Copyright 2005 by Nova Science Publishers,
Inc.
No address.
List of Tables
Autism and Asperger Syndrome
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Gift or Curse
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Frontal Lobe Hypothesis
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Medical Temporal Lobe Hypothesis
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Cerebellar Hypothesis
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Autism/Asperger Syndrome a Disorder of the
Social Self
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William James Sidis (1898-1944)
Abraham Sperling, NYC, Aptitude Testing
Institute, Nobody approach William Sidis
IQ between 250-300, Einstein 200
Child prodigy
Age eleven, Harvard Mathematical Club,
Lecture on Four-dimensional bodies
By mid-twenties, Disappeared into obscurity,
Lost all interest in math., Clerk in low-paying jobs, Described as 'obsessive
and autistic-like'
Estranged from family, Tried to escape
publicity
Died 46, Cerebral hemorrhage
The Rise and Fall of William James Sidis
A Rising Star
Age sixteen, The youngest professor of
mathematics
'The Animate and the Inanimate', Predicted
anti-matter and black-holes
Other intersts, Astronomy, anatomy and
transport systems
Spoke more than forty lang.s, Repotedly,
Able, Learn one language one day
Published in newspapers and magazines
Father, Boris, Believed, His child rearing
practices not due to any herditary disposition, Believed in early educational
intervention and based his method of child training on the writings of the
philosopher William James and started educating his son at two years of age
Fall from Public Grace
A few years later, Newspapers, 'Youthful
prodigy in trouble', decline of 'mathemtical wunderkind'
Age fiften, Turned his back on math., began
Harvard Law School, did not finish it, Lost interest in academic pursuits
Age twenty, Taught math. for a short time
at Rice Institutde, HTX, Suffered from severe bullying and ridicule by
students, Emotionally immature teacher, Described as a social misfit (I must never
forget this. Collective behvaiour rarely changes. They will do anything
possible to prevent me from pursuing my interests. Police, Paramedics, Faculties,
Employees, Students, they are all in a conspiracy. I must be strong and
indifferent to their conspiracy.)
Interested in leftwing politics, In 1918, Anti-war
May Day politics, Boston, riot, 18 months jail sentence, His father's
intervention, Did not serve
Pursed life of anonymity and seclusion,
Blamed his father for his failures, Estranged from family, Attempted to live
normal life
Regularly hounded by the press, Ridiculed
for not living up to his father's expectations of the Harvard genius
In 1924, New York Times, Lowly paid worker
incapable of using his former gifts
In 1937, New Yorker, title April Fool,
extraordinarily cruel article
Norber Wiener, child prodigy, 'pilloried
like a side show freak for fools to grape at'
Sara Sidies, his mother, 1952, 'newspapers
never missed the chance to try and prove that he was insane or psychotic or
simply a freak'
Sidis's tragedy, manifold, Some, Unable to
cope with early successes, Example of early prodigy burnout, Newspaper, Creator
parents, particularly his father Boris, One member of Sidis's family, His
parents incapable of being good parents, they had 'neither wisdom nor common
sense', Norbert Wiener, Accused Sidis's parents of lack of providing 'the most
basic emotional security a child needs to grow up normally', Ellen Winner,
Reasons for some gifted children to deny their gifts are 'extreme pushing,
domination, exploitation, which according to Winner is not always the result of
negative environmental influences but may be part of the 'individual's
personality and is related to the person's creativity'
Childhood and Family History
Parents
Both father and mother, highly intelligent
individuals, Russian Jews, immigrated to America, Boris, Several lang.s, Taught
himself Eng., in a few months on arriving in America, Harvard Univ., PhD and
MD, Famous psychologist, 17 books and 52 articles throughout his life, Any child
if educated the right way had the potential to become a genius, One of his
books, Used his son as illustration of his theories, Difficulties understanding
human interactions, and the mechanics of everyday living which he left to his
wife
Clear indications, Boris had AS or broader
autism phenotype
mother Sarah, illiterate when arriving in
US, Medical degree, Book, Original title How to make our child a genius,
published another title
Childhood
Age six months, First word door, rapid
increase in vocab.
Age 18 months, New York Times
Wallace, biographer, 'by the time Billy
turned three his voracity for learning was in full swing and it became apparent
that he was not even an ordinary precocious little boy'
Often reported early facility for language
development in children with AS, 'they talk before they walk'
Early Special Interests
His mother, 'Billy was seven months old he
pointed to the moon and called it by name'
Wallace, 'Trips to the window sbecame a
nightly ritual and he was pleased when he could see the moon'
Early interest, spelling
Age five, Method for instantly calculating
the day of the week on which any given date, past or future
Age seven and a half, Two part book on
calendars
Age six and eight, At least four books, Two
of them Anatomy and Astronomy, Two of them, Grammar, Ling. and Math.
