What about the Good Doctor and community? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
This is the show I probably resonate with the most.
Shaun Murphy is a brilliant surgeon on the spectrum who has a special gift of envisioning different ways to do surgery. When he enters “vision mode” he stares up and you get to see different parts of the body flowing together in his mind. After that, he comes out and he has the solution to the problem.
While that is always fascinating, what is most fascinating is getting to see Shaun grow as a person in the show. At first, the doctors either don’t want him to perform, or they handle him with kid gloves. The exception is a mentor figure he has in the show who has known him for years, Dr. Glassman.
Shaun learns from the staff and from his patients that come in. While he is brilliant in medicine, he is constantly struggling in social relationships. He asks those around him regularly what he should do in a certain situation.
The biggest part that reaches me is when he finds love and yes, winds up getting married in the show. He marries a neurotypical girl who takes the time to understand him and his condition. She is a perfect complement to him and when I see them together, it leaves me thinking about what I really want to have someday.
At times, Shaun does have breakdowns when things get hectic for him. I am thankful that I am not one who has this struggle, at least not in the sense that I tend to share it externally. Fortunately, his lady and Dr. Glassman are often both there to help him through these struggles.
At times, Shaun is often blunt and can see only the data and miss the emotional connection that his patients often need. This is again, something that he grows in throughout the show. I am not done with the whole series yet, but eventually, he even gets put in charge of other doctors under him and has to learn how to be a manager.
The big thing about this is community. As a seminary student, I find myself often communicating with others around me trying to understand. If I want to understand more about women, I will often go to women on the campus I know who are either married or in committed relationships. I will go to my professors to pick their brains on various topics and many I now consider not just my professors, but my friends as well.
Community is absolutely essential. As I am in therapy, my interest in gaming is something I point back to and my theme in therapy now is the theme to Final Fantasy IX, a song called A Place To Call Home. Home is where you are accepted just as you are and people do understand your silly little quirks, but also want to see you grow and succeed on your journey.
Friends are great, but of course, the real hope is to find a special lady again someday. When I see Shaun with his, it does develop in me a longing for the same. I am fine with a neurotypical girl provided she does understand that she’s marrying a man who is rather odd in many of his ways.
Well, that concludes my look for now at Hollywood and Autism. We’ll see what next week brings.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)
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