It is always difficult to watch movies about impaired people, let alone see them in real life. However, it is the real life that we must accept. Cinema is an excellent field and sphere to analyze the potential symptoms of characters playing the role of an impaired man or woman. Forrest Gump is an excellent example of the director’s and actor’s mastery at showing the people what a real psychopathology is.
Watching Forrest Gump one always thinks of the protagonist as mentally retarded (or rather suffering from mental retardation - a congenital form of an intellectual disability in the degree of mild retardation). However, we must look at Forrest in the spectrum of autistic disorders (infantile autism, Asperger's syndrome). According to the international classification of mental retardation, this disease is also diagnosed when the level of IQ is less than 70. However, Forrest Gump’s school IQ test showed a score of 75. Moreover, in the novel by Winston Groom (1986) the protagonist was diagnosed as a savant, which is a rare condition in which a person with developmental disabilities (including autism spectrum), has certain "momentums of genius." The latter means outstanding abilities in one or more areas of expertise, contrasting with the general limitations of the individual phenomenon explained by genetics or acquired skills (Groom, 1986).
Thus, considering the above it is fair to ask who Forrest Gump is, or rather what he is suffering from. In principle, the level of intelligence shows that he is below age norms, but in the course of analysis, this seems as unimportant. The personality of the man is more interesting: “My mama always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” (Zemeckis, 1994).
The lack of intelligence may well be replaced with a normal and adequate education and upbringing, which his mother facilitated Forrest with. Maybe those moral values were not based on personal experience; nonetheless, they helped him live an almost full life. Although initial attempts at analyzing Forrest Gump hinted to describe him as "mentally retarded," and emphasis can be made on the clinical manifestations of mental retardation, this seems as an attempt to impose an improbable stereotype. Thus, if to reconsider all the evidence, one must resort to other diagnoses.
According to some scientists, people with autism are innate with the perceptual or cognitive impairment that makes it impossible for them to normally communicate and interact with others. Forrest Gump could maintain communication imperfectly. One of the well-known explanation is that people with this disorder cannot work out and develop for themselves the theory of mind. Meaning that it is impossible for them to understand that man builds his behavior based on personal beliefs, intentions or other mental processes and not on the information that they may not know (Bonder, 2015).
Looking closely at the psychological issue at hand, this is very much akin to the way the world is constructed for Forrest. It consists of the knowledge that he has received from the education and upbringing his mother was able to give him, the teaching and lecturing from Lieutenant Dan and the other characters in the movie. Thus, the world is constructed in this particular way and must be arranged so.
Forrest Gump is a big kid, who regardless of his age, believes in the bright future and fate, despite the setbacks and difficulties he comes across. This is where a question must spring to mind: "Are people not able to notice the surrounding unpleasant things to be so carefree?". Low intelligence contributes to the fact that man cannot find a connection between events and things, however, mentality still evaluates a particular situation as threatening or vice versa (without our own participation) (Bonder, 2015).
Here, another question about the development of Forrest’s defense mechanisms as a form of intellectual insolvency compensation comes to mind. The fact that most of the actions and intentions Forrest had not fully realized, to him everything had a rather simple and the most primitive explanation, such as: "If you are in danger, you should run " (Zemeckis, 1994). This slogan is as if Forrest’s motto throughout life, starting from the moment when he starts to run away from the boys bullying him (at the same time breaking free from his prostheses): "Run Forrest, Run " (Zemeckis, 1994).
There is an opinion that for the development of some forms of psychological protection a certain level of personal development, including intellectual, is required (Bonder, 2015). Forrest has two concepts very well developed such as isolation and rationalization. The first is manifested in the inconsistency of emotions and meaningful context of the situation (for example, during the war he fled not because of fear, but because he was ordered to), the second refers to those principles which he was taught by his mother. Thus, in the event of any worrying situation (frustration), he refers to them as an explanation: "Mama says, “Stupid is as stupid does.” (Zemeckis, 1994). The latter evokes in people either disbelief, as in what can one do with such a simpleton, or some tender emotion, as in how can one be so simple.
What Freud (Bonder, 2015) called "psychopathology of everyday life", for Forrest Gump is life itself: " Now can you believe it? After only five years of playing football, I got a college degree." (Zemeckis, 1994). He was not discouraged when something did not work. On the contrary, Forrest did not pay attention to possible obstacles and consequences, respectively, he just had to "run".
Forrest Gump is a unique person who embodies a lot of important aspects of the culture and values of human relationships, but at the same time, he is a puzzle. From one point of view he seems mentally retarded, but from another perspective, he demonstrates symptoms of autism. The director and Tom Hanks have managed to demonstrate and implement all the available knowledge humanity has on the mild form of autism, and they have succeeded. This movie is a vivid example of that we know little about the psychology of the individual and thus must learn more.
Reference
Baron-Couhen Simon, Leslie Alan M. and Uta Frith. (1985). “Does the Autistic Child Have a Theory of Mind?” Cognition. Vol. 21(1).
Bonder, B. (2015). Psychopathology and function. Thorofare, NJ: SLACK Incorporated.
Groom, Winston. (1986). Forrest Gump. Doubleday & Company.
Zemeckis, Robert. (1994). Forrest Gump. Paramount Pictures. DVD.