Age eight, Interests, Math., Astronomy,
Foreign lang. (Lat., Gr., Russ., Fr., Ger., Heb., Turkish, Armenian), Anatomy,
Map and calendar making
Photographic memory, Quote and the numbers of
the pages
The repetitiveness
involved in pursuing these special interests is thought to be anxiety reducing,
calming and comforting.
Practical Skills
Biographer, 'Was years behind the
development of normal children in terms of grooming, tying his shoelaces or
getting dressed appropriately'
Social Functioning
Childhood
Biographer, 'How many other toddlers like
to discuss Caesar's Gallic Wars in the original Latin'
Possible rare exceptions, Always company of
adults, Very typical features of children with AS, Prefer to be with either
much older children or adults with their peers whom they find too unpredictable
Often try to engage their conversational
partners in. skip.
Highschool, Completed four year curriculum
in six weeks, Teacher aid, Correct senior papers, Nickname 'professor', Taught
seniors how to tackle physics problems before he had officially studied it
himself
Biographer, Incident, Highschool headmaster
began reading the bible and Billy jumped out in front of 1000 students, pressed
his hands over his ears and explained "I don't believe in that. I don't
want to hear that", Next two years, Studied at home, Math., 'reading
Einstein and checking for possible errors'
Adolescence and Adulthood
Entering Harvard, Social problems
increased, Considered to be an accentric, Reclusive and did not have many
friends, Described as a misfit, Someone who had no social instincts, a complete
freak in the eyes of his fellow students he had none of the social graces, no
interest in sports or girls, Was ridiculed and was stated that 'the young Einstein
couldn't make change for a phone call', Mercilessly bullied and teased by his
peers
Junior year in Harvard, Mediocre grades
Rice Institude, HTX, even more difficult,
Teased relentlessly about his social ineptitude, Wallace, his eight months in
TX, Outcast, They would make fun of him and he 'would put his hands over his
face or hold his arms out in front of him and his hands and arms would tremble
violently', Brilliant research student, completely hopeless teacher
Portrayed as 'a die hard misogynist'
TX girls, 'they flirt too much. It was very
annoying.'
No interest in any sexual activities, Vow
of celibacy, age fifteen, Is believed that kept his vow until death
After graduation from Harvard, told the
reporters, 'I want to live the perfect life. The only way to live the perfect
life is to live it in seclusion. I have always hated crowds'
'thinking/analysing pondering abstractions
- was his refuge, his place of privacy and play'
Later life, Hardly any friends, only some
acquantances, Billy Rab, 'he was not kind of guy who would fit into a social
group'
Biographer, 'not too practical, naïve and
an idealist'
His siter, 'Stragithforward and utterly
frank, and would tell everybody just what he thought of them, and that is not
the best way', She felt that he never learned to lie
May day demonstration, Arrested and badly
beaten up, Did not understand the charge, 'I do not idolize the red flag - it
is just a piece of red silk'
Special Interests
Mathematics
Restaurant, Copy of Einstein's final
formula of relativity on a table where one of his friends was sitting. Although
he was approximately three or four feet away from the table and could only see
the figures upside down, he spotted a mistake. His friend had made a small
mistake when copying Einstein's formula. 'He had set down a quantity of the 6th
power when it should have been to the quantity of the 7th power. The power was
indicated by a small number written above and to the right of a letter on the
lengthy equation'.
