Mental disabilities in a pre-psychiatry society

[ScipioSmith]

So, the protagonist and one of the significant supporting characters (protagonist's little brother) in my WiP are autistic. It's fairly important because it explains a lot about their behaviours. However, since the setting is vaguely classical in nature, obviously no one can say the word autism because it hasn't been discovered/invented yet.

Which leads me to first question: should I try to make it clear, beyond their behaviours matching the condition, or should I just let the audience interpret it how they will? And if I was going to make it clear how would I go about it (I'm sure someone else must have had this problem)?

Now, I'm writing a scene now in which the two guys' sister is talking to a friend about why the protagonist, in particular, can't 'live in the real world' like she does. Her friend says that she knew a boy who acted like them when she was younger, and he was said to be cursed by the Eldest One, suggesting that maybe they are too. I quite liked this when I first wrote it because nowadays accounts of demonic possession etc are often believed to have been mental conditions that weren't understood.

Except then I remembered that this is a story in which the gods really exist and are actors in the narrative (don't ask how I forgot that), which makes me worried that people who read it will assume that they really have been cursed by a dark god, not that this is the best explanation that people of this level of civilisation can come up with.

Which brings me to question two: should I keep this bit in or cut it out since it risks being confusing and/or offensive?

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

First for describing the condition I'd instead go for describing the symptoms. So depending on the extent of the condition they could just be a little withdrawn, or they could be completely dissociated from people, refusing to engage at all and occasionally becoming violent if their personal space is invaded or they're touched. Language skills may be mildly impaired or non existent.

For the second I think the real problem you have in using characters with a condition like this is in trying to show how people respond to them. Cursed by a dark god may be the accepted explanation in their world but it's one step away from being possessed etc and the characters being lynched when the crops fail. Add to that if someone gets hurt they'll automtically be blamed and might not be able to defend themselves. In a lot of cases in traditional British society, they would have been locked away from society for their lives. In others they would simply have been killed when it was realised they weren't normal.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Rinzei]

Is this a real-world setting pre-psychiatric or is a separate world with similarities to pre-psychiatric settings? If it's the latter, you will have some leeway in how you would to explain it.

I thought the movie was terrible, but the newer Hansel and Gretel film, Hansel has diabetes - I won't spoil why. But because of the time period, no one knows the word "diabetes". They all refer to it as "sugar sickness" because all they know is that if you ate too much sugar for too long a time, you became sick from it for the rest of your life.

In Dragon Age: Origins, there is a character named Sandal whom is a bit slow. They say this is because he is lyrium-addled - lyrium is a highly dangerous material found in the deep roads (where the dwarves live) that negates magic, but has large physical and psychological side effects. Templars use lyrium to fight mages, but become highly addicted to it and cannot function without it, and those are just the first side effects. Dwarves, living in such close proximity, cannot perform magic at all. Someone whom was exposed extensively to raw lyrium becomes lyrium-addled.


Those are just two examples of how other fantasy settings have explained real-world (or similar) medical conditions in their own setting. If your story isn't taking place in the real world, then you could do similar and explain the condition in the terms of your own world. As psychotick said, a lot of these conditions would not be...tolerated in the real world historically, but there's nothing to say it can't be accepted in yours, as long as it's explained well enough, in my opinion.

 

[ScipioSmith]

Hi,

First for describing the condition I'd instead go for describing the symptoms. So depending on the extent of the condition they could just be a little withdrawn, or they could be completely dissociated from people, refusing to engage at all and occasionally becoming violent if their personal space is invaded or they're touched. Language skills may be mildly impaired or non existent.

Well, I've based the behaviours partly on myself and partly on other people I met at a support group I used to go to (though not, of course, basing the characters themselves on any real life people) so I think I should be on safe ground there.

For the second I think the real problem you have in using characters with a condition like this is in trying to show how people respond to them. Cursed by a dark god may be the accepted explanation in their world but it's one step away from being possessed etc and the characters being lynched when the crops fail. Add to that if someone gets hurt they'll automtically be blamed and might not be able to defend themselves. In a lot of cases in traditional British society, they would have been locked away from society for their lives. In others they would simply have been killed when it was realised they weren't normal.

Cheers, Greg.

Funny thing you say that, in the original scene I wrote before I posted this, it as revealed by Octavia (the sister's friend, who provides the 'cursed' explanation, that the person she knew was killed. But I think now that's a little dark and makes the country they're living in out to be a bit too much of a harsh and unforgiving place when one of the themes of the story is that it doesn't deserve to be torn down and burned to ash.

As far as reactions go: for the protagonist, people find him strange, but he has sufficient personal virtues that they tolerate it and come to appreciate that it is one of the things that make him who he is. As for his little brother, he is in a rather worse position and has had to almost disociate himself from who he really is in order to do his job.

 

[Mythopoet]

Consider that autism may not be a disability at all in certain types of societies or situations.

This article highlights how one brain researcher believes that autism may actually have been an advantage in hunter gatherer societies.

This other article talks about a professor of psychiatry who believes that the same genes responsible for autism spectrum disorders may also be responsible for the character traits found in many geniuses throughout history who have changed the world.

