Was Chris autistic?

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GoNorth
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Re: Was Chris autistic?

Postby GoNorth » Sun Apr 03, 2011 8:46 am

Mrjeeves007 wrote:I also believe Chris was on the high functioning autism-aspergers spectrum. For the reasons already listed at the beginning of this discussion and a few others i recognised whilst watching the movie.


Have you read the book, too? If not, I highly recommend to do so. Because in the movie there's a lot of information missing about his personality, his past and all that. And also the true relationships he built up during his travels are not shown correctly in the movie.

erikhalfacre
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Re: Was Chris autistic?

Postby erikhalfacre » Sun Apr 03, 2011 5:28 pm

Like the fact that he was in South Dakota twice, not just once... because he had FRIENDS there. That would be a pertinent point to understand in a discussion such as this.

I myself though do not really have a formed opinion on this subject. Having not known him in person, and not feeling there is enough evidence either direction, I'm not willing to try and draw the line between eccentric and autistic. Though as has already been said, if he was that would be nothing to be ashamed of. I know many people who are autistic or have asperger's and they are all great people.
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pezar
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Re: Was Chris autistic?

Postby pezar » Tue Apr 05, 2011 1:15 am

erikhalfacre wrote:Like the fact that he was in South Dakota twice, not just once... because he had FRIENDS there. That would be a pertinent point to understand in a discussion such as this.

I myself though do not really have a formed opinion on this subject. Having not known him in person, and not feeling there is enough evidence either direction, I'm not willing to try and draw the line between eccentric and autistic. Though as has already been said, if he was that would be nothing to be ashamed of. I know many people who are autistic or have asperger's and they are all great people.


I should note that autistic people desire friends, just like anybody else. The reason so few have friends is a combination of being socially clumsy, which means they really don't know how to MAKE friends, plus hard life experience that teaches them that most people are out to screw others to get stuff (prestige, money, power) and that the autistic is more often the screwee than the screwer. Given those two things, most autistics are content to live in solitude. Chris found people who cared about him as a person, and he was happy to be friends with them. Chris also had a pre-set attitude that solitude was better than having friends, which is the same attitude that millions of autistics take towards their fellow men as a defense mechanism, to keep from being hurt, not only emotionally but physically. Autistics have been killed or landed in prison because they trusted the wrong person. So it's the X-Files Solution, trust no one, for them. Chris's disposition towards solitude is what makes his final revelation-happiness is only real when shared-so much more touching.

GoNorth
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Re: Was Chris autistic?

Postby GoNorth » Tue Apr 05, 2011 6:30 am

pezar wrote: Chris also had a pre-set attitude that solitude was better than having friends,


How did you come to such a conclusion?
I think he just liked to be alone a bit more often than the average.

Quote from the book:

"Even when we were little," says Carine, who was born three years after Chris, "he
was very to himself. He wasn't antisocial— he always had friends, and everybody liked
him—but he could go off and entertain himself for hours. He didn't seem to need toys or
friends. He could be alone without being lonely."


And remember he also was the captain of some kind of sports team at highschool.

pezar wrote: his final revelation-happiness is only real when shared-


Which was not his final "revelation" in real life, as we know from the book. ;) He wrote these words (IF it was him who wrote them and not this other guy Jeff who had left some of the books in the bus) already several weeks before dying and I seriously doubt it was a revelation. I think he just felt lonely at that time because he had intended to get back to civilization and see his friends again, but was forced to stay in the wild longer than planned because of the uncrossable Teklanika river. Before, he had been alone in the wilderness by choice, later it was unvoluntary.

marcym
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Re: Was Chris autistic?

Postby marcym » Wed Apr 06, 2011 9:22 am

Hi all, I think Chris felt dissatisfied with his life and tried to change this, looking for people more similar to him.
Although he died in solitude, in his journey he made important meetings (es): with Wayne and other friends, look at the photo, he looks at you a boy suffering from autism?
Did you see that beautiful smile? Look better.
You really think an asocial may stop when he wants and be sociable and funny and sympathetic? It is not so easy these people have more or less serious problems that block literally in contact with other people, unfortunately, is the disease that dominates them, otherwise it wouldn't be such a disease.
For me he sought only his place in the world.
Who is sicker who understands that life does not satisfy him and he has the courage to seek the remedy or whoever remains helpless to compiangersi?
The answer to you ...

