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Nominate a famous person you think may be on the spectrum

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SendInTheClowns
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19 Nov 2024, 10:08 pm

My nomination is Rassie Erasmus, a name very famous in international rubgy and currently the coach of the best rubgy team in the world, the most successful coach the Springboks in Sth Africa has ever had, and the most "quirky".

I often watch his summaries of various international games on You Tube and noticed that he stims every minute of them - sometimes by constantly tapping his face; more often by unusual repetive movements with his tongue and licking his lips.

I have read his autobiography, where he gives a lot of space to describing the unusual and unexplained "weirdness" of his (deceased) father - an interesting study IMO of an unaware, undiagnosed AS man, in an era when this was rarely recognised.

Rassie has also talked about relying sometimes on hunches/intuitions he gets about how a particular game will play out - and builds strategies around those for his team rather than sticking only to the conventional coach strategies. (This information isn't in his autobiography, but from descriptions written by others).

However that he's on the spectrum is only my own opinion. I'm a huge fan of his abilities and achievement in World Rugby.



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21 Nov 2024, 2:40 am

Karl Pilkington

If you have any doubts, listen to Ricky Gervais's XFM radio show from the early 00's on Youtube.



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21 Nov 2024, 3:32 am

SendInTheClowns wrote:
My nomination is Rassie Erasmus, a name very famous in international rubgy and currently the coach of the best rubgy team in the world, the most successful coach the Springboks in Sth Africa has ever had, and the most "quirky".

I often watch his summaries of various international games on You Tube and noticed that he stims every minute of them - sometimes by constantly tapping his face; more often by unusual repetive movements with his tongue and licking his lips.

I have read his autobiography, where he gives a lot of space to describing the unusual and unexplained "weirdness" of his (deceased) father - an interesting study IMO of an unaware, undiagnosed AS man, in an era when this was rarely recognised.

Rassie has also talked about relying sometimes on hunches/intuitions he gets about how a particular game will play out - and builds strategies around those for his team rather than sticking only to the conventional coach strategies. (This information isn't in his autobiography, but from descriptions written by others).

However that he's on the spectrum is only my own opinion. I'm a huge fan of his abilities and achievement in World Rugby.


Thank you for sharing that, and I think you are correct. There is asperger's as I perceive it in my life, but also "Ferocious Asperger's," for the big Movers & Shakers in this world, like your Rassie, and certain CEOs, and world leaders.

I think high extroversion + high energy levels + asperger's can be a successful mix in social environments. That creates a kind of Teflon personality, where nothing sticks, and even though NTs find fault in the individual for not adhering to all of the NT norms, he just keeps forging ahead and keeps on going and going. Bottom line, what people care about are results, and to the extent the aspie delivers, no one cares about stimming, those things become "charming eccentricities."


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SendInTheClowns
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21 Nov 2024, 5:21 pm

I would also put Spike Milligan right up there on the spectrum. This name will be more familiar to the older members of WP. He lived in an era where Aspergers would never have been connected with his very considerable and multiple talents. Best known for his part in the UK radio program "The Goon Show", his talents were much more far ranging than that. Eventually he was worn out, and (I think) collapsed into what (seems to me) to have been autistic burnout..



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21 Nov 2024, 6:01 pm

This has been confirmed but...Satoshi Tajiri creator of Pokemon!! !

And possibly Stephen Hillenburg creator of SpongeBob SquarePants!



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22 Nov 2024, 11:43 am

I am going to nominate somebody I have rarely seen mentioned as Autistic, the late Amy Winehouse.

She had no filter, little or no concept of her stardom, and was often easily taken advantage of.


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22 Nov 2024, 11:49 am

Leonardo DiCaprio

1. The environment seems to be his hyper focus
2. He goes to parties but likes space in quiet areas
3. He has admitted that he has social problems
4. He only dates younger women



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22 Nov 2024, 1:24 pm

If I were a famous person I wouldn't want people to "nominate" or speculate about me being autistic. I would like being open about it or not to be my decision.


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22 Nov 2024, 1:54 pm

BillyTree wrote:
If I were a famous person I wouldn't want people to "nominate" or speculate about me being autistic. I would like being open about it or not to be my decision.

