Kim Peek, the "real" RAIN MAN, rests in peace

It's hard to forget the film, Rain Man, even though it premiered in 1988. Besides offering consummate acting by Dustin Hoffman, as well as an endearing representation of brotherly love by Tom Cruise's character, this film is one of the few films to offer a sympathetic, yet realistic, depiction of the day-to-day ordeals of caring for a seriously psychiatrically-imparied relative.

The psychiatrist who heads the hospital that houses "Rain Man," aka Raymond, is both concerned and compassionate yet straightforward and a bit stern. He possesses a rare combination of realistic traits, so rarely depicted on screen. We have become accustomed to seeing polarized views of screen psychiatrists, and especially hostile renditions of hospital heads. There is the controlling and all-consuming Caligari-esque charicature that dates to 1919, yet always ages well in screen scenes.

Polar opposite is the David and Lisa-type doctor from the sixties, which was based on a book written by a real psychiatrist named Dr. Rubin. David and Lisa live in a hostel-like hospital that Betty Davis might have inhabited two decades earlier in Now Voyager. The aura is affluence; the cure is love.This film was made in the Beatles' days, when people came to believe that "all you need is love," just as John, Paul, George and Ringo sang. David and Lisa cure one another by learning to love one another. The hospital head simply looks on, sympathetically.

In contrast, Rain Man's residence makes no pretences. It is upscale, for sure, and it is worlds away from the hideous adult home that David Cronenberg Spider inhabits in the turn-of-the-21st century UK.  But Rain Man's psychiatrist promises no pie-in-the sky cures. He lets Raymond's brother discover just how difficult it is to care for someone as seriously impaired as Raymond.

Raymond is depicted as autistic, even though the real life character who inspired Rain Man was not actually autistic--although he was once diagnosed as autistic. Kim was simply a savant with serious limitations as well as amazing abilities.

Current  information suggests that he had the very rare "FG syndrome" that results from a genetic error. Kim had other features of the syndrome, including the characteristic facial features, the muscle weakness, the balance difficulties that result from cerebellar defects, and, of course, the complete lack of the corpus callosum that apparently allowed for his remarkable memory and word-scanning skills and that perhaps contributed to his lack of social skills and his inability to interpret metaphors and abstract ideas.

One wonders if the pessimistic portrayal of treatments available for people like Rain Man influenced Tom Cruise's anti-psychiatry stance--or if his crusades against psychiatric treatment owe everything to his Scientology affiliation. Either way, Rain Man was made before Cruise's committment to his crusade, and so shows a more neutral stance towards a highly provacative setting and situation.

Rain Man was regaled. The film won four Oscars: one for best acting (Dustin Hoffman), two more for best original screenplay (Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass) and one for best picture. Tom Cruise's performance was well-remembered, but not so well-regarded (perhaps adding to his anti-psychiatry attitude).

However, the most important behind-the-scenes person was Kim Peek, who died the other day at age 58.

Kim's father deserves some kudos also, both for sticking by Kim throughout the years and rearing him (withouth his mother's help), and also for crusading on behalf of the mentally retarded. Were it not for Kim's father's social activism, Kim's awe-inspiring story might never have come to light. For Barry Morrow would not have met Kim and his father, and would not have become to be inspired enough to write a history-making screenplay. Still, it should be noted that Mr. Morrow had already made two television shows about the mentally retarded. He was researching his subject further when he encountered Kim and his father at the Association of Retarded Citizen. Kim's father chaired the organization's communications committee.

Kim was born without a corpus callosum. The corpus callosum connects the right brain to the left, and vice versa. Today, we are more likely to hear about theories about the advantages of a larger corpus callosum. But Kim's deficit apparently enabled him to read two side of a book simultaneously. He could also remember all the details. Exactly how that occurred is still a bit of a mystery, and may be eluciated better on other sites, such as http://www.neurospotlight.com/.

Kim's abilities were remarkable, even for a savant. His wide-ranging interests put him in a class of his own. He memorized all of Shakespeare's plays, to the point that he and his father could no longer attend either theater or concerts, for fear that Kim would arise and correct the performers for their imperfections. For Kim lacked social skills and other types of awareness. He could not feed or dress himself. He was not the same as Rain Man, the character who was modeled after him. He was even more remarkable than Rain Man.

Mr. Peek was deemed to be mentally retarded when he was a child and then was later misdiagnosed as autistic. After he inspired Rain Man, he led a different kind of life, and came to enjoy the limelight. A documentary about his life was made in 2006. Even after his untimely death from cardiac causes, his life will, no doubt, continue to inspire many. May Kim Peek rest in peace. His memory will live forever in Rain Man.