Other Interests
Fascination with indian tribes, detective
novels, libraries, history of towns, maps of Boston, mystical orientation such
as an interest in the Ouija board, learning of lang.s, American lang. (the
language of the people who were largely not educated), the public transit
systems, and many more
Fascination, Streetcar transfer collecting,
Started age five, In mid twenties, more than 1600 transfers, Published
pseudonym 'Notes on the Collection of Transfers', His biographer called it 'the
most boring book ever written', Memorised thousands of transit routes
throughout the US, Memorising of facts, common feature
Eccentricities
Isaac Rabinowitz, 'on the brightest sunny
day William always wore a three piece suit usually dark and he'd always carry a
raincoat or an overcoat over his arm...He always had his jacket open with his
vest buttoned tight'
Neglect personal hygiene, Wallace, 'He did
not bath very often and smelt badly. He wore sneakers with no socks and he
would scratch his legs in the summer' 'He did not care for conventional
greetings, was reluctant to say hello or good-bye or to shake hands'
Autistic Savant
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What Was Wrong with William James Sidis
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Kurt Gödel (1906-1978)
Childhood and Family History
Born where and when
His father, Intersted in logic and reason,
Was of 'serious and ponderous disposition'
Mother, Well educated and cultured,
Encouraged the early education of her children
Paternal grandfather, Josef, Alledgedly
suicide
Rudolf, His brother, their parents's
marriage 'was not a love match, although 'it was certainly built on affection
and sympathy'
Age four, Family called him 'der Herr
Warum'
Dawson, 'earnestly serious, bright and inquisitive
child who was sensitive, often withdrawn or preoccupied, and who, already at an
early age, exhibited certain signs of emotional instability'
His brother, Gödel suffered a 'miled
anxiety neurosis' at age five
Somewhat sickly child, Age eight, Rheumatic
fever, Stopped going to school for sometime, Beginning of lifelong
preoccupation with health and diet according to biographer
Early Interests
Age ten, Keenly interested in mathematics,
religion and lang.s, Excellent chess player
Studied Lat., Fr., Eng., After death,
Notebook, Ita., Dutch, Gr.
Autodidact
Age fourteen, Goethe's color theory
His brother, Rudolph, 'Mastered University
Mathematics by his final Gymnasium years much to the astonishment of his
teachers and fellow pupils'
No interest in physical activities, Exempted
from physical education and turned away from swimming and gymnastics
Harry Klepeta, friend, 'his interest in
math. and phy. [had already] manifested itself(dotdotdot) at the age of 10'
Adulthood
Difficulties with human interaction and
social integration, his lack of empathy, his narrow and obsessive interests,
his pronounced childishness but also the comorbity with mood disorders,
hypochondria and irrational fears
Social Behaviour
Shy introvert
Math. at Univ. of Vienna, Member of Vienna
Circle
Biographer, 'although Gödel was an
attentive observer and clearly brilliant, he rarely contributed to the Circle's
discussions, unless they were about math.'
Biographer, 'a reticent genius' 'shy and
reclusive' 'few close friends'
'shied away from controversy(dotdotdot) And
so held back from open criticism of the Circle's tenets. As was his habit in
such formal gatherings, he was content most of the time to listen to what
others had to say, only occasionally interjecting incisive comments'
Dawson, 'To persist in asking
'unanswerable' questions can quickly lead to social isolation, for the
questioner is more likely to be reckoned a crank than a genius. Indeed, to seek
rationality in all things is, from a modern point of view, a profound irrational
Zeitgeist. skip.
Karl Menger, 'I never heard him take the
floor(dotdotdot) He indicated interest solely by slight motions of the head, in
agreement, skeptically or in disagreement(dotdotdot) his expression (oral as
well as written) was always of the greatest precision and at the same time of
exceeding brevity. In nonmath. conversation he was very withdrawn'
Olga Taussky-Todd, 'was well trained all
branches of math. and you could talk to him about any problem and receive an
excellent response. If you had a particular problem in mind he would start by
writing it down in symbols. He spoke slowly and very calmly and his mind was
very clear(dotdotdot) It became slowly obvious(dotdotdot) that he was
incredibly talented. His help was much in demand(dotdotdot)[and] he offered
[it] whenever it was needed(dotdotdot) But he was very silent'
Friendships/Relationships
Hardly any close friends, A few
acquaintances who shared his intellectual pursuits, One of them, Einstein
Only truly close relationship, Wife Adele
Porkert, Dancer in Viennese nightclub
Parents, strongly disapproved of marriage,
She was more than six years older, She was Catholic, Lower-class family, Face
disfigured by a port wine stain, Social outcast herself
Lack of Empathy
Biography, 'displayed monstrous purblindness
to the plight of European Jews'
In 1939, Returned to Vienna, Medical
Examination by Nazi armed forces, Because he remained 'oddly unmoved' by
politics
Dawson, 'His lack of emotional engagement
with people may have kept him from appreciating the significance of what was
happening. He seemed oblivious to the fates befalling his colleagues and
professors, many of whom were Jewish, and stayed immersed in his work while the
world around him fell apart'
Naïveté/Childishness
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Narrow Interests/Obsessiveness
Mathematics
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Other Interests
Other interests, parapsychology,
superstition, sorcery, telepathy and religion
Believed in telepathy and felt that there
was a 'high probability' that elementary psychic factors' (as opposed to
physical factors) might exist, Keenly interested in foreign lang.
