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Emotions, Autism,

and Rain ManReann Buta

Blockbuster Project

Emotions are defined as: a conscious mental reaction experienced as strong feeling usually directed toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body

Emotions are experienced as feelings or moods and are caused by a stimulus or stimulus context.

Emotions are very powerful and are triggered by psychological changes.

What are Emotions?

Perception, learning, and memory are all involved in experiencing emotions.

Emotions can govern how we actually feel, such as feeling happy, sad, angry, guilty, nervous etc.

Behavioral responses can motivate us to act out or express our feelings.

Emotion regulation: the ability to respond to the ongoing demands of experience with the range of emotions in a way that is socially acceptable.

Emotions Contd.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a range of complex neurodevelopment disorders characterized by social impairments, idiosyncratic interests, communication difficulties, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior.

Those with Autism tend to: have deficits in emotional regulation leading them to

be less organized and have less goal-directed emotion

have a less balanced emotional state

have a higher chance of hyper arousal

lack the ability to infer the mental states of both oneself and of others

Autism (ASD)

Movie Synopsis: When Charlie Babbitt learns that his father has died, he returns home, where he discovers that he has an autistic older brother named Raymond and that his father's fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father's money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. The brothers' trip ends up changing both their lives.

Rain Man

Rain Man contd. Although Raymond has autism,

he also has superb memory recall, but little understanding of subject matter thus making him an "overgrown child". He is frightened by change and adheres to strict routines. Except when he is in distress, he shows little emotional expression and avoids eye contact.

Until later in the movie, Charlie is unaware of Raymond’s autism and struggles with being constantly frustrated with him even after he becomes aware of his autism.

In Rain Man, Raymond displays certain criterions of autism all throughout the movie.

Examples:

Raymond was very inflexible to adhering to specific routines or rituals such as when he wasn’t able to have his toothpicks and maple-syrup ready in front of him before pancakes arrived at the diner.

Connection

Raymond exhibits the use of repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language as he and Charlie drove through the city; Raymond imitated noises he heard such as howling .

Connection

Raymond is socially inept and is unable to communicate with others adequately such as with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend.

Connection

I feel that the movie Rain Man had a very realistic take on autism and the different emotion involved with it.

I think it was great to make Autism more widely understood by placing it in the media.

I think that more realistic portrayals such as this film should be portrayed within media because of the importance of the subject and its need to be recognized by society.

My View

Other than personal notes:

Google Images

www.wikipedia.org

https://prezi.com/-xbg5tcygzwh/emotion-dysregulation-and-autism-spectrum-disorder/

http://dramatica.com/analysis/rain-man

References