foxfield wrote:
A cardboard image of a tree on the set of a play is not really a tree. But it has enough culturally understood characteristics of a tree (rounded green top, brown stem) that the audience recognize it as a tree and understand it as such.
Thus, in the fictional universe in which the tree belongs, it is a tree.
Like the cardboard tree, Sherlock's Asperger's may not be a complete and accurate scientific representation. But non the less he has enough culturally understood characteristics of Aspergers that he is recognized by the audience as having Aspergers. Thus, in the fictional universe in which Sherlock lives, Sherlock has Aspergers.
I don't agree with that, particularly because considering a card box as a tree has no implications for real people in real life, differently from considering a character has a disorder they don't. If the audience doesn't know what a disorder really is like and think a character has it, it doesn't mean the character actually has it, and actually this association could be harmful.
I am not saying that people shouldn't identify with the character though. Not only aspies identify with Sherlock but also schizoids, bipolars, nt's etc and this is great.