Routines Control Issues
Dawson, 'retained almost every scrap of
paper that crossed his desk, including library request slips, luggage tags,
crank correspondence and letters from autograph seekers and math. amateurs'
'In the world of math. everything is well
poised and in perfect order' 'Shouldn't the same be assumed (expected) for the
world of reality, contrary to apperance?'
Co-Morbidity
Child, signs of emotional instability,
Adult, a number of 'mental breakdowns'
After publication of his famous work, Signs
of depression, Comitted against his will to a sanatorium for a couple of weeks (There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who
understand this and those who do not.)
Chronic hypochondriac, Avoided eating food,
Became malnourished
Variety of pills for imaginary heart
problems
Later in life, Ignored bleeding ulcer,
Because mistrust of doctors, Almost death
Ramanujan, very poor and erratic eating
habits
Conclusion
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Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999)
Childhood and Adolescence
His biographers, Abscence from school, due
to 'adjustment problems'
Grades and social skills, quite low, His
father worried
Age eight, Home tuition
Biographer, disturbed other students by his
habit of talking during class
Teachers at Taft High School, critised his
behaviour and social skills, received low marks in 'courtesy, dependability and
cooperation'
'an underachiever with less than acceptable
socialisation with his peers and teachers'
No incidences of bullying
'unmotivated pupil' 'unanimated lacklustre
student' 'completely inattentive' 'indifference and boredom in the class'
Finished high school 'he was ranked 414 out
of a senior population of 509, putting him in the last quartile of his
graduating class'
Herman Getter, art teacher, 'Picasso of
cinematography' 'brilliant mind', the reason bad grade math. phy. science, No
interest in them
Due to low grade, No entry to college,
Autodidact
Early Special Interests and Social
Functioning
Early age, Fascinated, Photography, Shared with
friend, Marvin Traub
Age 14, Lifelong obssession with
photography
Marvin's aunt, 'would ring the doorbell
every five minutes'
Both Kubrick and Traub, not very social, 'lone
young men on a photographic mission'
One of his contemporaries (who?), 'very private
person'
Appearance did not hlep in encouraing
friendship, 'a flabby kid with a probing glare' 'an aquiline nose, sharp,
piercing eyes, not warm and friendly but sharp, aggressive and intense'
Age seventeen, Interst in music, Played
percussion, 'very faraway, dreamy look in his eyes as
if he wasn't with us'
Visits to cinema 'eight times a week'
(Exactly me.)
Became fascinated with movies and
movie-making
Believed that he could do easily as well as
the Hollywood movies, if not better. (Exactly me)
In true autistic fashion he did not just
watch a movie because he was interested in topic but because he needed to learn
everything about his new interest.
Helen O'Brian, head of photography
department at Look magazine, 'The kid had an eye and technical skills' (When
did he start magazines and quit magazines?)
All consuming interest, chess, Reportedly,
Twelve hours a day, Linked to interest with war and the military
Social Impairments
'Stanley was so within himself. Deep
thinkers are in a world of their own'
School, Described as 'eccenteric' 'he was
his own person and didn't mingle too much' 'his solitary demeanour closed him
off to the majority of the student body but he remained very open to those who
would connet to his particular world'
Marriage
skip.
Friendships
Christiane, third wife, Did not like the
Hollywood parties they used to go to when they were young, 'This is murder'
'He'd rather go to jail' (Exactly me)
'phone person' 'he felt more concentrated
on the phone, so he had many purely telephone friendships'
Empathy
'His emotions went into the synapses of his
brain and were translated into visions' (The fuck does this mean?)
Recluse
skip.
Eccentricity, Non-Verbal Behaviour
Christiane, 'the most eccentric thing about
him was that he looked different' 'baby-faced kid' 'he looked out of place and
sounded effected to people'
Hardly every disaplayed any emotions,
Always calm and cool
Journalist, LA Herald-Examiner, 'His
hypnotic eyes, dominated by peculiarly strong brows, still outstare outsiders,
friends, even family'
Preservation of Sameness
Co-workers, 'He wore the same shirt, same
pants, and the same coat for what seemed to the crew to be weeks on end'
All-Absorbing Interests
skip.
Perfectionism and Attention to Detail
Biographer, 'He always planned for
everything that he was going to do. Enormous preparation was his strength.'