It may be that autism was never diagnosed until recently because it has only become a disadvantage in our modern world.

 

[Queshire]

As someone with Aspergers (a type of high functioning Autism), in such a setting I would feel more comfortable with not calling it Autism and instead blaming it on a curse. Historically, curses, spirits, and so on were blamed for various forms of illnesses so you have that going for you. Also I would be just as offended if a writer portrayed someone with Aspergers as a genius as if they went the other route. (I'm looking at you here South Park) Not calling it Autism and blaming it on a curse gives you the plausible deniability you'd need to be able to adjust it to fit your plot.

 

[The Dark One]

As for the OP's comment that 'this is a society in which the gods really do exist'...they also really 'existed' for the denizens of the Age of Faith in our world.

I don't pretend to know a lot about autism, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that its descriptors were not much reported in pre-industrial society - thus it may be a condition inspired or exacerbated by mass urbanisation. (Sir Isaac Newton, apparently, had some form of Asperger's, but he lived in a milieu on the very brink of industrialisation which may have featured some of the incipient preconditions.)

If you consider the middle English word for mad ('wood') and the tales in which it featured, it seems that people described as wood were treated in a range of ways going from reverent fear through indulgence to ridicule. You can use that.

Mind you, by the dawn of industrial society there was less patience for madness and people tended to be locked away and openly ridiculed. The asylums used to charge gentlemen a shilling to come and laugh at the idiots, and for a tip would subject the idiots to any indignity the gentlemen might suggest.

It was an unfriendly time.

 

[ScipioSmith]

As for the OP's comment that 'this is a society in which the gods really do exist'...they also really 'existed' for the denizens of the Age of Faith in our world.

I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone religious, and I apologise if I did; the important point was that the gods appear in the story and thus anything attributed in the story to the gods might plausibly be considered the work of the gods by the readers in ways that might not be the case in a setting where the gods were more absent or mysterious in their ways.

I don't pretend to know a lot about autism, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that its descriptors were not much reported in pre-industrial society - thus it may be a condition inspired or exacerbated by mass urbanisation. (Sir Isaac Newton, apparently, had some form of Asperger's, but he lived in a milieu on the very brink of industrialisation which may have featured some of the incipient preconditions.)

Since there were periods of mass urbanisation in the pre-industrial world, it could also be our paucity of ancient sources that is to blame in that regard.

 

[Caged Maiden]

Yeah, I don't think anyone was offended by the thing about gods. I believe the point Dark One was making was one of faith... Simply put, the residents of your world believe in their gods because they can see them, maybe even talk to them. I know that's what you intended to say, that the gods themselves appear in the story to interact with the world.

Dark One was I believe, trying to comment on the fact that in our distant past, if you had a person living next door who was "cursed by God" (meaning crazy, disturbed, etc.) they LITERALLY meant that it was some sort of penalty levied on said neighbor by the christian god everyone believed in unquestioningly at the time. "Cursed by God" literally meant what it sounded like, and while yes, Christians believe unfalteringly in their god and the residents of your world have faith in their own deities, you are probably right to anticipate the ramifications, because as you anticipate, there might be confusion.

Obviously in Earth's past, if God cursed your little brother and made him touched in the head, all you could do was pray, seek medical help, or just do your best to make life easier for him and protect him from the outside world if he needed that sort of thing. In a world where someone could potentially go before the god in question and say, "Why did you curse my brother, you heartless deity?" the fallout will have vastly different effects.

If you're looking for other ways to describe how the characters in question "differ" from "normal" people, maybe try thinking about it another way. If autism is exactly what you want to go for, because that's your exact perfect way to define the characters, then using the symptoms and describing them in an honest and empathetic way is probably best. There are a lot of people in this world whose lives have been touched by mental illness of one sort or another, genetic conditions, physical disability, or even easier to deal with things like dyslexia, color-blindness, etc. etc.

My point? Readers will most likely be able to relate, even if you never successfully nail down all the elements of autism, but simply show that the characters are "different", however much you need for the story.

Okay, so when I was thirteen, I babysat for a girl who was born dead and rescusitated (I can't figure out how to spell that, through multiple tries, sorry). While that isn't comparable to autism, I mention it because for me, as a thirteen-year-old, with no prior experience working with special needs children, it was really shocking to learn how much her life differed from mine. I mean... she was nine, only five years younger than I was. She had no depth perception, meaning one day I took her out for a walk, and every line in the sidewalk we came to, she stepped really high, because she couldn't tell whether it was the same level as where her feet were currently. It was winter and I took her to the park and she screamed when I tried to bring her into the grass. She just stopped and bent down, to feel with her hand, how high the snow was, before she felt comfortable trying to step on it. Now, that was just one of her many conditions. She also had no way of forming relationships with people, was huge for her age (bigger, taller, and heavier than I was) and had a sort of live-in-the-now capability, memories being somewhat unimportant and no thought of the future whatsoever.

