I've seen a lot of "Is House Aspie?" threads here and elsewhere. Apparently the show's creators are addressing it now! Just watched episode "Lines in the Sand" where House treats a profoundly autistic boy who has pica and gets sick as a result.
Wilson talks to Cuddy to try and resolve the problem with the carpet, "I'm going to read you something. 'Asperger's syndrome is a mild and rare form of autism. It is typically characterized by difficulty establishing friendships and playing with peers, trouble accepting conventional social rules, and they dislike any change in setting or routine'... or broadloom. Doesn't say that last part but you get my point.
Cuddy isn't buying it, "House doesn't have Asperger's, diagnosis is much simpler; he's a jerk."
Wilson:
"Why do you think he took this case? Because he believes these parents? Because he wants to help a young boy? He sees himself in this kid and he's trying to help himself. He doesn't want this, he needs it."
Later Wilson tells House, "You're not autistic; you don't even have Asperger's. You wish you did, it would exempt you from the rules, give you freedom, absolve you of responsibility, let you date 17-yr-olds. But most important it would mean that you're not just a jerk."
I've never heard of this show. What's it about?
"...You wish you did, it would exempt you from the rules, give you freedom, absolve you of responsibility, let you date 17-yr-olds. But most important it would mean that you're not just a jerk."
Now there's a winning attitude! That'll help our image for that show's audience. </sarcasm>
I doubted House was supposed to have AS but I don't see a reason for Wilson to have any right in what he says.
House is just a jerk.
He was insane about the carpet in his office being removed, and refused to go back in his office until it was put back. It wasn't an apsie thing, it was a power-play, pure office politics.
Anyway, this autisticc kid in this show was totally non-communicative, no personal connections, etc., even with his parents.
In the end, when House figures out what is going on with the kid, the kid hugs House and gives House his favorite toy. Seemed totally out of character for him, the kid. I didn't buy it for a second. Or, am I missing something???
I cried in that last scene. O.o Man, do I suck.
"Monkey see, monkey do" right? Wasn't that a line from that show?
I hated what Cameron said which was something along the lines of why shouldn't the parents want a normal kid. But Cameron's my least fav character on that show -- she's drippy and over-emotional.
But I missed much of that episode because I was busy at work while it was going on. Stupid work!
Is the implication of what Wilson said -- that AS would excuse House from being a jerk -- that aspies are jerks?
Well... let's see.
It's possible for Aspies to be jerks.
It's possible for jerks to act like Aspies.
It's possible for non-jerks to think they're Aspies.
I don't see a connection here.
Wow, does this mean I can now go out and date 17 year olds?
What an odd concept for aspieness.
(Never watched the show...so no opinion)
to the empt for the rules.. two AS sub types crave them.
"it would exempt you from the rules, give you freedom, absolve you of responsibility,"
That is such a bad impression to give to the public about what aspies might think.. and no matter what Wilson might think I'd prefer to leave the polls open about House being an aspie
.
No kidding. I prefer to have rules, thanks--not external rules, necessarily, though I believe in sensible laws and rules; but I find self-discipline to be extremely reassuring, and about the only way I can get anything done. Executive dysfunction is much more easily maneuvered around if one has established ways of doing things; it's easier to follow a pre-made procedure than to make it up on the spot and get overwhelmed. Many Aspies would agree with me... most, actually, if I'm not mistaken. It's not that we're not creative, or that we're always rigidly ordered; it's just that it's easier to have rules and procedures than not to have them, when you've got an Aspie brain.
And, anyway, AS doesn't excuse you from anything, especially not the law. Well, maybe it excuses you from going to long, annoying parties, but really-who wants to go to those anyway?
I've only watched bits of this show but I didn't like it. He didn't seem aspie to me.
I have only discussed House in my list of aspie fictional characters because the House character is supposed to be based on Sherlock Holmes, and Sherlock Holmes is undeniably an aspie character who was created by one of the famous writers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, that Prof. M. Fitzgerlad has identified as an aspie in one of his books. I personally think House is too adept at speaking and understanding fast-paced discussions between a number of different speakers to be anywhere on the autistic spectrum. You just can't be that articulate and still be autistic in my opinion.
Might one say that House is a nasty aspie character who is given NT verbal abilities so that he can fit into the kind of highly verbose and personal medical drama that gets high TV ratings?
Are they really articulate, or do they just talk a lot or talk fast?
House is one of my favorite shows - he can't be Aspie, because he's not a real person. The only way for him to be Aspie is for the writers to say he's aspie AND have a really good grasp on what Asperger's is - which I doubt they would.
That said, I saw this episode and I think I get what they were trying to say about House and Asperger's. They see House saying he has Asperger's being an 'excuse' for his jerk behavior NOT because they think people with Asperger's are 'jerks' but because people with Asperger's don't have a choice as to if they are socially sensitive or not... They don't intentionally hurt people, they just don't realize what they are doing hurts people.
House DOES know what he's doing, and he doesn't care. That's what makes him a jerk - intentionally hurting people knowing he'll get away with it because he's smart and he's got a bum leg.
There are times when they portray his character as being scared of intimacy and closeness, not liking to be out of control of any situation, being extremely obsessive with his interests, focused to a fault and having stims (ball bouncing being one). So he has some Aspie traits.
As for the boy at the end of the show... The entire episode was about if there was anything going on inside of the boy's mind or not - if he understood what was going on around him and made connections with the people in his life or not. House's objective was to try to communicate with the boy to diagnose him... and he discovered the boy was trying all along to tell his parents what he had eaten that was bad, and nobody was catching it.
The episode showed that the boy knew he was sick, tried to tell people why but because he was autistic nobody took what he was saying seriously - except House - WHO was saying that the boy was empty in the head... The last scene when the boy came up and gave his toy to House, it was a gesture of communicating that he understood House had healed him.
From some of the things I have read - specifically The Secret Language of Dolphins - this is not completely out of character for an austistic person. It is CONTRIVED to make a point and put House in his place, but everything is for a tv show.
I felt the drama of that scene - the moral, if you will, was for House to see he was wrong. Wrong about the boy being empty inside, and wrong about himself not being able to be more of a person than he is.