This is a list of people who are thought to have (or had) Aspergers, a mild form of autism:
http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/article_2086.shtml
You have to keep in mind that lists like this are usually compiled by people who themselves have Aspergers, or parents of people with Aspergers, so they want to claim as many accomplished people as possible, in order to provide inspirational "role models." (It's a little like listening to homosexuals talk about celebrities: they want to claim all the good-looking ones.)
The list linked above includes Thomas Jefferson, Michelangelo, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Isaac Newton, Beethoven, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, and Mozart, among others.
I looked up a few other similar lists, and many of the same names are included.
Some of the people obviously deserve inclusion on the lists. Nikola Tesla, for instance, was obsessive-compulsive, which people with Aspergers often are, and extremely rigid in his personal life.
But is there really enough known about Michelangelo and his personal life to make that diagnosis? And there was nothing about Benjamin Franklin, a famous ladies' man, to indicate that he was mildly autistic. He was a successful diplomat, a role it would be hard for someone with Aspergers to fill, and he had a sense of humor, which those with Aspergers notoriously lack. It was almost as if they wanted to include him merely because he was so accomplished.
Ditto for Mark Twain: he was known for his sly sense of humor and his insight into others; yet the defining characteristic of Aspergers is an inability to read other people. (I'm guessing Twain was diagnosed as such because he became increasingly reclusive in his old age, but this seemed to be a misanthropy borne of disenchantment and world-weariness rather than an organically asocial nature.)
On the other hand, the list of contemporary people mostly rings true. It has been widely speculated that Bill Gates may have Aspergers; he evidently rocks back and forth in meetings, an autistic trait, and he certainly fulfills the nerdiness quotient. Al Gore was widely described as a "wooden Indian" when he ran for President, his pronouncements certainly seems tone deaf enough, and he is awfully rigid in his world view, most notably when it comes to global warming.
Seeing Keith Olbermann's name on the list was a real "aha" moment. Suddenly his personality made sense to me. Olbermann was despised by his coworkers at ESPN, and his colleagues at MSNBC ended up feeling the same way. He is annoying, and extremely rigid in his thinking. And he is widely described, even by those on his side of the political fence, as "crazy," the most common word used by those who don't understand Aspergers to describe those who have it. I had always assumed he was just a garden variety narcissist, but there are aspects of Aspergers which overlaps with narcissism, most notably in the unwillingness to admit one is wrong. And most intelligent narcissists do a better job of hiding their narcissism than Olbermann does.
Take a look at the list; you may have some aha moments as well.
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5 comments:
John--After reviewing the list of people in the article who are speculated to having Aspergers, I hereby announce that I also have Aspergers. My own family members inform me that "I don't remember anything" and that I can somehow still get by in the world and in business, I must have this going on--latent till now. Interesting article. Thanks, Brian
Thanks Brian -- I don't think, by the way, that memory is an indicator of Aspergers, one way or the other. Although, now that I think of it, savants, who are full-fledged autistics, often have exceptionally good memories.
Robin Williams is on the list, but he seems more bipolar than autistic.
He could be bipolar, but I could also see him having Aspergers. He's definitely an awfully needy individual.
The one thing he's not is funny. He gets people to laugh by being manic and doing good impersonations, but if you ever read what he actually says, it's not funny at all.
Twain could not have had Aspergers because he was witty?!
The idea that people with Aspergers have no sense of humor or wit is completely false. Aspergers people are in fact known for a particular dry wit and sense humor that is appreciative of the absurd. Monty Python has a very Aspie sensibility about it. Michael Palin of Python himself has Aspergers. Ever heard of Andy Kaufman? Dan Akroyd has publicly acknowledged being diagnosed with Aspergers as a child.
People have to remember that Autism is a SPECTRUM. People with Aspergers obviously do not have the completely paralyzing limitations of people with very severe autism. And even the idea that people with severe autism are incapable of humor is unsubstantiated. You're conflating things like characteristic difficulty in real-time social interaction and limited use of facial expressions, for example, as an indication that Aspies can't perceive, appreciate, or create humor, and I can tell you first-hand that is just completely false.
You can't really take these gross descriptions of real-life phenomena like this, as an outsider, and extrapolate these kinds of things from them. Realize that the descriptions you're relying on to inform you are only approximations: They don't really capture the essence of the thing. For example there is a distinction between "can't" meaning "is incapable of" and "can't" meaning "is effectively prohibited because unease resulting from sensory overload". Clearly people with Aspergers *CAN* (literally) make eye contact with other people. However, for some to a greater degree than others, it can be quite difficult for complicated reasons beyond the scope of this quick reply... so that many typically avoid this. The layman (and even some professionals) read "can't" and they blow this out of proportion in a way that makes the Aspergers person seem much less relatable and "less human" than they actually are. And this is very unfortunate. Such superficial descriptions lead to real misunderstandings about who Aspies are, and what they experience, and they serve to stigmatize and perpetuate ignorance and objectification. I feel like this is kind of what you're doing here.
People with Aspergers are not dummies, insensitive, "slow", or backward. You cannot "talk over" them and patronize them like this. They are regular people with particular gifts, and particular challenges, as compared to the general norm.
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