Nixon...aspie?

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i was looking recently into the life of Richard Nixon and his notorious social awkwardness made me wonder whether or not he was an aspie. he had no idea how to relate to the public at large, and he famously bungled what attempts he made. And while was quite paranoid (in my opinion an Aspie trait) he ultimately didn't think much of what the public thought of him unless it came to their votes (probably explains a bit).

your thoughts?

I've heard he may have been schizophrenic.

...Now THERE'S!! !! !! !! !! ! a potentially rather dubious addition to the " famous people who were Aspies " lists ! !! !! !! !! !!
Actually , considering both the , generally , young ages here , and the - Probably a majority ? - non-American posting here , I wonder what such people think of when ol' Trick Dick gets mentioned...........

Since today is the 40th anniversary of his becoming the only USA president to resign I am reviving this thread.

I agree with the premise of this thread. It do think he was co-morbid paranoid also.
Autistic or not that someone who is socially and psychically awkward would become a politician nevermind president is rare and fascinating.

This is a video of a speech by the author of "President Nixon: Alone in the White House"
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_na0DvBLXw[/youtube]
Except for the first few minutes of introductions it is well worth your 50 minutes if you are interested him or that period in US history. The author talks about his "architectural mind" mentions he thinks Nixon had a neurological disorder, and his greatest flaw was thinking other people were like himself. He mentions Nixon ordered state dinners should be one course short so he can minimize being in that situation. His staff regularly ignored his orders.

He was viewed as many of the spectrum are as shifty (sound familiar) he was known by his detractors as "Tricky Dick" . His Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon in the "Personality and public image" section mention was extremely formal to the point of wearing a coat and tie when home alone.

One incident that showed a lot of traits was the much talked about 4AM visit to anti war protesters at the Lincoln memorial just after national guardsmen killed 4 Kent State university students. The visit shows a lack of understanding of danger. At the times most of the campuses were closed due protesters and troops were guarding the White House because it was feared protesters would storm it. A 2011 Atlantic Monthly article on the incident shows a man desperately trying to connect and failing http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc ... _page=true
"I hope it was because he was tired but most of what he was saying was absurd," one of the Syracuse students told the press afterwards. "Here we had come from a university that's completely uptight, on strike, and when we told him where we were from, he talked about the football team."

Another student told the media, "He didn't look anyone in the eyes. He was mumbling. When people asked him to speak up he would boom one word and no more. As far as sentence structure, there was none."

In 1975 at a time autism was thought of as a children only condition and only the most severe end of the spectrum was recognized a book reviewer for the New York Times would claimed that Nixon was borderline autistic. Theodore White was a influential chronicler of the Chinese and American political scenes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_White. His book about the Watergate Scandal was entitled ?Breach of Faith: The Fall of Richard Nixon?. The reviewer for The Times wrote ?He very nearly suggests ? and I wish he had- that in the extremity of his loneliness, Richard Nixon?s behavior bordered on the autistic.?
The review as reprinted by the ?Daytona Beach Morning Journal?
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 481,673747.

Of course none of this "proves" Nixon was autistic and nothing ever will. But I think he was.

Another "shy" American President was "Silent" Calvin Coolidge

Thread bumped as today is the 50th anniversary of Nixon's resignation

Updated link to the youtube video referenced in the post



Here is another video that makes me strongly suspect Nixon was autistic. It was an interview with the late Alexander. Haig Nixon's chief of staff.

The "autistic" stuff starts at 1:57. Nixon's extreme discomfort with change, apparent mutism, stimming are discussed.

Its one of the less crazy nominations for the honor of joining the list of "historical undiagnosed aspies".

Clearly there was something up with Nixon upstairs. That last vid shows Nixon had a mind like a rail road train (aspie) rather than the mind of a road car (NT) and couldnt be steered by a driver's steering wheel to change lanes...because his mind ran on a rail track.

So maybe he was, or maybe not.

Always thought that if we ever had an aspie POTUS he/she would resemble Jimmy Carter (whether Carter himself was an actual aspie or not). Carter was a brainiac and honest, but poor at self promotion and at building coalitions. Nixon was opposite in many ways. Honesty impaired (a very NT trait). Hard to say about either of them.

I watched a video recently which made the case for John Quincy Adams being on the spectrum.

I've always wondered this myself, obviously no way of ever knowing but I get the impression that he had mental health issues.

Not this again. So every famous or infamous person who was "weird" is autistic now?

Of course I'm never going to hear what Canadian prime ministers are/were autistic. And I really don't care, either. Most Canadians really don't care what goes on in the PM's personal lives. But it's always always ALWAYS all about the Americans. Having all this political murrican crap constantly flung in our faces, is exhausting, frustrating and depressing and it's Canada that really needs to build a wall.

If you don't like speculation threads don't read them. This thread has a "?" in the title, so you know it is a speculation thread from the get go.

That said I get the sentiment. There are too many threads where the suspicion that a celebrity or historical figure is autistic is based on the said persons shyness or awkwardness or is "different" and that is it. What is worse is posts where the member claims the person is autistic with certainty and without caveats.