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Asperger syndrome

Further information: Asperger syndrome

Nikki Bacharach, deceased, daughter of Angie Dickinson.	Richard Borcherds, Fields Medalist.
Peter Howson, Scottish painter.	Luke Jackson, author.
Heather Kuzmich, fashion model and reality show contestant on America’s Next Top Model.	Craig Nicholls, frontman of the Australian garage rock band, The Vines.
Gary Numan, British singer and songwriter.	Tim Page, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author.
Dawn Prince-Hughes,PhD, primate anthropologist, ethologist, and author.	Vernon L. Smith, Nobel Laureate in economics.
Satoshi Tajiri, creator and designer of Pokémon Pocket Monsters.	Raymond Thompson, New Zealand scriptwriter and TV producer.
Liane Holliday Willey, author.

High-functioning autism

Further information: High-functioning autism

Michelle Dawson autism researcher and autism rights activist.	Temple Grandin, food animal handling systems designer and author.	Caiseal Mor author, musician, and artist.
Hikari Oe, Japanese composer.	Dylan Scott Pierce, wildlife illustrator.	Jim Sinclair, autism rights activist.
Donna Williams, Australian author.

Autism spectrum

Further information: Autism, autistic savant, and autism spectrum

Amanda Baggs, advocate of rights for autistic people.	Lucy Blackman, university educated author.	Alonzo Clemons, American clay sculptor.
Tony DeBlois, blind American musician.	Kaspar Hauser, c1812-1833, German foundling, portrayed in a film, Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle by Werner Herzog
Christopher Knowles, American poet.	Leslie Lemke, blind American musician.	Jonathan Lerman, American artist.
Katherine "Katie" McCarron, autistic child murdered by her mother, Karen McCarron.	Jason McElwain, high school basketball player.	Thristan Mendoza, Filipino marimba prodigy.
Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay author, poet, and philosopher.	Abubakar Tariq Nadama, autistic boy who died after chelation therapy.	Derek Paravicini, blind British musician.
Kim Peek, basis for Rain Man,[27][35] although diagnosis has changed.	Hannah Poling 9 Year old at the heart of the vaccine injury debate.	James Henry Pullen, gifted British carpenter.
Matt Savage, U.S. autistic jazz prodigy.	Birger Sellin, German author.	Henriett Seth-F., Hungarian autistic savant, poet, writer and artist.
Daniel Tammet, British autistic savant.	Richard Wawro, 1952-2006, Scottish artist.	Stephen Wiltshire, British architectural artist.

Maybe Autistic or had some ASD tendencies …

Michael Fitzgerald, of the Department of Child Psychiatry at Trinity College, Dublin, has speculated about historical figures with autism in numerous journal papers and at least three books: The Genesis of Artistic Creativity: Asperger’s Syndrome and the Arts,^[4] Unstoppable Brilliance: Irish Geniuses and Asperger’s Syndrome^[5] and Autism and Creativity, Is there a link between autism in men and exceptional ability?^[6] Fitzgerald speculated the following were autistic in The Genesis of Artistic Creativity (and I added some others).

