: I agree with the basis of this point, but I'm wondering
: where you get the evidence that all of the people you
: listed above were autistic. To my knowledge, none of
: them were actually diagnosed with the brain disorder.
this came from the person (dr tony attwood) who diagnosed me with a mild case of asperger's syndrome.
mozart obviously couldn't have been diagnosed with it, but historical records have revealed a pattern consistent with asperger's, but he also had some other mental condition, whose name i can't for the life of me remember...
einstein also wasn't diagnosed, but his pattern was consistent with asperger's syndrome, performing badly at school, being though mildly retarded for some period of time.
feynman also wasn't diagnosed, but the same goes for him. the book "genius", his biography, describes how he got through tasks in english at school (when given the opportunity he wrote about what interested him, doing more poorly when he couldn't), his overall personality (seemingly in a good mood all the time, to those who didn't know him extremely well. apparently when he was depressed he was described as seeming jubilent...), his ability to think visually and logically, more than verbally and socially, also sets him apart. other things were his funny ideas and lack of sociability and other things which are consistent with asperger's.
and i'm not sure, but the big bg may have been diagnosed. either way, tony attwood said that the fellow had it.
in case you don't know, tony attwood has been researching autism and asperger's syndrome for a long time, and is one of australia's leading experts in those conditions. he tours around giving talks and sessions quite often, and in '98 i was lucky enough to have him pass through where i live. :)
: -David
lank
