Old Testament Joseph — Was he on the spectrum?

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Interesting academic paper I came across. This is about the Old Testament Joseph.

Was Yosef on the Spectrum? Understanding Joseph Through Torah, Midrash, and Classical Jewish Sources

Abstract: The story of Yosef (Joseph) presents some of the most challenging questions of all biblical narratives. Yosef’s behavior, interpersonal relationships, and personal journey and development are often difficult to understand, and at times seem to defy explanation. Leading commentators are repeatedly puzzled both by Yosef’s actions and by the events that surround him. This book attempts to achieve a coherent and cohesive reading of the story that offers a plausible understanding of Yosef’s behaviors toward others and those of others toward him, while at the same time accounting for both his successes and his failures. Toward that goal, the book suggests that a close reading of the biblical text paints a portrait of Yosef consistent with an individual on the autism spectrum.

Although the primary goal of this project is focused on exploring a way to understand the character of Yosef and the events that surround him, with this understanding, the story may offer lessons for interactions with children and adults on the spectrum. If so, the fact that upon a close and careful reading the Torah contains such lessons, which are both current and timeless, is a further illustration of the principle: hafoch bah, v’hafoch bah, d’kula bah (“turn it and turn it, for everything is in it”).

https://ssrn.com/abstract=3292434

You completely lost me on this whole post.

He’s attempting to cite an obscure document by a modern-day researcher who posts the idea that a man who allegedly lived about 3500 years ago, and whom we know about only through a single religious document — the book of Genesis (the historical canonicity of which cannot be verified) had an autism spectrum disorder.

This is another feeble attempt at diagnosing someone who either never existed or who lived so long ago that no eyewitness accounts of his life exist — there is roughly 1000 years from the alleged life of Joseph and the writing of the book Genesis.

My mom thinks Paul may have been autistic.

Me too.

I've heard people say Paul was epileptic, and that the Damascus Road experience was some sort of epileptic seizure. But being aspie might also explain his before-and-after fixations, I suppose.

I think he had a tendency to monologue as well. He gave a speech so long and boring a young man fell asleep, fell out of a window and died.

I don't think there's enough info on Joseph. His dialogue is very limited. He was tactless with his brothers. No you don't tell your brothers you had a dream where they all bow down to you. Yes I know you did have that dream, but even so, that's not going to endear you to them.

But a few tactless encounters in youth does not an autistic person make. After that he seemed pretty clued up with how other people would react to his actions.

People should also remember that Biblical heroes — with the possible exception of Moses — were sociable, verbal, and not prone to meltdowns.

Diagnosing historical figures with autism years — or even centuries — after their deaths based on unverifiable accounts of their actions from one single source is bound to be inaccurate (as well as pointless).

I know that many aspies are desperate to find someone famous whom they can cite as an example of being a successful aspie, but without an official diagnosis that has been vetted by professionals, the effort is futile and prone to failure.

I mistakenly thought the original was a paper — in fact it's an entire book:

https://books.google.com/books?id=OADptAEACAAJ

The only one we can be sure of is that they were verbal. Most people God used in the bible were outright outcasts from society at large.

The bible doesn't personally mention every detail of these people's lives, just the parts important to get a point across. A lot of people are unaware that David had chronic pain, because it is only mentioned by him himself. A meltdown, it is unlikely would have any reason to be mentioned.