So anyways, I know this is a bit of a meandering post, but I hope I'm being somewhat clear. I'd look past the "symptoms" of whatever condition you fix these characters with. If the POV character is their sister, rather than giving the reader a "tell" like, "Simon and James were always a but slow. As my older brothers, I only noticed it as I got older, that they were never going to marry and leave my parents' house, but instead, we would be expected to care for them forever. Of the two, Simon was more capable, even making friends with his tutors and learning how to write his name. James wasn't so lucky. He spoke in confusing sentences more often than not, and his frequent outbursts of rage had brought the guards around our house more than once."

Instead, try: "James shied away from my hand, set on his shoulder in sympathy. 'Don't touch me.' The same disease that garbled his words into indecipherable sentences, seemed always to give him reprieve when he needed to communicate his displeasure. His cheeks flared red, warning me. 'Okay, Jamie,' I said, wary of the rage he so often displayed. 'I love you, brother, but so help me, if you hit me, I'll hit you right back.' His dark eyes searched my shoe, rather than my face. His words came out calm, direct. What else could I expect? 'I want to go home.' I smiled. 'Okay Jamie. Let's go home.' I led him up the hill, not making a big deal of his not wanting to walk beside me and called back over my shoulder, 'I bet Simon's done with his tutor for the day. Should we go see if he has a pen we could use? You make the prettiest pictures of horses.' James' voice came back excited. 'Horses like Grandma's. With brown hair and Christmas bells.'

Okay, I'm just musing in my own mind of craziness, but I guess my point is to not "tell" your reader he's simple, but to show it through meaningful interaction. I think it's the POV character's responsibility to facilitate a filter through which we clearly understand her limited interactions with her brothers, but without being overly direct. I used to drive a special needs bus and one of the things I realized (and I like to think myself a pretty darn compassionate and understanding person) is that the parents of the kids on my route never equated their children with any particular disability. In fact, I had one little boy I had to yell at to sit down in his seat all afternoon and I called the mother to have her meet me at the bus stop. I told her how he's usually so well-behaved and for some reason he just ignored me the whole time I was talking to him. Which was when she told me he'd had his hearing tubes adjusted and it might take time before he could hear again (I hadn't known he was deaf, nor had I any knowledge of why ANY of the kids were on the route). She advised me to just get his attention and talk right to his face, so he could hear me or read my lips (I never learned which). Maybe it was because the little guys on my route were only four, but I suspect anyone who cares for an individual with special needs, sort of looks past their condition, and considers them a normal person with which you just have to be a little more patient and understanding. I know I did.

Sometimes I think this is the hardest part of writing, imagining how it really is to live someone else's life. But with careful decisions, there's no reason we can't create authentic interactions and perhaps even shed some light on a seldom-used condition in our fantasy works. It's really just up to ingenuity, isn't it? Hope I gave you something useful in this terrible example of verbal diarrhea.

 

[Michael J. Tobias]

I have a few characters in my WIP who have similar conditions because the story centers on a young girl who is different (dark skin and light eyes) and thus everyone believes she is "marked" for sorcery...as they think of anyone who is "different." Thus I have a young girl with autism and an older boy who has albinism and another boy with vitiligo. Most of the "marked" kids simply have speech impediments or birthmarks or something that makes them stand out.

Regarding the autism...I have described her mannerisms and physical characteristics and if people get that it's autism, great, but obviously no one in the story understands that. The albinism and vitiligo are pretty easy to figure out because they have obvious physical characteristics unique to their situations. Autism is, as you know, a much broader spectrum and thus has a wide variety of characteristics that could be associated with lots of conditions

 

[S.T. Ockenner]

As someone with Aspergers (a type of high functioning Autism), in such a setting I would feel more comfortable with not calling it Autism and instead blaming it on a curse. Historically, curses, spirits, and so on were blamed for various forms of illnesses so you have that going for you. Also I would be just as offended if a writer portrayed someone with Aspergers as a genius as if they went the other route. (I'm looking at you here South Park) Not calling it Autism and blaming it on a curse gives you the plausible deniability you'd need to be able to adjust it to fit your plot.

I disagree, but okay. I don't think that autism is a 'curse' and depending on the society, people with aspergers or (especially) borderline aspergers could be valued for their gifts. Even low functioning autistic people could potentially have, say, religious significance, as the commoners may think they know the secrets of the universe.

 

[ShadeZ]

Well hopefully this helps. In my books I have a prince who is a sociopath after seeing the death of his sister by an accident he was partly responsible for. The symptoms are obvious enough. The townsfolk however have no real word for it but they talk about him often in the sense of him being strange, odd, ice cold, murderous toward those who get in his way, sly, manipulative, and yet very breakable his mood snaps easily. They often talk about him as if he is a rabid beast, they call him a monster, a demon, a crazed man, a bloodthirsty man. All of this is designed to give the reader enough hints to get the idea of what he is without directly telling them.

Also as someone who has not autism but ADHD and has siblings with Adhd, one with OCD and one with slight autism I do not think I or my siblings would mind it or find the representation of mental illness to be offensive unless it is outright untrue or badly written such as if the symptoms dont really match up. To us the idea that people once thought o mental illness as demon possession is no more offensive than thinking about how people used to think health came from the four humors. It is not offensive, they were just unaware of the truth so oh well.

Hope this helps