Historical Persons Who May Have Been on the Spectrum

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This is a thread to speculate - not necesarrily ones who are thought to be so by professionals. One I would suspect is Archimedes - especially if 2 stories about him are true. Not only was he brilliant in math and engineering but 2 stories would definitely suggest AS. One was when he was tring to figure out how to measure the volume of a kings crown so he could tell if it was pure gold - he didn't know how until one day he was in the bathtub and figured out the idea of water displacement. According to the story he ran out of the house naked shouting "Eureka" to go tell the king. Another was at his death he was killed by a Roman soldier (this part is definitely true) - according to the story it was because he didn't want to meet the general, he wanted to continue working on a problem.

I think alexzander graham bell might be on the spectrum today, he was literally OBSESSED with language, had a high IQ, was a loner, had no friends... They just brought him up in class the other day and said he would def be diagnsed with something today. I'm not honestly entirely sure but who knows.

I think Vincent Van Gogh was an Aspie. I identified with him a lot when I was younger, and I definitely had similar problems and challenges. He was my special interest for awhile, by the way.

Hans Asperger, Einstein and physicist Richard Feynman, this guy: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj4y0EUlU-Y&feature=channel_page[/youtube]

The author John Kennedy Toole.

I can bet my life Hitler had a form of AS, coupled with other personality disorders. Adolf Hitler is one of the few people, along with Michael Jackson, I can relate to in any way at all.

I would think Hitler had Antisocial Personality Disorder. Another one with AS I would think would be Nikola Tesla - he was absolutely brilliant at inventing things but terrible socially and was upset by some very unusual things.

my god thats a lotta people.....................jefferson(possible very mild).........emily dickinson........walt whitman.......warhol.............hans christian andersen..............issac newton.....davinci........michaelangelo........god i could go on, lol

I think I have antisocial personality disorder too in that case, because it fits me very well and I can relate to Hitler more than I can to anyone.
However, my psychiatrist blamed everything which was abnormal in my behaviour on AS but I always had the feeling something wasn't right, there was something missing.

Anyway I still think Hitler could very well have had both AS as well as antisocial personality disorder. I think the combination was what made him so unique and hard to diagnose based on all the research done about him. People fail to see the combination of AS and personality disorder because AS-people are popularly viewed as innocent little lambs and victims who just can't help the fact that they stare and drool and behave clumsy.
Hitler was a very high functioning aspie.

www.wrongplanet.net/postp2186373.html&h ... t=#2186373

I personally feel that Hitler had AS. If you click above you an see my thoughts on the subject.

I think that Hitler was born with AS, but all of the trauma in his youth probably facilitated the development of a sociopathy. If you look at his life up until WWI, it is the classic storybook script of someone with AS, and his experiences eerily parallel my life in a way. WWI was a traumatic experience for a whole generation of European men, and I have no doubt that Hitler's mind was further warped. Hitler might have been a meek little lamb when he was born, but years of social and personal failure, and then going to the trenches(where he didn't get along with his unit) aggervated his mind and turned him into a sociopath with passionate, irrational hatreds.

It is believed that Hitler contracted syphillis soon after the war, which if it were true would have definitely helped to drive him insane.

People say that AS individuals are mostly "innocent little lambs." Perhaps if a kid with AS grows up in a sheltered and coddled environment with a loving family, he won't be scarred by the world. But I know from personal experience that repeated, traumatic failures will lead to anger, paranoia, and irrational hatreds. Hitler grew up in a dysfunctional family, and he was thrown out by himself into a harsh world at an early age, and he was trying to make his way in a very unforgiving society. If Hitler would have been loved as a boy or set up in an environment were he could succeed, his passsionate hatreds probably wouldn't have been given a chance to develop. For myself, I was repeatedly exposed to the most merciless bullying, teasing, and social rejection, and those kind of things transformed me from an innocent little boy into an asocial paranoid man who trusts no one and has irrational dislikes. The same thing happened to Hitler.

Hitler didn't display any visible signs of AS as an adult because doubtlessly he had been harangued to "look people in the eye" as a boy and he had to develop coping strategies.

I have a rock n roll and Biblical obsession. I think Moses, Apostle Peter and King David with his son Solomon are honestly good contenders for AS. First of all people know a lot about them because they seem so human which to me spells Asperger's. I strongly believe the positive traits are the way to identify AS
Fixations Moses- law David- animals, music, Solomon-construction, philosophy Peter-ministry
Trustworthiness based on uncompromised principle
Moses-40 years of enforcing a devout strict moral code
David-fought Goliath and as king brought back the tabernacle and didn't strike King Saul in self-defense
Solomon-despite incredible wealth he was morally and spiritually responsible not prone to corruption
Peter-preached unbiased to different nations yet not as prone to adapting to different cultures like Paul
Social Consciousness
Moses-killed an Egyptian beating a slave (which caused him to run away from Egypt)
David-killed a lion and a bear to protect his sheep
Solomon-protected a woman's right to her natural child despite the fact the woman was a prostitute
Peter-preached fair treatment of Gentiles and women and humbly taught Cornelius refusing to be knelt to
Endurance
really all of these people go without saying
Social Ineptness
Moses-slow of speech, lack of confidence
David-he won popularity but very unassuming to those who didn't understand his capabilities ie Samuel and Goliath
Solomon- he was a young wonder kid who despite being generally disliked at first like his father but won people by talents not a charming personality
Peter-often portrayed to by historians as a simpleton but was basically a man who was too blunt to the point he seemed uncultured and uneducated
Impulsiveness
Moses-killing an Egyptian
David-sleeping with Bathsheba and not aware of seriousness until the prophet Nathan told him a parable about a man stealing another man's sheep
Solomon-his decision to test the mother's loyalty
Peter-everything he did basically
PS rock stars I think you may have had AS
John Lennon or Ringo Starr
Bob Dylan
Prince
Neil Young
Roger Waters

I really don't think most biblical characters ever really existed - that includes Jesus - see the "God Who Wasn't There" movie.

And Hitler was just so evil of a person that there had to be way more than AS - plus the fact he was so charismatic suggests he did not have Aspergers.

The idea that autism spectrum disorders would be something you can diagnose in people you've never met, just on text description, is absurd.

Even speculating like this is what makes a lot of NTs thing that autism spectrum disorders are just something people make up so they can be special. Please just drop it, stop making these lists.

Mage, its a fun little speculative game, but that is not to say that these people have them or not.
With that being said, I am obsessed with history, especially the history of eccentrics. While I could never know, whether or not they had an ASD, I do like to find out about the behaviors of these people, what sets them apart.

My personal favorite is probably Nickoli Tesla. He was a very strange character. If he was on the spectrum or not is hard to determine, but he definately exhibited some characterists from the writing out there.

Walt Disney. His fascination with drawing started when he was a kid. He also had a fascination with trains - haha. He was also synesthetic.

I'm very charismatic and I most likely have AS, along with other personality disorders. I agree that 98% of aspergers I've encountered have been very uncharismatic but that doesn't mean there aren't exceptions, especially AS who are somehow scarred and bruised and develop alternative personalities and disorders. Hitler and Michael Jackson are in my oppinion the most famous examples.