ABSTRACT
Extraordinary abilities are sometimes found in people who, overall, function at a mentally handicapped level. This unevenness between different aspects of intelligence contributes to, but cannot alone explain, the ‘savant’ phenomenon, so carefully studied by Hermelin and O’Connor. These authors suggest that giftedness among people in general, for example in mathematics, music and drawing, while not necessarily tied to general intelligence, usually depends on an overall high intellectual level of outstanding achievements, but that extraordinary feats, for example in calendrical calculations, musical reproduction or artistic products, are performed by some people with autism who function overall at quite a low ability level. The reason for describing the savant phenomenon among autistic people is that very similar exceptional abilities, but without associated general intellectual impairment, are also seen in schizoid children and adults. Most were entirely healthy and the notion, then current, that intellectual achievement is promoted by psychic distress was clearly incorrect.
