Yes, Will in Hannibal has plenty of ASD symptoms; lack of eye contact, doesn't socialize [much], is ok with teaching as it's talking at people, isolated [but has dogs] and whatnot. That's ok.
However, his "ability" to see from the criminal's perspective is...blah. It's described as "high empathy" and a "really good imagination" in the very first episode -- obviously I'm not the only one here who sees that all three of those mentioned things are actually as far from AS as normal socializing is.... Being unable to "put yourself in someone's shoes" is an AS symptom; some even say it's the core symptom (some don't, but that's how important it is). Seriously, "high empathy?" Ha. An active imagination? Ha. They're some of big deficits [in] that are pointed out by Lorna Wing and Hans Asperger in their papers.
I have nothing wrong with someone with AS being super awesome at figuring out clues and details via deduction and pattern recognition -- a logical list that's followed, a super awesome attention to detail with objects..., say like Monk or Sherlock. That's closer to someone with AS than this perspective taking magical pixie dust ability (for someone with AS to have) they're attributing to AS in Hannibal for the character Will. An interest in murder, a head full of facts of past murders where someone compares and contrasts to come up with clues.... That's AS.
You got it wrong, creators. If you wanted an illness where someone was attributing feelings and the interpretation of such as the reasons for ability, you could have went to the magical thinking disorders that have similar social isolation and odd behaviors to AS (say, Schizotypal PD).
As I said, some of it's ok, but the bits that are wrong are some of the very core areas that define AS in comparison to other disorders.
It doesn't bother me [too much], but accuracy and all, especially when it's a named disorder that people actually have.
25 May 2013, 4:23 am
