A Case Study of an “Autistic‐savant”: Mental Function in the Psychotic Child With Markedly Discrepant Abilities

SUMMARY This paper describes discrepant mental function in an. autistic‐savant boy, so labelled because he has the behavior of an autistic child and the cognitive profile of the idiot savant. Major findings are that: perception is adequate for visual discrimination, but not for spatial orientation; superior memory‐ exists for specialized data of limited scope and is explained, not by unusual rates of initial learning, but by a failure to forget; abstract associations are formed while developmentally easier tasks are failed. It is suggested that these contradictions—frequently found in psychotic children—are a natural developmental outcome of deficiencies in somatic awareness.