The patient needs to consent unless under very specific circumstances, which Chris does not fall under. That's not to say that it's unknown for healthcare workers to strongly recommend and/or coerce patients into consenting, but that's another issue.
Hey Chris, wanna know what it's like to be Sonichu?
i think they might've even told him the opposite - like, instead of telling him he was abnormal, they'd probably tell him that he was 'special'. like bob claiming that he was programming video games to the press (obviously bullshit) or that bit on the sweepstake news report where they claim that chris can 'master' any game within five minutes according to his father. there's probably more examples of stuff like that out there too.
i've always thought that chris considered 'high-functioning autistic' to mean that he was functioning on a level higher than everyone else, rather than actually recognizing it as a handicap. i do wonder if being surrounded by 'slow-in-the-minds' might give him some perspective, but it's more likely that he's doped up to fuck on thorazine and can't think much of anything right now.
Back in the 90s, some people really thought autism came with special gifts. Like photographic memory, or being a quick study at electronics, or the ability to play a song on an instrument after hearing it once. Some people on the spectrum do experience this kind of thing, but back then autists were treated like X-men with poor social skills, at least in pop culture. I’m sure Borb latched onto this as part of their denial, looking for Chris’s amazing abilities and insisting they were present long after it became clear he was a doydoy and needed to be in a school for likeminded people.
Back then, there were the "special kids", and then just the regular ol' bicycle helmet wearing, sitting in a wheelchair trying to bite their ear tards. Movies like Rainman made people with autism seem to, despite their handicap, have one or two exceptional traits. Then you have Chris. I think this was really a Barb thing, but you're right in that Chris was brought up that he was some sort of special person, that his disability really wasn't a disability because he was so creative. I think it was mostly Barb, the town's semen receptacle all her life, finally landing "the one" with Bob, who sired two really smart kids, and couldn't take having a tard baby.
I bet there was a ton of talk about how, well, at least half of Chris was Bob's "smart genes", and how Chris was really beyond those "normies". I recall reading Chris saying that his mother told him that he was just so creative when he'd get brain lock and couldn't figure stuff out, and it was just the fact he was getting crammed with so many creative ideas, his brain just shut down. It really did lead him onto this road of thinking himself to be some ubermensch, to the point where he'd talk down to people. I really think Barb tried hard to gaslight everybody about Chris, even to the point where they thought the head of Nintendo from Japan was talking to him about his creative art abilities. I mean, why wouldn't he? Bob's two kids are a celebrated mathematician and an eye doctor, obviously his third kid would be someone some worldwide gaming company would want to talk to.
A good example of this is his art. They look like something someone would draw when they were 8, ran to their parents, and their parents throwing up their hands in praise that this was the greatest thing since Renaissance painters. Once Chris reached that level, why would he need to try any harder? His crap doodles got the dopamine fix he wanted as is. By working harder, that's just useless work, and for what? It was perfect as is. Like how he'd never rehearse or do second takes for his videos.
What would his teachers do in high school when he was getting "mainstreamed"? Fight with the tard, or just praise and pass him so he wouldn't have to repeat a grade and another term stuck with him.
