In today’s world, one in 88 children has autism (Glicksman). Kamran Nazeer was one of those children. He mentions in the introduction to the book Send in the Idiots: Stories From the Other Side of Autism that he went to an elementary school in New York with all autistic students. Nazeer, now out of college, is on a mission to contact his former peers from this school. In doing so, Nazeer learns how other autistic individuals cope with the problems of which he also struggles. Additionally, he gives the reader a new insight on autism as he shares stories from families and their autistic loved ones.
Kamran Nazeer captures a broad spectrum of autism, and displays the roller-coaster lifestyle that comes with the disability. First, Nazeer visits his friend Andre at his home in Boston. Andre lives with his sister and works as a computer science researcher. As Nazeer explains more about Andre, several abnormal behaviors surface: like brushing air off of his shoulder, bringing out a wooden puppet while having a conversation, or putting moths from his garage in petri dishes. He uses these strange actions as coping mechanisms.
For example, when Andre has a hard time communicating something or relaying an uncomfortable emotion, he simply passes the task on to one of his several puppets. Andre relies on these puppets for daily communication; they travel with him to the store, or sit on his lap when he is on the phone. Furthermore, if you interrupt one of the puppets, Andre throws a tantrum. During one of his episodes, he locked Nazeer in the bathroom. Amanda, Andre’s sister, is familiar with this type of aggravated behavior. She explains to Nazeer the importance of letting the puppet finish, no matter how long the conversation drags on.
This intricate relationship offers valuable insight as to what it might be like to have an autistic family member. Amanda knows all of Andre’s routines. She knows which puppet is talking, what time he wakes up, and what it means when he brushes his shoulder. Keeping track of Andre’s behaviors is labor intensive, and working to keep him comfortable is a full time job for the both of them. While he interviews Andre, the reader gains a better understanding of Nazeer’s world. He shows what conversations are like for him and other autistic individuals.
Nazeer describes conversations as a give-and-take performance. During his college years, Nazeer spent several of his evenings watching his non-autistic friends discuss current events. He quickly picked up that his friends did not always know what they were talking about first hand, but rather added what they did know to carry on the conversation. He watched as his friends, none of whom were Jewish, had an in depth discussion on Bar Mitzvahs. From these experiences, Nazeer learned how to effectively communicate with non-autistic individuals.
He does so by modeling the activity of his friends. When in a conversation, Nazeer makes attempts to add relevant information that he knows. Nazeer explains communicating was a learned behavior for him, and that no part of it felt comfortable or natural. Following his visit with Andre, Nazeer headed to the home of his former peer Randall. Randall shares a home with his partner Mike and works as a deliveryman. While Nazeer is visiting, a group of men decide to play a mean spirited prank on Randall. They ask him to deliver a gun from one location to the next, a delivery that will never end.
The idea behind this “joke” is to keep Randall going from place to place while he carries a gun. Randall does not recognize that this is a joke, but rather believes that he is doing his job as a deliveryman. Thus, Nazeer introduces “mind-blindness”, found in the textbook as the theory of mind. Theory of mind is the idea that autistic people have a difficult time understanding that other people have thoughts that differ from theirs. So, as Randall goes innocently to deliver the gun, theory of mind tells us that he may never grasp that this is someone’s idea of a trick.
Instead, Randall is victimised and will go on delivering the package and become the butt of a joke. To conclude his thoughts on theory of mind, Nazeer explains the label “genius. ” He states that society tends to overuse the word. As humans, we stick the label to pieces of art, chess champions, and groundbreaking scientists. His thought being that the term does not necessarily pertain to a certain IQ level or a degree of education, but instead it is used to describe what is different from us.
Nazeer suggests that the general population uses that word to separate themselves from the shadow of others. By using genius to depict something greater than oneself, the user is taking themselves out of the same category. Nazeer explains that the same idea is true for the autistic label. He believes that when someone is labeled autistic, society will categorize them differently, thus preventing autistic individuals from leaving this label behind. The label will not better the lives of anyone, but will be used to explain why someone is succeeding at the task at hand.
