Famous People with Aspergers!

Post Reply New Topic

I looked up famous people with Asperger's syndrome. If any of these are correct, I was actually quite surprised about who was on the list! It's nice to know how successful autistics can be.


Nevermind. People hated the link.



-NovaBat

Last edited by NovaBat on 06 Jan 2009, 12:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks for the link. It made me feel much better knowing how successful I can be. My bf was even impressed by who was on the list.

It's always dicey to DX someone who's dead.
Mozart, for instance, was a fascinating man who presented some very odd character traits. It's difficult to label him.
Another one who has always interested me is Edgar Allen Poe. It's acknowledged that he was an alcoholic, yet he was a prolific author in a time before any mechanization of the process. His imagery is iconic, and the details of his life are heart breaking. But was he AS? Or did he have Temporal Lobe epilepsy? Schzoid personality? It's impossible to say.

You're being too quick to accept that list. I know for a fact none of them have had any official diagnosis, it's just a bunch of people running around saying ''OMG LOOK HE FOCUSED ON SOMETHING AUTISM?!11?''

I mean, seriously. Jane Austen...Jane bloody Austen? She lived centuries ago...

I am not taking it for face value.

Did I ever say I accepted it? No. What I DID say was that if it IS correct, then it's nice to know. I never said "Oh! They're all Asperger's!" now, did I?

Please, you came across harsh, and I'm having a really bad day. I'm annoyed.

I feel really bad. I'm always being yelled at online, like I'm stupid or offensive. What did I do wrong?

..I'm beginning to feel sorry I posted this...


-NovaBat

Well I'm sorry that you took it as a personal attack.

No, I'm not concerned over you. Rather I'm ranting about how many people are so quick to jump the gun and start diagnosing left and right.

Oh okay. Sorry. I tend to take things personally, and as I initially said, I'm having a really bad day emotionally.


-NovaBat

Hi NovaBat,

Sorry you're having such a bad day. I (unlike that guy) understand that this is a rough list and that the people on the list could have had Asperger's. Although I find it hard to believe that Jane Austen had Asperger's... However, NovaBat, that is absolutely no insult to you.

P.S Bats are seriously cool and I love your avatar.

Thanaks for the compliment. Bats definitely are cool.

I just feel bad about myself now, that I didn't catch that in the list. I guess I didn't think, but instead, just posted. I lack the ability to think logically sometimes.



-NovaBat

I think it's pointless to discuss wether anyone of them "really" had autism or any other criteria-based condition.(meaning that having the traits is the same as having the condition)

However it's very encouraging to know that creative geniuses are rarely anything close to "normal".

Oh here it comes. Now I'm going to be made out to be the bad guy as people attempt to show how nice and frendly they are by attacking how BAD and EVUL I was.

Thanks for subscribing to that train. I advise you to read two posts above next time.

I read an interestnig book called Irish Geniuses and Asperger's Syndrome by Prof. Michael Fitzgerald and another author.

It's an interesting read in that it shows some famous Irish personalities through the lens of AS. I'd be a bit skeptical about the criteria used to make the diagnoses and even some of the facts presented about the people's lives. It's impossible to make a fully accurate diagnosis for a dead person, but that being said, at least some of the people in these 'famous autistics' lists must have been on the spectrum. I find it inspirational. Like reading about poor people who become millionaires.

I think the thing about these types of 'list' is that they do show that 'sideways' thinking is not altogether a bad thing to be doing no matter who's doing it or why. Whether the individuals are autistic or just plain insane really isn't material.

I think the thing about these types of 'list' is that they do show that 'sideways' thinking is not altogether a bad thing to be doing no matter who's doing it or why. Whether the individuals are autistic or just plain insane really isn't material.

As the original link is now gone, it's hard to comment on it specifically.

But I've seen several lists out there of famous people suspected to have had AS/HFA. Some on these lists I'd agree with. Others, I am very skeptical about. It seems that many of these assume everyone who's ever had a personality quirk or written a book from a socially left-of-center point of view must therefore be AS. Many of these people - especially those no longer alive - all we have is theory and speculation. We'll never really know.

On the other hand, by sheer laws of probability, there are likely plenty of famous people from our planet. There are definitely some contemporaries who very much fit the profile. Why more don't come out and confirm it? For one thing, there are a lot of people out there with AS who don't know it. That could well go for Hollywood as well.

Then there's the stigma factor, and as we all know, groups like Autism Speaks make us all out to be Jerry's Kids. Would Bill Gates' board of directors take him less seriously if he were officially diagnosed AS? Would Daryl Hannah never get another acting gig if she were diagnosed and 'out?' Maybe she would, but then would she stop being Daryl Hannah and start being shoved under a microscope as "That actress with Asperger's?"

I imagine AS as being the new gay in Hollywood; "Will coming out of the Asperger's closet hurt, help, or not affect my career? And do I really want to take that chance?"

Just a random collection of thoughts on the subject.

- Jo

Absolutely ! ! It has occured to me that most of the men who started their own automobile manufacturing business were far from "normal". People never mention Henry Ford as a possible ASpie, but he was quite eccentric.