Autism vs. Feral Child


I've seen several theories about Victor, including the one about him being an autistic child. I noticed there was not much affection between Victor with Madame Guerin or Dr Jean Itard. I figured it was a sign of the times, that foster parents didn't drool over their children in the early 1800s. Now that autism comes into the picture, I'm wondering if there is something to it.

Do you think Victor was an autistic child whose parent threw him away because they didn't know how to deal with his "abnormality"?



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That's a deafinite possibility. The scar on his neck might have been his previous family, trying to do away with him. Though I do think the movie's beautiful coldness was a director's choice. You may enjoy the increadilbe novel by Jill Dawson. It's called "Wild Boy" and it's her own take on three people...Victor, the Doc, and the nurse (who I wish we new more about as she was became the boy's mother). I read the book in day or so, couldn't put it down. The question and terrible mystery of autism is all throughout the book. I think the author herself has an autistic son. Also, if you go to feralchildren.com you can find so, so much information. On Victor, other wild children, and the autism link.

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Yes I think that he was autistic and I also think that neither Dr. Itard nor Truaffant knew this. But Truaffant included what was in Itard's notes and Dr. Itard unknowingly included something key about autism. I'm not talking about lack of affection. Since my own daughter is autistic, I saw that this child actor was able to very effectively portray affection as some autistic children show it.

The giveaway is his yearning for order. Clearly neither Dr.Itard nor Truaffant knew that this was what made him seem autistic rather than feral. A neurotypical child who was feral would not have this deep need for order. It was so strong that Dr. Itard made this need for order the cornerstone for his therapy and included it in his notes upon which the book and movie were based. That profound need for order is what really sets autistic people apart although I don't think either Dr. Itard nor Trauffant realized this. (Itard couldn't have since the syndrome was still 150 years away from being identified.)

To Dr. Itard's great credit, it seems that he actually invented ABA therapy (that is what he's using in the movie) which is the most widely used therapy for autistic childrwen since it was re-invented in the 60's. I consider it a great tragedy that Dr.Itard's effective therapy didn't come into widespread use until 150 years after he invented it.

The movie is framed as though the boy is purely feral because that is what Dr. Itard believed. But anybody who has spent time with or knows an autistic child immediately can see the autism evident in the need for order. I am sure that in the reality that this is based on, the boy's parents did intentionally abandon him at about age 3 or 4 and probably tried to kill him when it became clear that he was "different". Throughout the movie there is tremendous pressure on Dr. Itard to institutionalize the boy and stop therapy. If Dr. Itard ran the show, I think the history of mental health services in the U.S. and Europe would be far different and more enlightened than it is. I know this was filtered through the 1970's when the movie was made. But overall I was very impressed by Dr. Itard's conviction that the boy was intelligent and would respond to therapy and I was very impressed that he singlehandedly invenetd ABA therapy in the absence of any support from his professional peers.

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Thanks for the heads up about Wild Boy by Jill Dawson, onlybegottenson88. I put it into my Amazon queue to check out later.

Thanks for your thoughtful response, susannah-keegan, about the relationship between the findings of the doctor in L' Enfant sauvage and current therapies and attitudes about autism. There are many points in history where someone almost made a breakthrough but then got distracted or didn't interpret their results "correctly". Luckily, the real Dr. Itard was trained in the scientific method. He knew enough to write down everything he observed whether or not he thought it'd be useful at that time. That allows modern people to get information that went over the head of Dr. Itard. I'm glad François Truffaut had no clue about autism. Otherwise, the movie may have come across preachy.

In the early 1800s, most common people were quite superstitious. So any child not wholly normal could be seen as a curse or bad omen. I wouldn't even be surprised if it was l'enfant sauvage's village who pressured the parents to "get rid of him" before he brought bad luck to the community. Maybe the father tried to slit Victor's throat but couldn't go through with it after all. By some miracle, the child survived instead of dying in the elements.


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Would that be the early 1800s in France or the US where most common people were superstitious? The statement doesn't fit the early days of the US so you might mean France.

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skiddoo
Would that be the early 1800s in France or the US where most common people were superstitious? The statement doesn't fit the early days of the US so you might mean France.


I would say people were equally superstitious and fearful of non-normal things around the world. Some still are. Most of the writing we have from this time period is from the educated class, a small minority in any country.

The rise of public education, starting in the mid to late 1800s, is the only thing that has kept general ignorance down. More people are likely to be familiar with a wide range of topics, like autism and birth abnormalities.

Unfortunately, in the US, public education is being starved for political reasons. That means less people are well educated. So 100 years from now, who knows, human kind may have degenerated back to ignorance and fear. Or at least inhabitants from the USA.



No two persons ever watch the same movie.

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He displays many symptoms of autism- body rocking & other repetitious movements, insensitivity to noise and most especially the throwing of tantrums whenever order is disrupted. Makes me wonder if the filmmaker had autism in mind when he made this.

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Another clue that (the real) Victor was autistic is that he endured extreme weatherconditions/ cold and hunger, and only went to the villages/ city when he absolutely had to, when it got too cold etc.

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"Well, I'm sure your knowledge of bullsh:t is limitless"

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There are several hints about Victor being an autistic child, but obviously it cannot be proven.
There is also another theory that sounds interesting, according to anthropologists human beings and the big apes (such as chimps, orangutans, gorillas) can learn a number of complex activities IF they are taught when they are still young enough (in human beings up to 10-12 years-old). I.e. Chimps can learn how to use tools at the early stages of their lifes. But if they don't learn it when they are still young enough, then they never will learn how to use those same tools later, no matter how hard you try to teach them.
Something similar happens to human beings: language, certain behavioral patterns, complex abstract thinking, etc. if they aren't taught during the first 10-12 years of life, most likely that person never will learn that.

One of the theories about what happened to Victor is that he was abandoned when he was perhaps 3 or 4 years-old and since then he lived literally like an animal. If that was the case, Victor was too young to retain the things he could have learnt and when rescued he was already too old to learn it.

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It's an intriguing question that we will probably never be able to answer definitely, but I'm with most of the posters here who say Victor was perhaps autistic and abandoned by his parents rather than being "feral."

This is a beautifully shot film that is both entertaining and informative. 8/10 stars from me.

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