What Defines You?

I read the following information in Visualizing Psychology, Chapter 8, Thinking, language, and intelligence:

The clinical label mentally retarded is applied when someone is significantly below average in intellectual functioning and has significant deficits in adaptive functioning (such as communicating, living independently, social or occupational functioning, or maintaining safety and health) (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).
Fewer than 3 percent of people are classified as having mental retardation. Of this group, 85 percent have only mild retardation and many become self-supporting, integrated members of society, furthermore, people can score low on some measures of intelligence and still be average or even gifted in others. The most dramatic examples are people with savant syndrome. Savant syndrome is a condition in which a person who has mental retardation exhibits exceptional skill or brilliance in some limited field.
An unusual form of intelligence, although people with savant syndrome score very low on IQ tests (usually between 40 and 70), they demonstrate exceptional skills or brilliance in specific areas, such as rapid calculation, art, memory, or musical ability.

It goes to show that before the naked eye, you may see what you believe is someone who is unable to use their mind due to the severety of their retardation to only find that what the eye cannot see is where the truth lies, A Brilliant Mind! The movie (Rainman) only depicts small findings of this precious disorder. What we cannot know is what the mind has in store, literally, and the fact is that the small percentage of people savant syndrome affects really do hold in their hands the secrets to the mind of a genius.