History’s shaming fascination for the so-called ‘idiot savant’

October 9, 2025

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1 min read

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Aeon

The convergence of singular talent and profound disability confounded scientists eager to place humans into neat categories

On 25 November 1915, the American newspaper The Review published the extraordinary case of an 11-year-old boy with prodigious mathematical abilities. Perched on a hill close to a set of railroad tracks, he could memorise all the numbers of the train ... [25780 chars]

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