Abraham Lincoln,1809-1865, US Politician
Alan Turing, 1912-1954, English mathematician, computer scientist and cryptographer
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, German/American theoretical physicist
Alexander Graham Bell, 1847-1922, Scottish/Canadian/American inventor of the telephone
Benjamin Franklin,1706-1790, US polictician/writer
Bobby Fischer, 1943-2008, World Chess Champion
Carl Jung, 1875-1961, Swiss psychoanalyst
Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, US poet
George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, Irish playwright, writer of Pygmalion, critic and Socialist
George Washington, 1732-1799, US Politician
Henry Cavendish, 1731-1810, English/French scientist, discovered the composition of air and water
Henry Ford, 1863-1947, US industrialist
Henry Thoreau, 1817-1862, US writer
Isaac Newton, 1642-1727, English mathematician and physicist
Jane Austen, 1775-1817, English novelist, author of Pride and Prejudice
Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827, German/Viennese composer
Mark Twain, 1835-1910, US humorist
Michelangelo, 1475 1564 - Italian Renissance artist
Richard Strauss, 1864-1949, German composer
Thomas Edison, 1847-1931, US inventor
Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826, US politician
Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890, Dutch painter
Virginia Woolf, 1882-1941, English Writer
Alfred Hitchcock, 1899-1980, English/American film director
Charles Schulz, 1922-2000, US cartoonist and creator of Peanuts and Charlie Brown
Glenn Gould, 1932-1982, Canadian pianist
Hans Asperger, 1906-1980, Austrian pediatric doctor after whom Asperger's Syndrome is named
Howard Hughes, 1905-1976, US billionaire
Isaac Asimov, 1920-1992, Russian/US writer on science and of science fiction, author of Bicentennial Man
Jim Henson, 1936-1990, creator of the Muppets, US puppeteer, writer, producer, director, composer
John Denver, 1943-1997, US musician
L S Lowry, 1887-1976, English painter of "matchstick men"
Bill Gates, 1955-, Entrepreneur and philanthropist. A key player in the personal computer revolution.
Bob Dylan, 1941-, US singer-songwriter
John Nash, 1928-, US mathematician (portrayed by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind, USA 2001)
Oliver Sacks, 1933-, UK/US neurologist, author of "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" and "Awakenings"
Robin Williams, 1951-, US Actor
Seth Engstrom, 1987-, Magician and World Champion in Sleight of Hand. The best man with a deck of cards that the world has ever seen.
Most autistic children (or adults) do not belong on the list that you provided. How the parents would love it if they did. As the grandparent of a severely autistic child, I shudder to think of him in the intelligence division of an army. It reminds me of Al Qaeda thugs who put suicide vests on retarded children and goad them into exploding them (true cases).
Indeed, although I’ve heard of a few of the individuals one your list as possiblly having autism, most of them were considered perfectly normal members of society in their lifetimes.
What is the source of your list? George Washington, for instance, was highly social and the favorite guest of all of the Virginia hostesses — hardly the “stuff” of Asperger’s. Ben Franklin was the Bon Vivant of Paris and London. Did somebody just make up a list of successful people and slap the “dignosis” of Asperger’s on them? I cry foul on your list.
Thanks for that, Marcella. Humans seem to have the need to label and classify. There’s always more to a person than the label.
I am a bit distressed that gifted children are often misdiagnosed with “disorders” such as Autism, Aspergers, and ADHD.
I would just advise anyone who is going to have their child evaluated, to get that evaluation from a professional of your choosing, and someone who has lots and lots of experience with highly intellingent children. That may or may not be the person the school utilizes.
If a person can not home school, just make sure that their school is doing what is necessary for your child to succeed, regardless of the label they might assign.
Gonna have to beat on you a bit for that one ...
"Were thought"??? By whom? Seriously ... diagnosing long-since dead people is madness. This list belongs in the same trash heap as the lists of dead people that the professional homosexuals try to claim.