Famous aspies

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Tolkien was almost certainly Aspie IMO... there was an article recently about a "savant" called Daniel Tammet, who invented his own language in which all words that were related by meaning were also related by sound, and was strongly infoluenced by Finnish and Estonian... which irresistibly reminded me of Tolkien's Elvish... there are also loads of other things, mostly to do with his extreme insistence on continuity between all his works and extremely over-descriptive attention to detail, that very strongly suggest AS to me...

HP Lovecraft was almost certainly Aspie as well IMO, for some similar reasons... i would be very interested to find out (and strongly suspect it is the case) if the character of Charles Dexter Ward was at least partly autobiographical...

Immanuel Kant and possibly Jean-Jacques Rousseau also both strike me as having had AS-ish tendencies...

It 's a book that talks all about famous Aspies-Thomas Jefferson, Einstein, Orson Wells, Mozart and many others. Unfortunately it doesn't have any recent or current celebs but still interesting.

No Duty To Retreat lists quite a few, including Tolkien and the guy from Mad Magazine. It's about the "spectrum" of autism, Tourette's, and OCD - very eccentric book, takes some strange viewpoints, but a must-read if you're interested in historical Aspies or the overlap between autism and its "cousins".

I wouldn't say he suffered. we don't suffer.

Nikola Tesla is believed to have been an aspie, and he is one of my favorite scientists.

Some people say Albert Einstein was an aspie, but I disagree. His autopsy revealed that he was missing his parietal operculum region (responsible for speech development -- Einstein started talking late to the extent that his parents thought he was ret*d) and that his inferior parietal lobe (responsible for mathematical thinking) had compensated by growing 15%. Asperger's Syndrome is merely an alternate form of brain wiring.

hmm...Buddha maybe?

Musician...Bob Geldoff maybe?

I wish I shared your optimism.

Which guy from Mad Magazine?

Me, optimistic? I' so flattered.

Buddha? Gosh. Why the Buddha?

____________________

It is only my own personal theory

Buddha

Was a prince with rights to the throne. He gave this up to become a hermit in search of truth. He was so focused on Truth that he spent his whole life contemplating it, disecting it and obbsessing over it.
He was constantly rejected for not following social rules.
His focus and introspection would be so focused at times that he was totally tuned out from others, for days and weeks at a time.
His teachings were about right living, right speech, right thoughts, right actions, right understanding etc.
Then there are the relaxation techniques used in Buddhism:-
Spinning things
chanting
rocking
etc
He was very direct and straight forward and loved to talk about his fascination of Truth endlessly to others.

Just a few thoughts, hope I havent offended anyone.

ElfMan

(About the Buddha having AS)



Well, I certainly don't find it offensive at all. In factI find it very interesting! (I am a Buddhist myself by the way)
Perhaps your thoughts suggest that Asperger's is not merely part of the autistic spectrum, but part of the wider spectrum of human nature. It's not a disorder or 'medical condition' that needs 'curing'... it's just an example of a brain that works differently from what you might call the "standard model". In some societies (such as our own modern culture) the way an Asperger's brain works might, or might not, cause problems; I guess that everyone with AS experiences it differently, even if there are some tendencies in common - otherwise we wouldnt call it a syndrome. Perhaps in other societies , such as in the Buddha's time, such a personality was more accepted.
The Buddha after all was a human being, not divine, and therefore could experience any of the problems or conditions that affect other people. That he overcame his human conditioning and became enlightened is an inspiration to everyone; Buddhists believe of course that we can all aspire to enlightenment and Buddhahood ourselves, and the teachings of the Buddha is just one guide or path to doing this .
Thank you for your ideas, ElfMan, I will have to think about this some more!

Glenn

Thanks Glenn

Let me know what you come up with.

ElfMan

Jimmy (James Mattingly III) from "That Thing You Do". He is smart "tested at genius level in high school", takes himself very seriously, good at music, very unsocial, nitpicky about things that affect him. Loses his girlfriend because he cares about his work more than he cares about any person.

What do you think?

Isn't this getting a little ridiculous, labelling anyone who is a bit odd, exhibits single-mindedness, or is a mild-mannered speaker, an aspie? I guess everyone is a bit of an aspie then since no one is completely "normal". I was very suprised someone came up with Robin Williams.

I'm glad there are famous aspies out there, but I don't know it serves a good purpose to over label. Personally, it makes me feel more like a failure .If every famous scientist, entrepreneur and entertainer is an aspie, then being an aspie sholdn't even be in the DSM_IV.

sorry, i meant that for the ficticious aspie list, not the real people aspie list.