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I find that Jerry Espenson character's so-called Aspergers misrepresnting and difficult to believe.

It might seem harmless, but it's annoying when you tell someone you have Aspergers and they've seen the show...

The character would be more severe tourettes than anything else.

Its definitely a misrepresentation of AS. His character is apparently supposed to be funny and not serious. Still, it creates a bad stereotype for people with real AS. I have personally never seen a real person with AS act like Jerry.

Here, see if this youtube link works:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X6TPaL-tDU[/youtube]

.

I like Jerry. I didn't really at first, but his character really fleshes out after awhile. He might have weird mannerisms, but he's very intelligent, a great lawyer, and a great friend to Alan. In a way, I don't like the character because it seems like NTs see one character with a trait and then assume that all people IRL who have that trait act exactly like that person (Rainman, for instance). If you keep in mind, though, that AS shows itself in different ways to different people and that he also has Tourette syndrome, then he's an okay character.

Ah; but that was a problem - you can't have Aspergers and Tourettes.
It's the same mutation - you can have tourettes-like tics with Aspergers, more commonly with Autism, but you can't have both.

That would be like saying "What colour is the blue sky?"

But you can. But they must be obviously independent from your PDD. That means, that repetitive movements are not at all tics.

ICD-10 on tic disorders:

Repetitive movement, for example stims such as flapping, rocking, whole body movements that appear in PDDs are not to be considered tics.

DSM-IV-TR on tic disorders:


In the section that elaborates on all criteria and explains differential diagnoses the DSM-IV-TR:

Every person with a PDD is free to have Tourette's if they meet the criteria A to D by today's standard of DSM and/or and the criteria of the ICD.

I also want to remind of the fact that the DSM-IV-TR and the ICD-10 are only criteria put into existence on basis of what people thought disorders should look like and on what some studies at that point at which the editions were created said.

And some studies even today say that vaccination somehow causes ASDs. And many years ago, the DSM said autism doesn't exist and that it's just all schizophrenia. Before the DSM-IV-TR only those people had Tourette's who experienced distress by the tics while all those with no matter how many tics who didn't feel distressed didn't have Tourette's.

And I doubt that autistic people as the criteria define them today only exist since 1994/2000. And that autistic people as defined by different criteria in the DSM-III only exist since 1980.

I do not think that the first person with infantile autism was born after 1980 and rather think that the DSM was not all-knowing and universally correct. I also am certain that today we still officially believe many wrong things and that more incorrect assumptions are made each day. From such things as that one cannot have both ADHD and ASDs or that those with AS cannot have problems with self-help skills up to that vaccination causes ASDs and that autistic people can be made non-autistic.

I never put more than token acknowledgement into third-party information.
Rule of thumb: It's constantly revised.

I agree I think it is good Boston Legal is covering the topic of Asperger's Syndrome but do find the representation given by "Jerry" to be over the top and in a way making fun of Asperger's. to the untrained eye people will think we are all like that and we aren't. Some of his characteristics are realistic like his obessive talk about the law but all the hopping and squeaking ia so fake.

Wow... I watched the video. And re-reading the topic because of the new response, I notice that I thought the woman with the duck was the supposed person with AS.

So, who is the character with AS/who's Jerry then? From the video?

I think the duck has Aspergers.

The woman has anxiety attacks, the lawyer is Jerry with AS. He also walks with his hands on his knees sometimes and that gets old. I know that many of us have a strange gait, but that is over the top.

Well, the character Jerry brought AS to attention for me. It set me off on a journey to help my late-adolescent son, who exhibited autistic traits (not that I knew that's what they were) but had above average intelligence. It was a light bulb moment for me when I saw that character. As it turned out not only does my son have AS, I do as well.

Where the character isn't portraying AS perfectly accurate, it could be hellaciously worse. Overall, I wouldn't say that the portrayal was a betrayal to those with AS.

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