Hans Christian Andersen – author	Jane Austen - English novelist	Ludwig van Beethoven - German/Viennese composer
Alexander Graham Bell, 1847-1922, Iinventor of the telephone	Béla Bartók – 20th century Hungarian composer	Hugh Blair of Borgue – 18th century Scottish landowner thought mentally incompetent, now studied as case history of autism.
Anton Bruckner, 1824-1896, Austrian composer
Lewis Carroll – writer, logician	Henry Cavendish – 18th century British scientist. He was unusually reclusive, literal minded, had trouble relating to people, had trouble adapting to people, difficulties looking straight at people, drawn to patterns, etc.	Charles XII of Sweden – speculated to have had Asperger syndrome
Charles Darwin – naturalist, associated with the theory of evolution by natural selection	Éamon de Valera – Irish revolutionary and politician	Paul Dirac – British mathematician and physicist. He was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, 1933–1963 and a Fellow of St John’s College. Awarded the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the mathematical foundations of Quantum Mechanics.
Thomas Edison, 1847-1931, US inventor	Albert Einstein – physicist	Henry Ford, 1863-1947, US industrialist
	Janet Frame – New Zealand author	Glenn Gould – Canadian pianist and noted Bach interpreter. He liked routine to the point he used the same seat until it was worn through. He also disliked social functions to the point that in later life he relied on the telephone or letters for virtually all communication. He had an aversion to being touched, had a different sense of hot or cold than most, and would rock back and forth while playing music. He is speculated to have had Asperger syndrome.
Adolf Hitler – German politician, dictator	Thomas Jefferson – US President	Prince John of the United Kingdom – son of George V of the United Kingdom
Keith Joseph – father of Thatcherism	James Joyce – author of Ulysses	Michelangelo – Italian Renaissance artist, based on his inability to form long-term attachments and certain other characteristics Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
Wolfgang Mozart – composer	Isaac Newton	Moe Norman – Canadian golfer
George Orwell – writer speculated to have had Asperger Syndrome. His troubled life went along with social interaction problems. Towards the end of his life he wrote bitter polemic on his preparatory boarding school Such, Such Were the Joys which displays many of the characteristics of Asperger syndrome and interpersonal relationships. Orwell knew this intensely personal account was libellous and biographers have found it a challenge to explain its conflict with the truth, but Orwell still felt it important to publish this account eventually.	Enoch Powell – British politician	Srinivasa Ramanujan – mathematician
Charles Richter – seismologist, creator of the eponymous scale of earthquake magnitude	Erik Satie – composer	Jonathan Swift – author
Alan Turing – pioneer of computer sciences. He seemed to be a math savant and his lifestyle has many autism traits about it.	Michael Ventris – English architect who deciphered Linear B	Andy Warhol – American artist
Blind Tom Wiggins – autistic savant	Ludwig Wittgenstein – Austrian philosopher	W. B. Yeats – poet and dramatist

Einstein and Newton

It has been speculated that Isaac Newton had what is now considered Asperger syndrome. Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton may have had Asperger syndrome, but a definitive diagnosis is impossible as both scientists died before this condition came to be known. Albert Einstein’s brain has been preserved. As physical features of the brain connected with autism become better known it may become possible to tell whether Einstein has those features.

Case for autism

Ioan James,^[2] and Michael Fitzgerald^[14][30] believe that Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton had personalities consistent with Asperger syndrome; Tony Attwood has also named Einstein as a likely case of mild autism.^[17] Asperger’s involves difficulties with social skills and preoccupation with complex subjects like music, which Einstein had. Fitzgerald says society should accept and tolerate eccentrics as they frequently have positive contributions to make. Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton both experienced intense intellectual interests in specific limited areas. Both scientists had trouble reacting appropriately in social situations and had difficulty communicating. Both scientists sometimes became so involved with their work that they did not eat. Newton spoke little and was frequently lukewarm or bad-tempered with the few friends he had. If no one attended his lecture he still lectured to an empty room.^[31] When he was 50, Newton suffered a nervous breakdown involving depression and paranoia.

It has been speculated that Albert Einstein was on what is now considered the autism spectrum. People claim that Albert Einstein was a loner as a child, was a late speaker, starting only at two to three years old, and repeated sentences obsessively up to the age of seven. As an adult his lectures were confusing.^[31][32] He needed his wives to act as parents when he was an adult—factors people claim make him “obviously” (or at least stereotypically) autistic. He was also the stereotypical “absent-minded professor“; he was often forgetful of everyday items, such as keys, and would focus so intently on solving physics problems that he would often become oblivious to his surroundings. In his later years, his appearance inadvertently created (or reflected) another stereotype of scientists in the process: the researcher with unruly white hair.^{[citation needed]} Finally, in the words of Albert Einstein:^[33]

Case against autism

Oliver Sacks says that claims that Einstein had autism “seem very thin at best”.^[8] Glen Elliott, a psychiatrist at the University of California at San Francisco, is unconvinced that either scientist had Asperger syndrome. “One can imagine geniuses who are socially inept and yet not remotely autistic. Impatience with the intellectual slowness of others, narcissism and passion for one’s mission in life might combine to make such an individuals isolative and difficult.”^[32] Elliott added that Einstein had a good sense of humor, a trait that is virtually unknown in people with severe Asperger syndrome. Viktoria Lyons and Michael Fitzgerald state that the prevailing “research has shown that individuals with autism and Asperger Syndrome are impaired in humor appreciation, although anecdotal and parental reports provide some evidence to the contrary.”^[34] They describe several individuals with Asperger syndrome who display a sense of humor and further suggest that a minority of such individuals, especially those that are mathematically gifted, can possess a sense of humor that is superior than average due to their unusual personalities, experience and intelligence.