Kim Peek: The Incredible Case of the Man with Infinite Memory

The day of his death, Kim Peek spent all morning opening Christmas cards with Francis, his father, who was also his great friend. Kim did not suffer from any disease, nothing seemed to presage that that day his life would be extinguished forever. He had been with his family preparing gifts for such important dates.

That same December 19, a heart attack collapsed Kim to the ground.

Kim Peek: the case of the savant with a superhuman memory

Thus passed away Kim Peek, a man whose mind had astonished the world, whose story prompted a great movie.

His capabilities were so utterly implausible that even NASA, as well as multiple universities in the US. they studied in depth where such abilities came from. He had just turned 58 years old.

Birth

He was born in 1951. On the same day he was born, the doctors who delivered the baby told his parents that Kim suffered from severe mental retardation, who would very surely not allow him to walk, and they recommended that Kim be admitted to a center where they could treat him. However, Kim's parents were not happy with that idea.

He was diagnosed with macrocephaly, that is, a skull of abnormally large proportions, and his brain had no corpus callosum, the tissue that connects the two hemispheres of the brain and allows the exchange of information between cells. It is speculated that by lacking a corpus callosum, her neurons were creating her tissues without restraint, joining each other and forming a compact mass of connections capable of retaining up to 98% of everything she saw or heard.

Francis Peek, her father, used to say that, at the young age of one and a half years, Kim was able to memorize every book she was told. They moved Kim's finger over each phrase, while they spoke the sounds for Kim to learn. In this way, they came to realize how Kim she could remember a book after having read it only once. When he finished reading a book, Kim would turn him face down, as if that book was no longer necessary at all. That habit stayed with him throughout his life.

A difficult childhood

At the age of three, Kim asked her mother what the word "confidential" meant. Her mother, in order to encourage Kim, replied that she could look it up in the dictionary. From there, she learned to locate the words in alphabetical order to later read each of the meanings. During his life he read and memorized a total of nine thousand books. She calculated that she could read two pages in a span of 8 to 10 seconds, as she used her left eye to read the left page, while with her right eye she read the right page.

He was unable to walk until he was 4 years old. Even then he was captivated by numbers and arithmetic, he used to read telephone books and entertained himself adding whole columns of telephone numbers, and did the same with the digits of the license plates of the cars.

Adulthood, work life and fame

Starting in 1969, Kim worked in a special workshop for disabled adults. Simply with his mind, without calculators or computers, he was able to solve all the accounting for the company. However, his motor and coordination difficulties were weighing on his life. His father had to help him with everyday tasks like buttoning his shirt, tying his shoelaces... And although he had the ability to memorize almost with absolute precision any text he read, he could not interpret or draw conclusions from his readings.

In his book "The Real Rain Man", Francis Peek described his son in these terms: "Kim is not a autistic. In fact, his personality is warm and caring. Kim genuinely cares about people and enjoys sharing his unique abilities with them. His encyclopedic knowledge includes disciplines such as history, biographies, geography, sports, engineering, cinema... He also knows in depth the Bible, the history of the Mormon Church, the calendar (can guess dates), literature... He can identify almost any composition of classical music, as well as the dates and place of birth and death of the composer. In addition, he is kept informed about current events in the world and in the United States. "

Kim Peek, Dustin Hoffman and the unforgettable "Rain Man"

Many people will have seen the movie "Rain man", which was released in 1988 with Dustin Hoffman Y Tom cruise as protagonists. She was awarded four statuettes at the Oscars. However, few people know that Raymond Babbit's (Dustin Hoffman) character was actually inspired by Kim Peek.

It is a curious story: the writer Barry Morrow had finished, a few years before, a script for the film "Bill", about a man with mental retardation who had played the well-known actor Mickey Rooney. In this film the human side of people with mental retardation was shown, distancing themselves from certain clichés.

Because of his good work, Morrow was invited to a 1984 ACR Communications Committee conference in the state of Texas. Francis Peek, Kim's father, was Chairman of the Committee. Kim Peek and Morrow met, and spent several hours chatting. Kim stunned Morrow with her profound knowledge of every imaginable author and book, citing numerous facts. sports statistics, and "guessing what day of the week I was born, my birthday, and my 65th birthday," he recounted Morrow.

They also argued about the Civil War, the American Revolution, the great world wars... Morrow ended up writing a Kim Peek-inspired script, "Rain Man," which ultimately turned out to be a great movie.

The mythical movie about his life

In his preparation for the interpretation of Raymond Babbit, celebrated actor Dustin Hoffman met Kim and Francis Peek. They exchanged impressions on the British monarchy, the Bible, sports, dates, geographical points, films, literature ...

Hoffman spoke unforgettable words when he referred to Kim's talent, when he said "Maybe I am the star, but you Kim are the sky." Picking up the best actor statuette for his performance in "Rain Man," Hoffman mentioned during his speech, "I want to especially thank Kim Peek for making Rain Man a reality."

Since the great repercussion of the film, Kim Peek's life changed. His figure attracted the attention of journalists and television networks. He began to hold live lectures in which he interacted with the public. It is estimated that he met two million people, whom he amazed with his abilities.

His person was the subject of several documentaries and reports for Discovery Chanell, CNN, TLC and National Geographic, among others. Her father, Francis, related that thanks to all the attention Kim received, he grew as a person, gaining confidence in himself. Before public recognition, he rarely looked into the eyes of his interlocutors. But his fame helped her learn to interact and enjoy sharing with other people.