'aloof, perfectionistic attitude to making
a film'
Saul Bass, 'I can't say he's reasonable. I
can only say that he's obssessive in the best sense of the word because reasonableness doesn't make anything good'
'he was able to totally focus on his work
and ignore everything else'
skip.
Control
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Workaholic
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Humour
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Phobias
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The Man and His Work
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Conclusion
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Enoch Powell (1912-1998)
Family Background
Impairment in Reciprocal Social Interaction
Childhood
Adolescence and Young Adulthood
Loneliness
Peers
Female Friendships
Asperger Characteristics
All Absorbing Narrow Interests
Enoch Powell the Poet
Imposition of Routines and Interests
Speech and Language Problems
Non-Verbal Communication Problems
Conclusion
Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956)
Family Background
Impairment in Social Interaction
Lack of Social Competence
Sexual Identity and Marriage
Lack of Empathy
Restricted all Absorbing Narrow Intersts
The Collector - Wasps and Sex
Focus of Attention
Observations and Recordings
Imposition of Routines and Intersts on Self
and on Others
Control and Order
Sexuality and Perversion
Co-Morbidity
Conclusion
Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995)
Family Background
skip.
Childhood
Recurring nightmare, She is surrounded by
nurses and doctors who believe that she has some type of unspeakable
deficiency. (Great insight, very illuminating, A child can know)
'escape into a parallel universe: the endlessly
thrilling world of fiction'
skip.
Lesbianism and Gender Identity
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Social Impairments
Extremely shy child and hypersensitive
Letter to Arthur Koestelr, 'dreadful shyness, of teens and twenties, that was like a
physical pain'
Throughout her life, Enormous problems
expressing her emotions
Vivien de Bernardi, Friend in Switz., difficulties
with intimacy
Daniel Keel, literary executor, after
twenty years, started sharing her thoughts and feelings
Fellow students at Barnard, 'reserved,
reticent, and rather shadowy figure'
Described as loner, superior, not having
any friends, difficult to get to know
Another student, 'as a distant figure, a
handsome girl who made no effort to integrate with her peers'
None of her fellow students could remember
having conversations with her and recall that she would
not show any emotions even when she received praise.
Lovers
Promiscuous. skip. Unable to maintain
relationship. skip.
Friends and Acquaintances
Limited number of friends and acquaintances
Vivien de Bernardi, during a party she had disappeared and locked herself in the bathroom
'She just couldn't stand it, there were too many people, too much talking, she
did not know what to say, how to act, what to do. It was just overwhelming for
her'
Vivien de Bernardi, She would always speak
her mind even if it was insulting to other people, she was unable to inhibit
her thoughts, and did not even understand that she was rude to others
Portrayed as very unbalanced, hostile and
misanthropic and unable for any relationships. When people wanted to become her
friends she drove her away.
Communication Problems
Friend (who? I can find out), 'Pat was such
a wonderful writer, but she couldn't write a dialogue'
Barbara Grier, publisher of naiad Press in
the 1980s, 'Talking with her was like pulling teeth'
Carl Laszlo, 'She was a writer, not a
speaker'
Sunday Times Magazine, First Love, Critized
for sounding very aritifical and having nothing to do with emotional
expressions of love
Heather Chasen, Highsmith unable to portray
female characters in her books they appeared wooden and without life indicating
her lack of insight into the female mind.
Loneliness
Patricia Schartle, US agent in the 1950s,
Struck by the sense of loneliness, sadness and lack of joy surrounding
Highsmith
Asked whether she could tolerate living
alone on a fictional desert island, 'I think I could
better than most people probably' (If you have to live in an island....,
a subtle insult to Aspies for they can 'smell' it)
Non-Verbal Behaviour
Patricia Schartle, 'Gauche to an extreme,
really physically clumsy as well as boyish' 'absolutely no grace' (a revenge
from former lover or objective opinion?)
Vivien de Bernardi, ill fitting and
masculine looking clothes
Sir Michel Levey, meeting in Positano,
Italy, unsual appearance, severe looks, untidy hair, Red Indians, contributions
to conversation, few grunts, idiosyncratic and distinctly intriguing
personality
Sensory Sensitivities
Hypersensitivity to touch
and noise (the most important to me)
Friend, disliked being touched
Tobias Ammann, her architect, dislike for
shaking hands
Vivien de Bernardi, opera, la Scala, Milan,
hated experience, unable to bear the intense
high-pitched sounds
Vivien de Bernardi, local supermarket,
panic and fall apart, unable to handle the noise, the amount of people, worried
that somebody might recognize her and even attempt to touch her
Inflexibility and Preservation of Sameness
Kingsley, did not like her eating while
standing up, always had to sit down and eat with knife and fort, ashtray moved, she would immediately return it to its
original position (so illuminating)
Order, Perfection and Cleanliness
Marion, obsession about cleaning and her
need for having several showers during the day
Austerity
House in france, 'auster place, lived in
but empty at the same time' 'bare severe not overly comfortable'
House in Switz. skip.