Marcym.

GoNorth
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Re: Was Chris autistic?

Postby GoNorth » Fri Apr 08, 2011 9:30 am

Well, as I said, I don't think Chris was autistic, because of all we know about him and which does not fit to autism at all, in my opinion. Not because I would think that autists are in whatever way unlikeable persons! I really wouldn't call autistic persons asocial or sick.

marcym
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Re: Was Chris autistic?

Postby marcym » Fri Apr 08, 2011 4:28 pm

GoNorth wrote:Well, as I said, I don't think Chris was autistic, because of all we know about him and which does not fit to autism at all, in my opinion. Not because I would think that autists are in whatever way unlikeable persons! I really wouldn't call autistic persons asocial or sick.



So we agree that Chris was not autistic, but I consider autism a disease because it prevents the normal relations between people, and who is aware of having its, often suffers, not always able to communicate as would, to socialize with others like they want to cause of autism.
I don't say this in a derogatory sense and I apologize if anyone felt offended by my own words.
Marcym

ascari
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Re: Was Chris autistic?

Postby ascari » Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:53 pm

I THINK THIS IS A GREAT INSULT TO CHRIS TO WANT TO ALIENATE FROM SOCIETY OR TO LIVE AS AN OUTSIDER IS NOT A TRAIT OF AN AUTISTIC ITS A TRAIT OF A PERSON WHO HAS BEEN ABUSED AT AN EARLIER POINT IN LIFE. FOR ME THE FREEDOM OF OPEN SPACE AND PEACE IS AN INATE PART OF SENSITIVE PEOPLE. FOR MYSELF THIS FILM CATTALISED FEELINGS IN MYSELF OF AN EARLY ISOLATION FROM OTHERS BROUGHT ON FROM SIMILAR EARLY ABUSE. THIS FILM MAKES ME WEEP AND IS VERY DIFFICULT FOR ME TO WATCH - I AM NOT AUTISTIC

ladyandtramp
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Re: Was Chris autistic?

Postby ladyandtramp » Tue Aug 09, 2011 8:07 am

I think this is an interesting idea, and a possibility.

I agree with the previous posters who said that there is nothing wrong with being autistic. However, if Chris was indeed autistic, I think it must have been a very mild kind of autism, possibly Aspbergers. I read a lot about this at one point when my mum got it into her head that I might have Aspbergers... I was 27 at the time, you would have thought she could have brought it up sooner! But the idea never crossed her mind. She feels, and I agree, that there are a lot of characteristics that may, or may not, qualify as mildly autistic. It could just as easily be explained as society's way of categorising and putting a label on what does not enter into "normal, conformistic behaviour". To be accepted in todays society, you need certain qualities, and anything that falls outside the norm then has to receive a label...

bobenns wrote:http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at Cambridge's Autism Research Centre have created the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, or AQ, as a measure of the extent of autistic traits in adults. In the first major trial using the test, the average score in the control group was 16.4. Eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher. The test is not a means for making a diagnosis, however, and many who score above 32 and even meet the diagnostic criteria for mild autism or Asperger's report no difficulty functioning in their everyday lives.

Lets compare.
I got 11


I got 28. Not quite there, but not exactly average either! :lol:

americaneon
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Re: Was Chris autistic?

Postby americaneon » Sun May 27, 2012 2:40 am

i posted a new topic without seeing this one, i think he was highly functioning high iq Asperger's, after reading the book. i have a very close relative highly functioning, high iq asperger's who Chris reminds me of. they are beautiful people, seeing and wanting a different world than what is here. more needs to be known about Asperger's to recognize that people are all different in many ways, and to love and appreciate these differences in people. what a wonderful world that would be.


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