cheated out of his ‘birthright’. He only receives the car that he was never allowed to touch growing up and his fathers rose bushes while a “unknown beneficiary” gets 3 million dollars. Charlie follows the money trail to Walbrook Psychiatric Institution. Raymond, his brother, shows up out of nowhere saying he recognizes the car. It is then found out that Raymond is Charlie’s Autistic older brother who he does not really remember b ecause he had not seen him since he was a toddler. This movie shows that you cannot force someone with Autism to adjust to you, you must adjust to them. The movie shows Charlie, a man who is always moving and with little patience to deal with Autism. Raymond also showed a sign of possible PTSD. This paper will attempt to evaluate Raymond Babbitt’s character and diagnose him with Autism Spectrum Disorder according to the DSM-5.
Background Information
It is not said Raymond’s date of birth or his age but he does seem to be about 51 at the time of the making of the movie and it was mentioned how he was 18 years old when first sent to Walbrook and Charlie was just about a toddler, around 3. Coincidently, that was only a couple days after their mother passed away due to some illness. It also seems like their father thought Raymond’s carelessness due to his condition would end up hurting young Charlie in the process. Since Raymond is autistic, Charlie tries to finesse the money from him by kidnapping him and asking for the 3 million for his return. In this time he has to learn to deal with Raymond’s autism. At first it was annoying and frustrating, but at some point he got used to them and learned to love him the way he is. Regardless of the love, Charlie realizes he cannot take care of Ramond by himself so he agreed to not fight for custody anymore and brought him back to Walbrook where he can be taken care of correctly.
Presenting Problems and Issues
Raymond really has no sense of the world, lacks big social/communication skills, and has high anxiety behaviors. He is able to respond to some things, usually things engraved for years like routine information and math related things. Listed below:
No Concept of world/ no common sense
Money: “If you had a dollar and you spent fifty cents, how much would you have left over?”
Traffic Lights: “Stop Walking”
Safety: Raymond, you NEVER! NEVER touch the steering wheel when I’m driving. Do you hear me? Do you hear me?
“Go back to Walbrook, stay with Charlie Babbitt”
“Who’s on first?”
“You don’t know if they told you or you don’t know what death is?”
“Hey Ray, are you in here?”
High Anxiety Behaviors
Bed by the window, scheduled tv, syrup before the pancakes, 8 fish sticks, toothpicks with each meal
Stimming: hitting head, screaming, rocking, pacing, pulling hair, repetition
Lack of Social Skills
No eye contact
No touch
Does not answer all questions, sometimes replies with ‘I don’t know’
Difficult to put meaning into context
Aside from these Issues, Rayond also showed a sign of PTSD which may affect how he controls certain things around him. A clear example is when Charlie turns on the hot water in the bathroom to set the bath and Raymond panics and starts to hit himself and screams “hot water burn baby” referring to Charlie. Raymond is not someone who touches others, but when he sees Charlie is okay he pats his head in relief. After many years, Charlie is a grown man and Raymond still remembers and still seemed to be affected by the mistake he made when Charlie was a baby. Raymond was removed from the home soon after this and sent to Walbrook, he remembers a lot from when he was in the home with Charlie. The songs he would sing to him and how Charlie said bye to him on his last day there.
Paradigms
Neuroscience – examines the contribution of brain structure and function to psychopathology
Mental disorders are linked to aberrant processes in the brain
Three components – neurons and neurotransmitters, brain structure and function, neuroendocrine
Diagnosis
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Criteria: According to the DSM-5, the diagnosis criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder is:
A. Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, as manifested by the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive; see text):
Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.
Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures; to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication.
Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts; to difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends; to absence of interest in peers.
Specify current severity:
B. Severity is based on social communication impairments and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior.
Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities, as manifested by at least two of the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive; see text):
Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech (e.g., simple motor stereotypes, lining up toys or flipping objects, echolalia, idiosyncratic phrases).
Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior (e.g., extreme distress at small changes, difficulties with transitions, rigid thinking patterns, greeting rituals, need to take same route or eat same food every day).
Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (e.g., strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interests).
Hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment (e.g. apparent indifference to pain/temperature, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects, visual fascination with lights or movement).
Specify current severity:
C. Severity is based on social communication impairments and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior.
Symptoms must be present in the early developmental period (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities, or may be masked by learned strategies in later life).
Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning.
These disturbances are not better explained by intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder) or global developmental delay. Intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder frequently co-occur; to make comorbid diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability, social communication should be below that expected for general developmental level.
Level 2, “ Requiring substantial support”
Criteria met:
Raymond meets all criteria per section.
Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, as manifested by the following, currently or by history:
Shows deficit in social-emotional reciprocity
Can’t follow conversation and hard to even reply to basic questions sometime(failure to initiate or respond to social interactions); to reduced emotions, or affection
Deficit in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction
abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding
Minimal face gestures
Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships
No interest in people
Difficulty in imaginative play
Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities, as manifested by at least two of the following, currently or by history
Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech
Simple motor stereotypes, (rocking, screaming, hitting head)
Echolalia, (usually when asked questions)
idiosyncratic phrases, (ex: I want popcorn, to indicate going to the movies)
Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior
Extreme distress at small changes, (repeating safe things)
Difficulties with transitions
Eat same food everyday
Hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment
adverse response to specific sounds
excessive touching of objects, visual fascination with lights or movement
Severity is based on social communication impairments and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior.
Symptoms must be present in the early developmental period (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities, or may be masked by learned strategies in later life).
Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning.
Functioning
Education
Nothing was said on education. Sent at 18 to a psychiatric facility and get treated there.
Interpersonal relations
Closest people to him were his father and Vern(worker at facility)
Marriage
Not married
Treatments
A. Pharmacological
Antipsychotic Drugs
Alleviate OCD symptoms, hyperactivity, aggression, and repetitive behaviors
Antidepressant Drug
Alleviate repetitive behaviors, aggression, irritability and tantrums
B. Nonpharmacological
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)
Designed to correct behavior and teach skills
Ex: Teach speaking skills or just to know how to sense danger like crossing street or touch stove
Relationship-Based Approach
Focuses on emotional and relational development (feelings and relationships with caregivers). It also focuses on how the child deals with sights, sounds, and smells
Change in Diets
They might include special diets, dietary supplements external icon, chelation (a treatment to remove heavy metals such as lead from the body), biologicals (for example, secretin), or mind-body medicine
Conclusion
Rain Man was an interesting film to analyze from both points of views. From the autistic character and those around him. Raymond’s brother had a lot of frustration and even called him stupid multiple times. By the end he even tried to hug him, even though it failed and got a head touch from Raymond which did not seem at all possible. They both connected although Raymond could not exactly verbalize how much he cared for Charlie, but it showed in his actions. In the scene where the prostitute speaks to him, she had no idea that he had Autism and got mad and walked away. Raymond had trouble understanding sarcasm and was left disappointed because of that.
This is a good example of Autism Spectrum Disorder and it makes us realize that there are many variations. Like said in the name, it is a spectrum, people vary from high functioning to low functioning. Raymond was on level 2 of severity level.