Misanthropy
Schartle, slyness, meaness, misanthropy,
which she thought part of her personality, the only time laughed, poster of a
child with gouged out eyes
Babies should be eradicated early in order
to prevent overpopulation
Vatican, wanted destroyed by US bombs,
disagreed with Pope's resistance on birth control
Around age fifty, misanthropy almost
'Swiftian intensity'
Misogyny
skip.
Humour
Jonathan Kent, his grandmother, his mother,
bunch of daffodils, grandmother thought, flowers were advancing army, Kent
thought sad, Highsmith 'screaming with laughter'
Animals
Great lover of animals
Cats, Friend, delicious meals for her two
cats, Talk to them in special cat lang.
Snails, Empathy for her animals, Constantly
anxious that something might happen to her cats while she was living in NYC
When moved to Fr., snails against the law,
smuggled them under her breasts
Cats, unlike human beings they gave her companionship wihtout making 'demands and
intrusions'
Gudrun Mueller, one of favourite cats,
death by vet, the only time cried
Bruno Sager, 'for
her human beings were strange, she thought she would never understand them, and
perhaps that is why she liked cats and snails so much'
Money
'pathologically stingy' 'miserly behaviour'
Vivien de Bernardi, ever possessed one
swimsuit
Alcohol
skip.
Positive Aspects of Her Personality
skip.
Sense of Justice
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Autistic Superego
Biographer, 'At times she felt in need of punishment
and these masochistic impulses expressed themselves through tortured poetry'
One of poems, 'I am too much master of
myself'
Psychiatric Co-Morbidity
Depression
skip.
Schizoid Personality
skip.
Genetic Factors
skip.
Amorality/Abnormality/Psychopathy/Guilt
Was
Highsmith a psychopath? The classic definition of psychopathy as proposed by
Cleckley includes deviant personality traits such as lack of empathy, lack of
guilt, shallow affect and manipulation of others. Current research shows that
adult psychopathic individuals show a
reduced moral and conventional distinction. Highsmith certainly had very strong
psychopathic tendencies. One possible distinction between individuals with
psychopathy and autism is that the former have no obvious theory of mind impairment
(in fact, they must possess an extremely well developed theory of mind in order
to deceive people) but a profound impairment in empathy, whereas the latter
show impairments in both (they have difficulties in deceiving people as well as
lack of empathy.)
Roger Clarke, Portrayal of amorality in
Highsmith, truly authentic, Believes that Highsmith was amoral, 'There was this
strange blankness about her'
All Absorbing Interest, Search for Identity
Obssessed with work
Madeleine, 'without her work Patricia would
have ended up either in a mental hospital or in a home for alcoholics'
(accurate) 'the characters she writes about, they are her(dotdotdot)all those
strange characters haunting other people, and thinking and fantasising about
them, they were her. She was her writing.'
Believed that her creativity was an
expression of her frustration and suppression of her sexual impulse
Age sixteen, Anorexia, Biographer's
opinion, Desire to erase her identity, link between anorexia and autisme
Charles Latimer, 'she was Ripley, or I
should say, she would have liked to have been him'
Contradictions
skip. Is Gender Identity Disorder deserve
to be 'treated'?
Conclusion
skip.
Joy Adamson (1910-1980)
Childhood and Family History
Depression
Social Impairments
First Marriage
Second Marriage
Third Marriage
Sexuality
Violence and Cruelty
Control, Eccentricity and Self-Centeredness
Isolation
All Absorbing Interests
Painting
Animals
Books, Money and Publicity
Narrative Ability and Impaired
Autobiographical Memory
The End
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
Family Background
skip.
