Autism Blog: So Einstein, Gates and Jefferson were autistic?
 Many a book has recently been published laying claim to most of the high achievers of history being on the autism spectrum. Temple Grandin was so confident about it, she put it in her books and endorsed it in the books of others. Taking this as gospel many other authors then happily followed, quoting these theories as facts.
She also published the claim that ‘all autistics think in pictures’ but altered it in revised editions on having found out that the majority of non-spectrum people think visually and many with autism who have visual agnosias don’t.
Earlier she had claimed that ‘all autistics need higher levels of stimulation, until she learned that in fact many became extremely distressed and regressed when overly bombarded.
She claimed that she could think like a cow and that all animals were visual thinkers too. Can we be sure the animals confirmed this indisputably in some kind of shared language? Dogs are doing pretty well considering they don’t see color nor have the distinct vision we do. Perhaps animals could go hang up their sense of smell, their kinesthetic sense and abilities for physical patterning and reliance on placement and the spatial navigation of the kinesthetic learner and enjoy their visual thinking instead.
So what of Einstein, Gates and Jefferson. Were they autistic? Do we care? Or does is the idea self-serving enough as to be unquestionable? Jonathan Mitchell is a man on the autism spectrum who dared to question the idea. Enjoy: http://www.jonathans-stories.com/non-fiction/undiagnosing.html
For some reason, this phenomena occurs with any ‘marginalized’ movement. I’ve worked with GLBT rights groups and you can find lists of famous people who were gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered. There are lists of famous animal welfare advocates, vegetarians, and vegans. In terms of pathology, you can find lists of famous people with mental illness in general, and any specific one you can think of. I find it facinating that everyone claims Van Gogh – including autism.
I think this happens for two reasons – one is the hero worship that goes along with celebrities – sort of a connection. But the other one is more of a hope/PR thing – it is a way to encourage people and to bring attention to a cause – look at Einstein – he was autistic and look how well he turned out . . . plus it looks cool on billboards.
I don’t know if Einstein was autistic, but he has a couple of wonderful quotes that I sure can identify with – like the one on my sewing bag “My passionate sense of social justice and social resonsiblity has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities” – really describes me . . .
So I guess ultimately what I’m rambling about is this annoying phenomena is not only part of autism – but any marginalized group
We talked about this a little on Saturday night. All though we didn’t really touch on it that much. Did you start writing this before or after your visit? LOL.
I am getting sick of reading websites that tell us about all these famous people on the spectrum and in reality 98% of them are not or were not diagnosed with an ASD. People read them and think ‘oh wow autism is cool, I think i have that’. Then you get all the people going on and on and wear the tshirts “I am autistic and I am proud”. Don’t get me wrong, I embrace autism. I love my kids with autism. I’m on the spectrum, hubby is on the spectrum, but i don’t feel the need to wear it as a badge whenever I leave the house.
after.
could have been subconscious influence 😉
How about a Tshirt which says
“I’m funky but wierd”
or
“My normality is relative”
or
“Love me, love my quirks”
or
“Labels are for jam jars. See the person before the diagnosis”
or
“I’m more than a walking brain, don’t reduce me to my neurology”
or
“I refuse to live up to stereotypes”
or
“I’m deeply uncool, now buggar off ;-)”
or
“I don’t want to impress you, because then you’d stay”
or
“Don’t need Einstein. I’m chummin’ it with the unfamous”
or
“Don’t join my club, or I’ll leave”
or
“Genius is overrated”
or
“I’m embracing diversity – EVERYONE’S”
or
“I’d rather embrace a human than a label”
or
“Equality can’t be achieved through separatism”
or
“I refuse to hate the common people”
or
“Nazis did hatred, so I won’t”
or
“I don’t need to be above you if I desire to sit across from you”
or
“Look hard enough and we’re all wierdos”
or
“We all have autistic moments”
or
“Some or the greatest inventions ad creativity were the end product of social contact”
or
“I refuse to invalidate 99 in 100 people”
or
“If you see only typicality, you’re blinkered by stereotypes”
or
“I don’t think I’d have invented the wheel, but I could fart you a good tune”
😉
🙂
I am currently taking a class entitled Teaching Children and Adolescents with Autism. I actually just finished both Temple Grandin’s book, Thinking in Pictures and your book Nobody Nowhere (which I really enjoyed and found very interesting!). I was surprised when Grandin mentioned that Gates and Einstein had autistic traits. I had never heard that before.
I think that your post and the article by Jonathan Mitchell are both very interesting. I personally do not know enough about autism to say whether or not Gates and Einstein are/were autistic. I do agree with Fleur Wiorkowski that these diagnoses may be a result of the desire for PR and hope.
In our culture it is common to believe that people who think differently are not intelligent. This is unfortunate because it is often untrue. I believe that by saying these famous geniuses have/had autistic traits then people will realize how intelligent autistic people can be. On the other hand, I don’t think that we should be over diagnosing just to make a point. There are many diagnosed autistic people today that have made a huge impact in the world and are very intelligent. I think that we should focus on those people and their triumphs.
For example, most people do not know that there are autistic writers out there. I must admit I was one of those people before I started taking this class. When people found out that I was reading books by people with autism they were very surprised and asked if it the books were clear and comprehensible.
There are many autistic people who would be considered successful even if they were not autistic. I think that it is more important to focus on these autistic people rather than to try and diagnose billionaires and Nobel Prize winners.
yes, very cool.
there’s a number of bestselling authors too.
two of my books were
but Kathy Hoopman, for example, has had a bestselling hardback with All Cats Have Asperger’s.
and some of Temple’s books went well in the mainstream too.
But there are so many good works by people on the autism spectrum, including fiction, children’s books, some wonderful poets, songwriters, singers, some dancers, film makers, innovators.
check out http://www.auties.org and see what some people are doing for themselves.
And remember not all these people are functionally verbal. There are some functionally non-verbal people with published works, some who have university qualifications, do online consulting and public speaking work, others who are contractors and others who achieve what many can not… to master ‘being’ and have an infectious laugh, and just be good company.
thanks for thinking positively.
Donna *)