edspr<strong>in</strong>g could sound like f<strong>in</strong>gernails scrap<strong>in</strong>g across a blackboard. To rema<strong>in</strong> stable, Markram believed, you’d have to regulate your life to <strong>the</strong> fullest extent possible, develop<strong>in</strong>g a rigorous focus on detail and repetition. Oliver Sacks wrote that autistic people, as an adaptation to an “un<strong>in</strong>hibited barrage of sensation,” often needed to create a world of <strong>the</strong>ir own, one that was calm and orderly. Some autistic people fashioned this world between <strong>the</strong>ir ears, but Knight built it amid <strong>the</strong> trees. And yet accord<strong>in</strong>g to Stephen M. Edelson, <strong>the</strong> executive director of <strong>the</strong> Autism Research Institute, <strong>in</strong> San Diego, Knight’s behavior, however autistic-seem<strong>in</strong>g, did not rise to <strong>the</strong> level of autism spectrum disorder. Edelson believed that given <strong>the</strong> opportunity to meet with Knight, few experienced doctors would deem him autistic. Knight’s ability to plan and coord<strong>in</strong>ate his life, to survive for so long completely on his own without <strong>the</strong>rapy or treatment, is extremely uncharacteristic of an autistic person. Ca<strong>the</strong>r<strong>in</strong>e Lord, a professor of psychology at Weill Cornell Medic<strong>in</strong>e, <strong>in</strong> New York, said that even <strong>the</strong> most autistic adult or child she’d ever encountered usually had someone <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir lives <strong>the</strong>y would like to be around. Many autistic people desire contact and hugs but don’t know when it’s appropriate. “For every autistic trait he has,” said Peter Deri, a cl<strong>in</strong>ical psychologist <strong>in</strong> private practice <strong>in</strong> New York, “he has traits that are <strong>the</strong> anti<strong>the</strong>sis. Autistic people don’t steal. <strong>The</strong>y’re not crim<strong>in</strong>als.” Knight exhibited none of <strong>the</strong> repetitive movements or recurrent speech patterns typical of those with ASD. Ano<strong>the</strong>r idea proffered by <strong>the</strong> state psychologist who did exam<strong>in</strong>e Knight was schizoid personality disorder. This is not <strong>the</strong> same th<strong>in</strong>g as schizophrenia, <strong>in</strong> which people characteristically lose contact with reality and often experience halluc<strong>in</strong>ations and delusional th<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g. Schizoid personality is similar to autism <strong>in</strong> that people with ei<strong>the</strong>r disorder rarely have close relationships and tend to be logical th<strong>in</strong>kers. Those with autism, however, often want friends but f<strong>in</strong>d human social <strong>in</strong>teraction too <strong>in</strong>comprehensible. People with schizoid personality disorder prefer to be solitary. <strong>The</strong>y lack any general <strong>in</strong>terest to be with o<strong>the</strong>rs, even sexually. <strong>The</strong>y know <strong>the</strong> social rules but have decided not to follow <strong>the</strong>m; <strong>the</strong>y are <strong>in</strong>different to everyone else. Jill Hooley, <strong>the</strong> head of <strong>the</strong> cl<strong>in</strong>ical psychology program at Harvard University, felt that Knight’s behavior was consistent with many of <strong>the</strong> features of schizoid personality disorder. <strong>The</strong>re are good arguments why Knight both could and could not be diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder. <strong>The</strong> evidence showed that he was apa<strong>the</strong>tic to people, <strong>in</strong> a schizoid way, but his <strong>in</strong>ability to <strong>in</strong>teract naturally with o<strong>the</strong>rs and his hypersensitivity to sensory changes seemed classically autistic. “<strong>The</strong> temptation to label Knight is so great,” said Peter Deri. “Was he depressed? Was he schizoid? Bipolar? Are <strong>the</strong>re Aspergian traits?” Maybe <strong>the</strong>re’s a bra<strong>in</strong> abnormality—a damaged amygdala, a shortage of oxytoc<strong>in</strong>, an imbalance of endorph<strong>in</strong>s. Stephen M. Edelson suggested several syndromes before giv<strong>in</strong>g up and quipp<strong>in</strong>g, “I diagnose him as a hermit.” “Noth<strong>in</strong>g makes complete sense,” said Deri. “<strong>The</strong> complexity of this guy is so puzzl<strong>in</strong>g, you could go anywhere diagnostically. <strong>The</strong>re has to be grandiosity to go through with a plan like that, it is so exceptional. Knight is like a Rorschach card. He really is an object for everyone to project onto.” Knight expressed little <strong>in</strong>terest <strong>in</strong> his diagnosis. “I only learned about Asperger’s here <strong>in</strong> jail. It’s just a label slapped on a set of behaviors.” He admitted that <strong>the</strong>rapy might benefit him, but was adamant that any disorder assigned to him not be used as an excuse for his crimes. He said he was tak<strong>in</strong>g no medications. “I don’t want to be <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> position of victim. It’s not my nature. <strong>The</strong>re’s not much, from what I’ve read, that I can do about my diagnosis. I don’t th<strong>in</strong>k I’ll be a spokesman for <strong>the</strong> Asperger’s telethon. Do <strong>the</strong>y still
do telethons? I hate Jerry Lewis.”