If you choose to be famous rightly or wrongly you should not expect much privacy.

I do have a problem with people making blanket declarations sans evidence that this celebrity or this historical figure is or was Autistic. That is not an issue in this thread as it is labeled speculative.

This type of thing is a problem if a person thinks they are special like the person they are speculating about or diagnosing and the only reason they are not successful in life is mean NT’s

A good use of this type of speculation is to realize that Autistic traits doesn't doom one to a lifetime of failure.


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22 Nov 2024, 2:20 pm

Summer_Twilight wrote:
Leonardo DiCaprio

1. The environment seems to be his hyper focus
2. He goes to parties but likes space in quiet areas
3. He has admitted that he has social problems
4. He only dates younger women


No way! He is way too successful with dating to be autistic.



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22 Nov 2024, 2:29 pm

Clinical Neuropsychiatry, Vol. 12-2015 pages 73-76

Journal article hypothesizing that Syd Barrett (founding member of Pink Floyd) might have had Asperger's instead of Schizophrenia.



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22 Nov 2024, 2:32 pm

ASPartOfMe wrote:
BillyTree wrote:
If I were a famous person I wouldn't want people to "nominate" or speculate about me being autistic. I would like being open about it or not to be my decision.

If you choose to be famous rightly or wrongly you should not expect much privacy.

I do have a problem with people making blanket declarations sans evidence that this celebrity or this historical figure is or was Autistic. That is not an issue in this thread as it is labeled speculative.

This type of thing is a problem if a person thinks they are special like the person they are speculating about or diagnosing and the only reason they are not successful in life is mean NT’s

A good use of this type of speculation is to realize that Autistic traits doesn't doom one to a lifetime of failure.

Good points.

But I think you meant to say "does not doom one to a lifetime of failure."



Last edited by Cornflake on 23 Nov 2024, 9:07 am, edited 1 time in total.: Corrected in the original, here, and in other quotes to "doesn't"

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22 Nov 2024, 2:44 pm

bee33 wrote:
ASPartOfMe wrote:
BillyTree wrote:
If I were a famous person I wouldn't want people to "nominate" or speculate about me being autistic. I would like being open about it or not to be my decision.

If you choose to be famous rightly or wrongly you should not expect much privacy.

I do have a problem with people making blanket declarations sans evidence that this celebrity or this historical figure is or was Autistic. That is not an issue in this thread as it is labeled speculative.

This type of thing is a problem if a person thinks they are special like the person they are speculating about or diagnosing and the only reason they are not successful in life is mean NT’s

A good use of this type of speculation is to realize that Autistic traits doesn't doom one to a lifetime of failure.

Good points.

But I think you meant to say "does not doom one to a lifetime of failure."

Correct.


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22 Nov 2024, 9:15 pm

The Kinks. All four of them.


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SendInTheClowns
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22 Nov 2024, 10:19 pm

ASPartOfMe wrote:
I am going to nominate somebody I have rarely seen mentioned as Autistic, the late Amy Winehouse.

She had no filter, little or no concept of her stardom, and was often easily taken advantage of.


Yes! She sang as if all her inner emotional capacity, sorrow, pain - her core self - was transformed into sound. I'm glad you nominated her, surprised now that it had never occurred to me before.



SendInTheClowns
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22 Nov 2024, 10:41 pm

ASPartOfMe wrote:
BillyTree wrote:
If I were a famous person I wouldn't want people to "nominate" or speculate about me being autistic. I would like being open about it or not to be my decision.

If you choose to be famous rightly or wrongly you should not expect much privacy.

I do have a problem with people making blanket declarations sans evidence that this celebrity or this historical figure is or was Autistic. That is not an issue in this thread as it is labeled speculative.

This type of thing is a problem if a person thinks they are special like the person they are speculating about or diagnosing and the only reason they are not successful in life is mean NT’s

A good use of this type of speculation is to realize that Autistic traits doesn't doom one to a lifetime of failure.


Thank you AsPartOfMe. I was created this thread in the hope that it might have that effect. As a whole, the autistic population is very unfairly depicted in only negative representation and the constant negativity is inaccurate and harmful.