Savants

The term savant is borrowed from the French as a derivative of the verb savoir, which means “to know.” Savant means “learned person” or “eminent scholar” and it has been in circulation in [Page 756]English with a similar meaning since the 1800s. Its first use as part of the phrase idiot savant is jointly attributed to John Langdon Down, the physician who also identified the genetic disorder known as Down syndrome, and to Alfred Binet, the inventor of first intelligence test. Down first used the term idiot savant in 1887 to describe 10 cases of extraordinary individuals whom he encountered during his 30 years as the superintendent of London's Earlswood Asylum. In 1905, Alfred Binet also used the term idiot savant to describe cognitively impaired persons who showed an outstanding ability in a specific area. Even before the term idiot savant was used, however, there had been descriptions of savant skills in the scientific literature. As early as 1783, a German psychology journal published a case study of Englishman Jedediah Buxton's mathematical calculating skills, and in 1789, Benjamin Rush, founder of U.S. psychiatry, published a case study of the extraordinary calculating ability of his patient, Thomas Fuller.

Down used the term idiot savant to describe individuals of low cognitive functioning who carried a then-common clinical label “idiot,” but who nevertheless possessed “savant” abilities in a certain area employing extraordinary memory. One of these cases was a cognitively disabled patient who could recite by heart Gibbon's enormous Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Down's original case studies have significance for our understanding of savant phenomena beyond their historical precedence; they also offer insight into the educational environment that may support savant talent. Earlswood Asylum under Down's leadership was an unusual place in an era when institutions served as holding facilities for the “feeble-minded,” as cognitively disabled persons were called then. The residents of Earlswood were systematically educated, their special abilities nurtured, and they were treated by the staff with respect and were considered family members. Under these relatively favorable conditions, an extraordinary craftsman, James Pullen, called the “Genius of Earlswood,” produced exquisite models and engravings of ships. In the United States, equally famous was Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins, a slave on a Georgia plantation, who in early childhood developed such an extraordinary musical talent that it brought him at age 11 to the White House to play the piano before President James Buchanan.

This entry describes the sociocultural context of savant ability, the nature and origins of savant skills, and future directions of savant research.