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Also by Michael Finkel True Story:
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Contents Cover Also by Michael Fink
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In memory of Eileen Myrna Baker Fin
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1 The trees are mostly skinny where
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2 Terry Hughes’s wife nudges him
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eyes, and trains the .357 square in
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down, hands still locked behind his
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truth. Anything else would be wasti
- Page 23 and 24: “I took no medications and never
- Page 25 and 26: Or them. Nobody knew. Because of th
- Page 27 and 28: North Pond hermit, it turns out, wa
- Page 29 and 30: 7 I learned about Christopher Knigh
- Page 31 and 32: 8 A white envelope arrived in my ma
- Page 33 and 34: against the rules of journalism. I
- Page 35 and 36: 9 Augusta, Maine, is picturesque bu
- Page 37 and 38: East accent. I plowed awkwardly on.
- Page 39 and 40: 10 Knight lived in the same campsit
- Page 41 and 42: Knight, matching him step for step.
- Page 43 and 44: He’d spread a carpet over the mag
- Page 45 and 46: It was the kind of total quiet that
- Page 47 and 48: to the nature of the electromagneti
- Page 49 and 50: something. Chris was smart and frie
- Page 51 and 52: 13 But why? Why would a twenty-year
- Page 53 and 54: including Charles Darwin, Thomas Ed
- Page 55 and 56: 14 Knight actually did have a plan.
- Page 57 and 58: the sorts of places where it’s ne
- Page 59 and 60: their canoe has been borrowed and r
- Page 61 and 62: 16 Knight lived in the dirt but was
- Page 63 and 64: he was famished for words, he’d s
- Page 65 and 66: Knight had a strong distaste for bi
- Page 67 and 68: Knight’s camp. He began observing
- Page 69 and 70: 18 The only book Knight didn’t st
- Page 71 and 72: my winter toilet. Do my business. T
- Page 73: pen name. “Human society has been
- Page 77 and 78: fed her, but with Knight she had no
- Page 79 and 80: 21 A thousand poets sing of solitud
- Page 81 and 82: “psychologically completely out o
- Page 83 and 84: 22 Snow melted, flowers bloomed, in
- Page 85 and 86: changes is where the brain is funct
- Page 87 and 88: His thieving raids became considera
- Page 89 and 90: to sing, with his food supplies nea
- Page 91 and 92: inherited from her mother, and a co
- Page 93 and 94: 25 A side door to the jail swings o
- Page 95 and 96: Jail, he’s realized, might not be
- Page 97 and 98: 26 Chris’s oldest brother, Daniel
- Page 99 and 100: That note, thirty-four words long,
- Page 101 and 102: the bright side. The sun will come
- Page 103 and 104: 28 A mile down the road, I pull ove
- Page 105 and 106: It’s now just a spot in the woods
- Page 107 and 108: For insight into Knight: Matt Hongo
- Page 109 and 110: Annette Schipf Chris Anderson David
- Page 111 and 112: David and Louise Proulx, whose tiny
- Page 113 and 114: A Note About the Author Michael Fin