Impairment in Social Interaction
Grew up wealth and comfort
Keen on 'collecting anything that captured
his interest, from shells to rocks, insects to birds's eggs'
White and Gribbin, Biographers, lonely
child
Autobiography, cruel to animal, 'sense of
power it gave him'
Detested 'regimented learning'
Evenings, in his bedroom
School, 'old before his time and a very
serious fellow'
Marriage
Around age thirty, Decided marry,
Analytical point of view
Concern, Marriage suffocate him, stop his
travelling activities, taking up too much of his time, 'children might disturb
his peace' (exactly me)
Emma Wedgwood
Casual attitude on wedding day, Regarded
ceremony as rather silly, 'shown little regard for the feelings of his new wife
Emma or the two families', No proper wedding reception, Rushed Emma to the
railway station and caused upset with some of his relative
Affect and Intellect
skip.
All Absorbing Interests
Chemistry
Cambridge, Most of his allowance, 'latest
gadgetry and chemicals for his solitary hobby', Correspondence to his brothers,
'full of chemical chat, and discussion of their shared hobby, leaving little
rrom or comment on family matters'
Observing and Collecting
Edinburgh, most of his time, 'reading the
latest scientific, medical and political literature'
HMS Beagle, a huge amount (I must remember
that, when Aspie's collection is moved, it is considered a labor of great
effort.)
Curiosity or Maliciousness
'displayed an insatiable desire to kill
birds of any variety'
'peculiar obssession'
'cared for nothing but shooting dogs and
rat-catching' 'will be disgrace to himself and all of his family'
Focus of Attention
Biographers, 'Always had the habit of
reducing everything to its fundamentals, of parrying all arguments with cold
scientific logic'
'he deliberately chose to cut himself off
from the world'
Originality
skip.
An Eye for Details
skip.
Creativity
skip.
Routines and Sameness
'On one occasion he was so deep in thought
that he feel into a ditch' (Thales?)
'same path almost every day and when he
first formed the habit he used to count the number of times he completed the
circuit, kicking a flint onto the path at the end of each lap'
'Counting the laps and kicking the markers
was all part of the mantra guiding the patterns of his thoughts'
his life, 'incredibly
organised fashion, following a routine which was hardly ever altered' (He was a
lucky man. It has been my aspire to achieve this since I read this for the
first time.)
Children got older and left home, Darwin and
his wife, 'became even more mechanical and regulated'
Ardent letter writer, 14 000 between 1821
and 1882
Illness
No doubt, depression
skip.
Loner and Eccentric
Young, 'road outside his house lowered to
thwart prying eyes and fitted a mirror outside his study window in order to
have advance warning of visitors'
Michael Neve, 'shunned public life, indeed
he almost shunned life itself'
Differential Diagnosis
skip.
Conclusion
skip.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
Whether, AS or Schizoid
Asperger Syndrome versus Schizoid
Personality in Childhood
skip.
Social Relationship Problems
Loneliness and Sense of Self
Autobiography, solitariness of each human
soul and that the loneliness of the human soul was unendurable
Monk, 'his acute sense of isolation and
loneliness' 'overcome his solitariness through contact with something outside
himself: another individual, humanity at large or the external world'
'Dostoyevsky's Regojin, the sinister,
embittered murderer of the Idiot, consumed by hatred, disappointment and
jealousy', fictional character, most identified
'I am quite different to the mass of human
beings' 'I live most for myself - everything has for me, a reference to my own
education. I care for very few people and have several enemies - for three at
least whose pain is delightful to me. I often wish to give pain and when I do,
I find it pleasant for the moment. I feel myself superior to most people'
Monk, inner life, 'the picture of a ghost,
a quasi-substantial being only partially in contact with the people around him,
someone whose impassability has rendered him almost dead of all warmth and
emotions'
Russell, 'I shall never lose the sense of
being a ghost'
Recurrent dream, being trapped behind glass
like an aquarium fish, unable to make any human contact
To Lady Ottoline, 'how passionately I long
that one could break through the prison walls in one's own nature'
'he had never felt he really belonged
though he managed to dilute himself at different moments' 'more than ever a
stranger on this planet'
'The Study of Mathematics' 'Mathematics,
rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty, a beauty cold and
austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker
nature....' 'real life is, to most men, a long second-best a perpetual compromise
between the ideal and the possible; but the world of pure reason knows no
compromise, no practical limitations' 'remote from human passions' 'the region
of absolute necessity'
Childhood and Adolescence
Autobiography, 'the most important hours of
my day were those that I spent alone in the garden and the most vivid of my
experience was solitary. I seldom mentioned my most serious thoughts to others
and when I did I regretted it(dotdotdot) throughout my childhood I had an
increasing sense of loneliness and despair of even meeting anyone with whom I
could talk'
At school, 'teased and he suffered minor
humiliations almost daily' 'on one occasion in an excess of fury, I got my
hands on his throat and started to strangle him. I intended to kill him but
when he began to go livid, I relented. I do not think that he knew that I
intended murder'
Late Adolescence and Adulthood
Trinity College, 'shy and awkward' 'very
lonely and very unhappy'
Intimate Relationships
Barbara Strachey, 'cold to women, selfish,
and also a goat'
Breda Utley, 'terrific sexual urges' which
caused him to 'assume the repulsive expression of a lustful satyr'
Dora Russell, 'this coolness and detachment
in personal relations to be a Russell characteristic'
'I have made a mess of my private life'
Other Social Relationships
Monk, 'To research the personal aspects of
Russell's life is to pick through a long trail of emotional wreckage that
inlcudes broken-hearted lovers, embittered ex-wives, a son who felt destroyed
by his father and grandchildren who have preserved throughout their lives a
passionate hatred for him'
'streak of cruelty and extraordinary
coldness(dotdotdot) in his dealings with those closest to him' 'for Russell
love seemed not to imply merging another self into his own. He remained trapped
in the boundaries of himself.'
