Recently, I watched Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler. I have a family member with Asperger’s Syndrome, and
this film made me think about mediated representations of social
neurodevelopmental disorders more critically. Jake Gyllenhaal’s character in
the film reminded me a lot (like, disturbingly well) of my family member with
Asperger’s, so at first I was excited to see the representation. I hoped it
would help people be sympathetic towards people who do not understand social
norms in the same ways that they do. However, by the end of the film, the
character seemed to be written off as just a psychopath, which seemed completely
unhealthy to me. He is often treated poorly in the film—just like people in
real life with high-functioning autism—but I didn’t feel like the film did
anything to make that conversation healthier. As such, I wanted to focus my
game on this topic.
In my research, I skimmed a few scholarly articles about
these types of disorders. They pointed out key aspects of people with these
disorders to me, such as the ability to empathize just as well as neurotypical
people, as long as the need for empathy is clearly stated (Hirvelä and Hirkama,
“Empathy, morality, values, and Asperger’s Syndrome). I also read a lot about
the diagnosis of from the Mayo clinic’s website. These sources revealed scientific
aspects of the disorder to me, which are helpful. However, I gained the most
valuable information from Tony Attwood’s The
Complete Guide to Asperger’s. This book goes over real examples of how
people with Asperger’s function. It revealed a lot of concrete ways that these
types of disorders work, and which I was able to understand from interacting
with people in my own life.
I tried to incorporate as much of this information as
possible into my game, which I think turned out to be a bad idea. Although
there are similarities among people with Asperger’s and other forms of
high-functioning autism, no two people experience it in the same way. My game
tried to tell multiple stories, which really didn’t accomplish much. I think it
would have been stronger if I had only focused on one or two aspects of the
disorder (such as an inability to perceive nonverbal cues or obsessive hobbies),
rather than trying to incorporate all the elements I am aware of. Additionally,
I found myself including personal, emotional nuances that are true of myself
but probably not true of people with high-functioning autism. As such, I am
quite confident my game is a poor representation of the disorder. But at least
it tries to be sympathetic.
Fortunately, as part of my research, I also came across some
much better mediated depictions of these types of disorders than Nightcrawler. Namely, this episode of
the children’s TV show Arthur—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsmjwHW40ps—(seriously, watch it, it’s really good).
Other good representations come from people who have Asperger’s or high-functioning
autism themselves. These discussions can be found all over YouTube, and they're really great and eye-opening.
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