Posted on 02/22/2008 10:44:32 AM PST by BGHater
Many leading figures in the fields of science, politics and the arts have achieved success because they had autism, a leading psychiatrist has claimed.
Michael Fitzgerald, Professor of Psychiatry at Trinity College, Dublin, argued the characteristics linked to autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) were the same as those associated with creative genius.
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Prof Fitzgerald cited Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, George Orwell, H G Wells and Ludwig Wittgenstein as examples of famous and brilliant individuals who showed signs of ASDs including Asperger syndrome.
Beethoven, Mozart, Hans Christian Andersen and Immanuel Kant have also received post mortem diagnoses of Asperger's.
Speaking at a Royal College of Psychiatrists' Academic Psychiatry conference in London, Prof Fitzgerald said argued the link between ASD's, creativity and genius were caused by common genetic causes.
"Psychiatric disorders can also have positive dimensions. I'm arguing the genes for autism/Asperger's, and creativity are essentially the same.
"We don't know which genes they are yet or how many there are, but we are talking about multiple genes of small effect. Every case is unique because people have varying numbers of the genes involved.
"These produce people who are highly focused, don't fit into the school system, and who often have poor social relationships and eye contact. They can be quite paranoid and oppositional, and usually highly moral and ethical.
"They can persist with a topic for 20-30 years without being distracted by what other people think. And they can produce in one lifetime the work of three or four other people."
Prof Fitzgerald said traits such as a need to be dominant and in control and autistic repetitiveness were critical to the success of politicians such as Charles de Gaulle, who famously said "I am France", US president Thomas Jefferson and Enoch Powell.
Another example he said was science fiction writer H G Wells, whom he described as socially insecure, controlling, lonely, cruel and emotionally immature.
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Prof Fitzgerald reached his conclusion after comparing the characteristics of around 1,600 people he has diagnosed with ASDs and the known biographical details of famous people.
He said Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein demonstrated how many with Asperger's traits could work for long periods on topics without taking note of others' views.
Isaac Newton, he said, was known to work non-stop for three days without recognising day or night, often forgetting to eat, and Einstein worked in a patent office because he was too disruptive to get a university job.
Prof Fitzgerald's book "Genius Genes: How Asperger Talents Changed the World" was published at the end of last year,
Estimates of the prevalence of ASDs in the general population vary widely from 60-120 cases per 10,000 people.
Amanda Batten, of the National Autistic Society said: "It is important to avoid stereotypes of people with autism as geniuses or otherwise, as everyone has individual character traits, strengths and needs.
"These might include attention to detail and the ability to pursue something for long periods of time, however apparent ability in some areas may lead people to underestimate the challenges individuals face in other parts of their lives."
Oh, I see. All the genius in the world came from autism. Not hard work and simple genius. God forbid really smart people be recognized as such. It would offend the stupid.
This verifies what I have been claiming all along. I am a genius, in my own way.
Some can go through an entire lifetime without being distracted by what anybody thinks.
I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking this guy must be speaking from experience rather than knowledge.
It's called political correctness.
Psychology once again states: people who are self-confident, read, are not sex-crazed, and don’t believe in collectivist policies have SOME sort of mental illness.
Allow me to skewer this soft science with something learned in high-level math classes: all measurement is done from a base: be it a point, line, or plane.
Why should psychologists, who are all pretty screwed up, use themselves as the reference point?
Some can go through an entire lifetime without being distracted by what anybody thinks.
So now disruptiveness = autism/Asperger's?
That example will do since probably nobody here has ever heard of the family that lives across the street up the road.
I have noticed that the super successful people I know personally all literally have OCD. My son has asperger’s. He is getting his doctor of pharmacy degree while completing his requirements for his black belt in karate. He has never had a date. As someone who has been involved with autism spectrum disorders, I can see it with Einstein. Asperger’s is sometimes known as the Absent Minded Professor Syndrom.
His disease was megalomania, with a special French gene variant that makes the disease especially severe, not autism.
I know a couple of guys diagnosed with Asperger's. They are two of the best code writers in the biz. Another person I know of sustained a brain injury and all of the sudden could learn to play several musical instruments. He had no noticible musical talent prior to the injury.
Achievements in life come from a sum of all our parts and efforts. Why not acknowledge that our makeup sometimes enhances our abilities towards certain achievements?
The author doesn’t have a clue. Einstein worked in a patent office initially because he didn’t have a doctoral degree. After he received his doctorate, Einstein held positions in several prominent universities - including Princeton after he left Germany in 1933. Einstein certainly “disrupted” Newtonian physics, but I don’t remember any of the biographies of him or his contemporaries that I have read stating that he was an especially “difficult” or “disruptive” colleague.
My problem is that I’m not OCD enough.
People. Lighten. Up.
I don’t see all the P.C., pinko liberalism some of you appear to see in this article. And the article DOES NOT SAY that being autistic CAUSES genius, let alone ALL genius.
I’ve seen this happen before. Some Freepers jump on any article about psychology, with ready-to-paste boilerplate about how psychology is about nothing but excusing criminals and unruly children. Even when there isn’t a hint of such stuff in the article.
I have Asperger’s. I have experienced most of what is described in this article—except the part about writing tons of books and being a genius.
What I have experienced is that having some of these characteristics can help with tasks I’m good at, and makes other tasks just about impossible.
He couldn't get into a program that led to a doctorate because he marched to his own drumbeat. Not "disruptive", he just didn't jump through the flaming poodle hoop that was presented to him in school.
Once he was in the patent office, he could breeze through work that would take a lesser man all day to do, and spend the rest of the time reading physics journals.
Seems to me that, in theory, if a big bump on the head can do that, there ought to be surgeries that could unleash prodigious talent.
There are Freepers who get their undies in a knot whenever anyone suggests that accomplishment, wealth, great learning, or any such thing is caused by anything other than good old Protestant hard work, reciting the Pledge every morning, sitting still in your desk, and doing what the government school teacher says. Anybody who does things in a way that’s at all eccentric must be a hippie.
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