Diagnosing dead people with aspergers

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How do you feel about the trend of diagnosing dead people with aspergers? like Mozart, Einstein, Isaac Newton and Howard Hughes etc.
However I do have one of my father's cousins who died 30 years ago who is a very likely candidate for it for his very strong obsessive interests and poor social skills and steriotypical movement disorder.

I'm not opposed to it, but they're never going to conclusively figure out if they were autistic. Because they're dead

Socrates FTW!!

I would think the dead are withdrawn and depressed.

Them being dead bars them from any sense of depression or withdraw.
So, that would mean, death is the best anti depressant on the planet.

I think it's okay if it's clearly speculative and there's plenty of supporting documentation. I don't like it when people claim it as fact or repeat someone else's theory without researching on their own.
I'm currently studying Hans Christian Andersen and he's on several people's lists as an Aspie. With the information I have, I don't see Asperger's as part of his personality.
Einstein is a difficult one because some sources say he had developmental delays and some say he had no developmental delays. If he had delays, along with his known traits, he might have been autistic. Another reason to dislike the separation of autism and Asperger's because the distinction seems so arbitrary.
There are also issues of cultural and historical context that one must consider. Something more common today may have been unheard of when these people were alive. So, modern man has coping mechanisms to deal with, say being gay, developmentally slow or PTSD. These factors were dealt with quite differently in the past and had drastically different outcomes.

I do imagine that Soren Kierkegaard and Thomas Jefferson were Aspies. Perhaps Thomas' friend and rival, John Adams too. Philo T. Farnsworth too.
Someone who isn't well-documented but was both a genius and pariah was Sor Juana Inez, the Mexican nun.

King Ferdinand VI of Spain...

Mozart? How did he have aspergers? He had no problems entertaining a crowd, had a bubbly personality.

Beethoven however...I could see why someone would think he has aspergers because he spent his childhood in his room playing piano, wasn't well groomed, had difficulties playing in front of a crowd and even clammed up when his father made him go on stage for the first time when he was 9. He didn't marry and nobody even knew he had a love interest until after he died.

Is there something I don't know about Mozart?

people are always trying to come up with information on dinosaurs and other old dead/extinct things so don't see a problem with research into dead people and autism.

My father's dead, committed suicide many years ago, and was almost definitely an Aspie.

Unfortunately, we tend to look at a lot of famous figures, historical and contemporary, and if we find one or two symptoms we assume it's a sign of AS or whatever we're looking for.

It's funny that many people assumed we were just neurotic or emotionally damaged individuals and we probably thought that ourselves until we were diagnosed.

Now perhaps, we're guilty of the reverse, we're diagnosing Asperger's in people who might just have been emotionally damaged or neurotic.

The dead DEFINITELY have troubles with communication and socializing, although some may have a good chance of maintaining decent eye contact!


[drum fill]

hahhaa.

I have a bubbly personality and can entertain a crowd too. But I know I have Aspergers. I don't think you have to be a party pooper and a bore if you are an Aspie.

Best,

Donovan

That's one of the most logical, truthful, and beautiful things I've ever heard. This is why I like you.

I didn't say you have to be a bore but there isn't a single thing about Mozart that comes across as aspie but I've heard so many make that claim.

Do you get nervous in front of a crowd or anxious? Did you ever or did you find a way through it?