Aspies For Freedom

I've been thinking lately that Osama Bin Laden might be an aspie. This is a very wild guess though.

These are the reasons:

1. Although little is known about him, people who have interviewed him describe him as very shy but well mannered. Despite being the leader of a terrorist organization.

2. You can't really live more reclusive than him. He's been living in caves for years now and he just can't be found. My theory is that he prefers to live a solitary life, with as little social contact as possible. An NT would probably seek out social contact and would more easily get caught because more people would know where he lived.

3. He's obsessed with Islam and 'western imperialism'. He also likes horseback riding and reading poetry...Could be aspie obsessions.

This is just my personal speculation though...

I really don't think he is a psychopath. He has a distorted and sick view of what's the right thing to do, because he's a muslim fundamentalist. I read one article that claimed he has some sort of narcissistic personality disorder.
Indeed, he seems to have a lot of charisma, but he also has a lot of money which may be the reason why he's the leader. He finances the whole thing.

He's left-handed btw, which seems to be of some significance if I look at the list of famous people?

This is way off the topic at hand, but did anyone else notice that none of the books or articles sourced in the first post were not written after 2005? And late 2005 was when the "awareness" movement really kicked off, I believe?

...Ew, get rid of the "not" before "written" in the first sentence. Sorry.

Did Tolkien have Asperger's? I have a feeling he did, or was he just a talented person?

Batman55, I just wanted to know...

Back to the subject of famous aspies...

He may have already been mentioned, but Peter Howson, successful Scottish artist (Glasgow based I think) has AS.

He tends to paint stylised figures (often muscular angry looking women) with black outlines. I think there is some of his work in the Peoples Palace, Glasgow if anyone lives round there and wants to have a look.

New Britain? No, I live in regular, boring, 100% original Old Britain. Great Britain, the United Kingdom, 'England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland', or whatever else you want to call it, but definitely not New Britain.
Where on earth is New Britain?

How can you be so certain about a man you've never met?

Actually, I've heard about that system from several sources, so I don't think it's unique, and yes, it's a very long shot. I wouldn't go about describing people as autistic just because they do something a bit odd. Honestly, whom do you know that's never a bit odd?

I haven't kept up with this thread, but Dr. Fitzgerald has indeed done this far-diagnosis of people long dead.  His book Genius Genes:  How Asperger Talents Changed the World does exactly that.  Given that he has a doctorate in autism and has been a researcher in the field since 1973, having diagnosed over 1500 individuals with autism and Asperger Syndrome, I tend to take his diagnoses seriously.  In this book he includes:
Archimedes
Isaac Newton
Henry Cavendish
Thomas Jefferson
Charles Babbage
Charles Darwin
Gregor Johann Mendel
Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Nikola Tesla
David Hilbert
H.G. Wells
John Broadus Watson
Albert Einstein
Bernard Law Montgomery
Charles de Gaulle
Alfred C. Kinsey
Norbert Wiener
Charles A. Lindbergh
Kurt Godel
Paul Erdos

ISBN 978-1-931282-44-4

For what it's worth.

I agree that Archimedes is quite a stretch, but there's tons of historical documents (including letters and diaries, that sort of thing) about the others from which personal characteristics can be extracted.  I'm no historian, but apparently that is considered a legitimate form of research.  Ledgin's book, Diagnosing Jefferson is full of such examples.

I'm not trying to convince you, just saying that this one psychiatrist, and an expert with 20 years experience in diagnosing, HAS diagnosed these people.  FWIW.

An Aspie friend of me pinned me down with this description over twenty years ago:  I have an inferiority superiority complex.  

I've kept a diary since I was eight.  My sister said I should publish it, and I said I was waiting to become famous so there'd be a reason for everyone to read it.

I've been working on a project for fifteen years that I still fantasize will make me famous, at least in the miniscully tiny group that gives a damn.

So, yeah, delusions/aspirations of grandeur.

BTW Batman, have you considered GAME ART as a major/career?  You love games, and you love art.  That's Heather's major, and I didn't even know it existed until she came along on Top Model.

Lili, you are welcome.  I love to proselytize about famous Aspies.  I feel so horribly guilty for allowing my daughter to be labeled at the age of three, that I will just about dedicate my life to proving SO WHAT, WE'RE AUTISTIC, IT'S NOT A BAD THING!!!!!!!  I am tempted to buy multiple copies of Fitzgerald's book and send them out as Christmas presents.  I am so grateful to him.  And thank you, Lili, for all of your work on this subject.

Batman, I don't know anything about art, but I wonder if there might be some autistic art teachers that you could learn from better than the NT ones.  Your brain might just want a radically different way to approach the topic.

REALLY?? I love Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, I didn't know Lewis Carrol was an Aspie...

Anyway, dunno if this has been mentioned before, but Tajiri Satoshi, creator of Pokemon, has AS. (He's not really famous though...)

The creator of Naruto (snap, can't remember his name) described his "childhood obsessions".