Chicago Med's Dr. Latham self diagnosis with Aspergers

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Chicago Med Season 2 Recap: Episode 11 – Graveyard Shift

I can not think of a another character self diagnosing off hand

The original post way oversimplified things

Dr. Latham is played by Ato Essandoh. The character is a black practicing Orthodox Jew. I may be wrong but I think Dr. Latham is the first black autistic character on a network TV show if not anywhere. The episode is titled "Graveyard Shift"

SPOILER ALERT
Dr. Latham apparently asked Dr. Charles Chief Of Psychiatry at Chicago Med played by Oliver Platt for some material on Autism. Dr. Charles showed Dr. Latham a video of two women friends. One women has stolen the other women's boyfriend. The women whose boyfriend was stolen had said she was fine with it. Dr. Latham failing to read the sarcasm is befuddled by this apparent acceptance. After Dr. Latham tells Dr. Charles he read the materials and has concluded he is on the spectrum. Dr. Charles responds he is pretty sure Dr. Latham is right. Latham asks Charles what options there are to fix what is wrong with him. Charles said there is nothing wrong just different wiring and lists options and in passing mentions an Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation(TMS). The machine for that is in the hospital. Latham says he will research TMS.

A patient of Dr. Latham dies but he is not allowed to inform and console the family. Latham is angry and befuddled and asks colleague to find out why. She is told that Latham is considered a robot and a creep. The colleague tells Latham that he lacks emotional Intelligence and Latham thanks her for her honesty.

Latham asks Charles to get approval have the TMS done. Dr. Charles tries to dissuade him saying the effects are temporary, the FDA has not approved it for autism. Latham saying he has been blind his whole life is not persuaded and the treatment is approved and given that night. Latham is reshown the video of the two women and picks up on the sarcasm and is shown later appearently reading non verbal language of children in the hospital nursery.

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 31 Jan 2017, 3:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

"black practicing Orthodox Jew" - and autistic as well? Intersectionality is a bloody godsend to editors who think it would be practical to merge characters in a story, but sometimes it gets a little......I mean, what?

You do realize that there are autistic black Orthodox Jews out there, right? And that they deserve media representation just as much as anyone else? People can fit into more than one category. The default existence isn't a straight, white, neurotypical, more-or-less Christian, with cool divergences added on editors' whims.

On a side note, I didn't think Asperger syndrome was still diagnosed. But in the most recent episode of Chicago Med, Dr. Latham reiterated that he'd been diagnosed with it.

It is TV they can do anything. More seroiusly the DSM 5 is a guideline. Clinictions do not lose thier license if they fail to follow it.

Spoiler Alert
I have mixed feelings about about this weeks episode.
The Good:
Besides him bieng black Dr. Latham is not another version of Sheldon. While he thinks getting diagnosed was a good thing he does not like his autism and the negative reaction of others to his traits is realistic. It also showed him "coming out" to a colleague. So his charactor is an significant expansion in Autism representation.

The Bad:
Autism is again basically represented by social deficits. No sensory sensitivities or repetive behaviors. And progress is him going to a bar.

The Caveat
Only two episides so far so plenty of time for other aspects of autism to be shown.

Yup. I know there are black jews out there, and I figure a lot of them would be orthodox. And some of those must be autistic as well. BUT what I have a problem with is something that is happening a lot in literature, which I figure happens in tv shows as well; a writer is told by their editor that he's got too many characters in his story, and can he please try to merge a couple of characters? What you end up with is firstly a story that doesn't flow naturally, and secondly, it tends to result in having a bunch of characters that are 'normal' and understand each other well, and one or two characters that end up representing every minority problem in the known universe.

So if the show is really good at depicting Latham's feelings about being a minority within a minority, it could be really good. Is it?