An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales

Sacks opens with a piece of correspondence from 1862 describing the case of “Blind Tom” and identifying him as what was then termed an “idiot savant”: someone with a mental or learning disability who is extremely gifted in a particular way. Blind Tom could not speak until he was five or six years old, yet he was able to play the piano beautifully by age four. Sacks, upon reading about him, is certain that today he would be considered autistic.

Autism was described nearly simultaneously by two scientists in the 1940s: Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger. The term originates from a word meaning “alone,” describing the desire many people with autism feel to shut out others or isolate themselves. Kanner describes autism as partially “an obsessive insistence on sameness” (181), observing these individuals’ desire for repetition, rituals, routines, and their intense focus on specific interests. Asperger noted that many autistic patients were unable or unwilling to make eye contact and struggled to understand physical gestures as well as facial expressions.

Approximately 10 percent of children with autism demonstrate singular talents, and many show a remarkable memory. In the 1970s, a child with autism named Nadia showed an incredible talent for art.