misdiagnosis?

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I was diagnosed with aspergers. I have the majority of traits. However, I keep reading that people with aspergers are very literal and have a hard time understanding metaphors. Not only is that not me, my ability to creatively juxtapose seemingly unrelated things and to think metaphorically almost defines me!!
Can a creative artist ( poet etc) have aspergers?

Yes.

You do not need to have every symptom to have it. Not all aspies are literal or have troubles with metaphors. Some aspies are literal but have no troubles with metaphors. I have troubles with metaphors and there are times I don't but I usually do.

As League_Girl said, you don't need every symptom to have Asperger's.

I myself am not literal, nor do I have a hard time understanding metaphors, there are also a few other traits I don't have - I'm a published writer (including poetry) - I don't have the formal diagnosis yet, but I'm a fairly standard example of a person with Asperger's.

I use metaphor and imagery everywhere. Sometimes the only way to get me to understand something is to present me with a congruent, already familiar concept.

Yes, absolutely. Just because you don't hit every stereotype and then some, doesn't make you not an aspie. I'm a poet, too, and you wouldn't get very far as a poet without some understanding of metaphors.

We are all individuals, with our own personalities, our own strengths and weaknesses, our own hopes and dreams and fears and yada yada blah blah blah. You are Autistic, but you are not Autism.

i would guess most of us take a lot of things literaly and dont realize it.you may very well be over literal and not know it.my brother in law was talking to me about the movie slum dog millionaire and only then did i realize i had taken something to literaly.i honestly though slum dog millionaire was a dog movie like beverly hills chuwawa or 101 dalmations.

I'm not totally literal, but definitely more than the average person.

I agree... You don't need every trait to have Asperger's, just enough.

I know that for three years, I completely tantrummed and refused to accept my diagnosis before realising it was probably true.

You might google "Donna Williams." She's autistic and artistic. On her blog or somewhere she calls herself the "arty autie" or something like that.

Here's a page from her blog where she talks about her art:

http://www.donnawilliams.net/artandautism.0.html

My wife and I went to Thailand. While getting my passport photo taken the photographer told me to lower my chin. I did. She said,"no lower your chin". I thought I must have not lowered it enough,so I lowered it more. It felt weird and I was confused. So I thought maybe they want my face stretched to reveal bone structure,in case they need to identify my skull. Well what the photographer meant was,"lower your head."!
I still believe that I am not overly literal (see " 3 of my poems " in the writing section) but sometimes I wonder.

When they talk about aspies in general they don't mean all individuals.
Now who's taking things literally?

Professionals yes, when they talk about literalism being an Asperger trait. However,you inspired an interesting speculation in me. "Normals" love labels. In other words they conflate universals with particulars, a supposedly Asperger trait!
I am very creative and my creativity has been validated. However, sometimes I wonder if my creativity (thinking non-literally ) is forced and not natural. My technique to inspire creativity is to juxtapose two unrelated ideas and ponder until I find how they connect.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-HuenDPZw0[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq5D43qAsVg[/youtube]

I was diagnosed with autism a long time and self-rediagnosed with Asperger's (if that's possible, heh) because it seems to fit better...although it is a spectrum disorder so it doesn't really matter.
I'm very literal (and I think people actually mean every word they say)
but...I am also a very creative person, I have a big imagination, I love writing stories and I am also an artist. I do photorealistic wildlife / dog paintings and drawings.
Autism is a spectrum, and everyone is an individual. So no not everyone will have all the traits of a "typical" autistic person.

I am quite literal, have learned which metaphors to use when in the main, and I am very creative (artistic, creative writing and poetry).

See, I get in trouble for taking things like this literally. For the longest time I had a cream to put on my face and the instructions said to put in on "at bedtime" so I'd put in on and then go to sleep and it would smear all over my face. My mum told me I should just put in on an hour or 2 before I went to bed. I said that the instructions said to put in on at bedtime so I couldn't. My mum said that just meant to put it on at night and I didn't have to take everything so literally. Another example: on the first day of my summer job my supervisor was telling me about my different contacts in the office. He put a list of these contacts on my desk and kept talking about them for awhile. Then he handed me a thumb tack and said "here, you can tack it up on the board". So I stuck the thumb tack itself on the board -not the list he had been talking about-just the tack and stepped back. He was silent for a really really long time until I realized he meant to tack the list on the board with the thumb tack.

Anyway,I take these kind of things literally and have been accused of having "no common sense intelligence" because of it. However, I understand metaphor and symbolism and I have really good reading comprehension.