This is a TED classic: Temple Grandin explaining what it’s like to be autistic, shortly after the release of a movie based on her book Thinking in Pictures. In the book and in the talk, Grandin explains how her cognitive experience as an autistic person differs from that of an average person (let’s not say “normal”). Grandin’s brain is very visual, and that has helped in her animal husbandry work — she can think as an animal presumably thinks, and because of that, she’s uniquely situated to understand why animals behave as they do.
Grandin’s lecture shows two crucial qualities in a good lecture: first, an engaging persona — we enjoy Grandin’s enthusiasm about tangents like church steeples and her repeated concerns about whether kids these days will be taken care of; and second, an actual point — she’s saying, quite simply, there are different kinds of minds. Rather than pathologize these differences and try to “fix” them, we can celebrate them, and as a society we actually need all these different sorts of thinkers. The Q&A at the end is also surprisingly good (albeit brief). Oh, and she even wears a super-cool shirt. I mean, this is pretty much solid lecture gold.
Topics: the autistic spectrum, thinking in pictures, how to teach kids, why we need different kinds of people, and some thoughts on her book and the movie that was made based on it.
For: everyone, especially parents.
Viewing note: you can watch a higher-quality video on the TED site. The YouTube quality is not too bad on this one, though.
Further Reading
I highly recommend Grandin’s book Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism. This is a book that appeals to basically everyone: there’s a strong element of memoir, a bunch of information about what it’s like to be autistic (including some amazing material about Grandin’s hug machine), and a bunch of stuff about animal husbandry (which, quite frankly, most people never think about). It was adapted into an excellent HBO movie (YouTube trailer link) with a stellar performance by Claire Danes and directed by Mick Jackson (who did L.A. Story, among others). If you want a sample of the movie, check out this clip.
Transcript
TED provides an interactive transcript as well as subtitles, downloads with subtitles, and so on.
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Comments (6)
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My wife and I watched the movie a few weeks ago and were very impressed. Grandin is truly a remarkable woman. I am by no means a vigilante PETA member, but the strides she has taken in changing the treatment of beef being led to slaughter is commendable. She has done a great job changing the way the industry treats the anmimals. The film is definitely a must see.
posted by JW on 1-18-2012 at 11:20 am
*animals
posted by JW on 1-18-2012 at 11:21 am
“Autism” is a very vague term. What it’s like to be a mega-nerd with Asperger’s syndrome is very different than what it’s like to be someone with Kanner’s Autism (picture “Rain Man”).
If we consider everyone with Asperger’s, regardless of level of function, as being autistic, it’s far from a rarity in the sciences. We’re talking about people who can’t help but nitpick and focus on details, who can’t help but discuss ideas to the point of going into lecture mode, and who have severe deficits when it comes to relating to people (poor eye contact, weak on empathy, etc…).
As I said, it’s nerdiness geared up to diagnosable levels.
posted by micha on 1-18-2012 at 12:36 pm
Temple Grandin is an extraordinary woman! Not only has she been able to transform her unique way of thinking into useful contributions in the cattle industry but she is so articulate about how her mind is different from others.
I hope to someday see her speak in person.
posted by RoseAnn on 1-18-2012 at 1:29 pm
I suggest this lecture series, actually it’s a course, Human Behavioral Biology (Stanford BIO 250) http://www.virtualprofessors.com/stanford-bio-250-human-behavioral-biology
posted by nihil on 1-18-2012 at 4:04 pm
I saw Temple Grandin speak about 7 or 8 years ago when I was in college and she was one of the most engaging and interesting people I’ve ever seen speak. I later came across a little-known Errol Morris TV series called “First Person” where she was the subject for one episode. I love everything Errol Morris has produced, but this series is probably my favorite thing that he’s done. He finds a very diverse group across the series of both interesting folks and oddballs. You can watch the TG one here (as well as the other episodes): http://documentarystorm.com/errol-morris-first-person/2/
posted by Mark on 1-18-2012 at 5:21 pm