Foreman is classic neurologist. Either they treat you like an idiot, convince you're making up/are cured from what ever brain cooties you have, are perpetually late, and have the WORST time dealing with educated patients. Like, how dare someone know all the ways a med works? Is it because they're making it up??

And no medical school in the country right now does anything good at ALL with autism. There were 3 nursing schools that DID, but not anymore to my knowledge.

Since I had House 'pegged' as autistic spectrum from 1st episode I saw, I'll continue to believe he's Aspie until they come up with satisfactory reasons that he isn't (and being a jerk isn't one, lots of aspies are jerks).

But, man, I thought they'd have outed someone from the Bones cast first...(Yeah, my roommate and I spend quality time autie-spotting characters on TV)

I loved this episode, especially the "eating the red berries" scene. I have 2 autistic children, and though I would watch this show no matter what, I was a bit more invested in this ep than other eps. I thought it was very realistic, and Foreman's reaction was pretty typical of how exasperated medical people get with trying to run tests on a child whose worst nightmare is people in white coats trying to hold him down!

But didn't they outright state that they know House doesn't actually have Asperger's, even if he has a few traits in common?

Anyway, here's an entry discussing whether or not the spores thing is true. I vote no:

http://throwingthings.blogspot.com/2006_09_24_throwingthings_archive.html#115932951887711756

Wilson told House he didn't have AS to keep him from leaning on it like he leans on vicodin. House can be an amazing excuse-seeker. He eventually faces reality, but it takes him time.

I thought the show handled the child's autism well, and loved the "circle" conversation where House concludes the child is really lucky, not to be pitied.

Mom and wife to aspies.

I've got to agree with Anya. The boy "recognized" House - my son is autistic, and he "recognizes" others on the spectrum easily. He says they're "like me".

As far as Foreman snatching the PSP away from the boy -he is a NEUROLOGIST and as such should be fully trained in how to work with an autistic person - it IS a NEURObiological condition, after all. Unless he is a complete a** (which he CAN be, admittedly), he would never have treated the child that way.

I'm pretty sure they came to the conclusion House has Aspergers (not 'is a victim of' or 'suffers from', HAS. Or IS ASPIE. Over 99% of adults on the autism spectrum get pissy about victim/suffer). Otherwise Cuddy wouldn't have put back the carpet.

Wilson was challenging him. House couldn't LIE and say 'yes that's exactly it, thank you for pointing out the error of my ways', for some reason arguing is seen as admitting guilt by neurotypicals (that's most if not all y'all), and something tangental is pretty much the option he had. It was a very Aspie thing to say, too.

And the kid knew...takes one to know one.

-Autistic adult

That spores thing was...bizarre. I'm a native Northern Californian (yes, SF earthquake country!) and I never heard of such a thing in my life. I especially never got inappropriately horny after a quake, even the Big One, even when I was jailbait. It did sound like something he made up.

I did find it interesting how they managed to balance House's skeeziness (i.e. he ain't totally averse to jailbait...) and yet still get him out of the situation somehow. I guess if the spores thing is real that is more of an "excuse" than if he just bullshitted. On the other hand, I'd respect him more if he bullshitted. Oh well, this is House and he's supposed to be King Asshole anyway.

Regarding toys given to doctors by patients:
(a) Wilson LET him throw that out?
(b) I was just waiting for House to throw out the autistic kid's game after that scene. Then again, House might just keep it and play with it during a meeting with Cuddy or something.

Still baffled on the carpet thing.

I thought House's approach to the autistic kid was interesting- half "Hey, he's free of social constraints, that's awesome" and half "Those poor parents's lives are such hell, maybe they want to kill him." I have a friend who has two autistic kids and she kind of wishes she hadn't had them (or at least the second one, which is a lot worse off than the first and makes it harder to deal with the first). Too bad she doesn't watch television, I wonder what she would have thought of this episode.

J-Sim,

I definitely don't think that Cuddy is being 100% serious at all, but we all know that on a show like this, what people say is just as important as what they're not saying - or why they are saying it. Or not.

Agreed on the Cameron-House situation. I think it has some potential for conflict, or at least some curious conversations.

Yeah, House did say something about Cuddy being "busy" with Wilson at one point, so there's always something shady going on here.

You've got to pay a little more attention to this show if you think Cuddy's comments were serious. Just the same dry humor thrown back at them. Not to say that there may not be some underlying truth there.

It also seemed obvious to me that House had sent Wilson to Cuddy with the Asperger's Syndrome reference since immediately afterwards we see Wilson tell House that he doesn't have Asperger's.

I'm interested to see the next turn in the Cameron-House dynamic. She keeps trying to understand him while he has her sit by him on Wilson's desk and House also asks why she can't be like the 17 year old girl that stalks him.