famous autistic people
To demonstrate that autism isn't only a problem, but can also give rise to remarkable intelligence, some people have been named as supposedly being autistic. Among them for instance Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Vincent Van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Virginia Woolf, Bob Dylan, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Dan Aykroyd. The latter actually got diagnosed as such, the others are supposed to have been autistic in some way. I would like to add another famous name to that list: Sherlock Holmes.
Granted, it is a fictitious person. One who sprung from the mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A man who passionately believed in elfs. I doubt whether he has ever considered whether his great sleuth suffered from a condition other than being overly intelligent. But look at all who played him in the last decades, and you are left with a decidedly autistic performance. Sherlock Holmes didn't have a wife or girlfdriend, though he purportedly had had an affair with a female criminal mind named Irene Adler, who left him to persue her criminal career. Which sounds just a bit neurotic too, Sherlock on the other hand was quite happy to settle for a friendship with doctor Watson. What is so striking about this friendship, is that Sherlock never goes out with him for a night on the town, never goes dining with him to celebrate anything at all, never goes on a holiday with him. Things you might do, and I have done, with a friend. And he calls him by his last name. Something you wouldn't do with regards to your best friend. More recent directors of Holmes-films have corrected this autistic trait, but shouldn't have, I feel, to stay true to Holmes' character. Holmes and Watson have their adventures solving cases, in which Watson inevitably playes an instrumental role. Almost literally instrumental. Though he is supposed to be Holmes' best friend, Sherlock treats him as an instrument in solving cases. As I have treated other kids in my youth as instruments to play games with. And as I am searching for someone to be instrumental in acting out my hobbies. The purpose of such a person is not to share memorable moments with, or to feel a special personal bond with, but to accomplish certain goals. This is a typical element of the autistic personality disorder.
With Asperger's firmly in mind when looking at Sherlock Holmes, everything fits. His great powers of observation and analytic skills. Why? Because as an autistic person you need to analyse the world around you, and everyone you meet in it, to try and make any sense of it. Fail to observe and analyse, and you'll fail at living in this intricately social world we live in.
It is, I think, this autistic characteristic of Sherlock Homes that attracted Conan Doyle to him. He lets John Watson describe his friend as: "an eccentric with no regard for contemporary standards of tidiness or good order." He doesn't solve crime for the benefit of his own fame, but in order to restore order to the world around him. Modelling the world around you to the understanding you have of it, is an important autistic trait, just as is over-analysing it.
I am no Sherlock Homes. Nor am I anywhere near the league of famous persons thought to have (had) an autistic personality disorder. But I console myself that I could be in worse company for that part of their, and my, personality. I am a Holmes of my own life, trying to make sense of the world around me by (over) analysing everything. I have said to several people, much to their amazement, that there is a system to everything. From the way you vacuum your room, to the way you enter into a discussion. Knowing and understanding this system is crucial in how well you function in society. That was, and is, my contention. Of course for normal people it is a skill which comes naturally by interacting woth other people. And there you have it: autism is a state of affairs in which the one crucial understanding of the world is missing: how other people function.