Anthony Howard, to Ottoline Morrell, 'when
I talk to an ordinary person, I feel I am talking baby language and it makes me
lonely' 'alienation from the rest of humanity'
Brink, 'Russell's uncertainty about feeling
is the crucial issue in estimating the worth of what he bequeathed to our
culture'
All Absorbing Interests
Allan Wood, russell sought objective truth
everywhere 'in science, math., logic and religion just as much as in
philosophy' 'fundamentally a scholar, interested in pursuit of pure knowledge
and pure reason'
Autobiography, 'for intellectual
satisfaction about the things that puzzle me'
'the world with mathematics(dotdotdot) is a
beautiful world; it has nothing to do with life and death and human sordidness,
but is eternal, cold and passionless. To me pure mathematics is the only thing
we know of that is capable of perfection'
Kate Russell, fascinated by 'trains and
timetables'
His extraordinary achievements in the
spheres of mathematics were perhaps a means of overcoming his loneliness and
filling his inner emptiness. Brink also suggests that the reason for his
attraction to mathematics was because it was not human. Mathematics follows
laws and is predictable, in contrast, human behaviour is not rule governed and
not predictable.
Speech and Non-Verbal Behaviour
skip.
Imposition of Routines and Control
'liked everything to be in its place and
resented change as a waste of time, using valuable concentration which could
better go on intellectual pursuits'
Yearning for perfection, Intolerant of
'blemishes and faults in himself and others'
'scold his partners at croquet and whist,
so that everyone hates to play with him, and he has to be arranged for pampered
every hour of the day'
Alys 'seemd to be his slave'
After finishing 'Principles of
Mathematics', to Lucy Donnelly, 'abstract work, if one wishes to do it well,
must be allowed to destroy one's humanity; one raises a monument which is at
the same time a tomb, in which voluntarily, one slowly inters oneself'
Conclusion
skip.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Alan Ryan, 'there is no doubt that Russell
made himself and many other people close to him extraordinarily unhappy; there
is no dbout that he was frequently cruel and thoughtless in ways that a less
self-engrossed person would not have been; and no doubt that he was casually
dismissive of less talented people than himself, and that hte reverse of the
coin was a painful degree of self-loathing. When monk says that Russell's life
was a tragedy, he is not far off the mark'
Differential Diagnosis
skip.
Robert Walser (1878-1956)
Doubts on Walser's Diagnosis of
Schizophrenia
Asperger Syndrome
Childhood and Adolescence
Qualitative Impairment in Social
Interaction
Restricted Patterns of Behaviour and
Interests
Creative Genius
Eccentricity
Genetic Contribution
Conclusion
Schizoid Personality Disorder
Social/Emotional Impairment and Narrow
Intersts
Sexuality and Identity Problems
Excessive Preoccupation with Fantasy and
Introspection
Marked Insensitivity to Social Norms and
Conventions
Conclusions
Walser's Diagnosis of Schizophrenia
Examination of Walser's Diagnosis of
Schizophrenia Based on Current Diagnostic Criteria
Conclusion
Differential Diagnosis
Conclusion
Asperger Syndrome, Gift or Curse
Disability or Personality Type
Success or Struggle, Factors Influencing
Prognosis and Outcome
Heterogeneity
Comorbidity
Exceptional Abilities
Autistic Personality
Concluding Remarks
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