Jerry Sienfield Aspie possibly

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/peop ... /18641527/

Interesting. thanks for sharing.

There's been this rumour going round the web for years that Jerry Seinfeld is on the spectrm, but I kind of doubted it, so it's interesting to hear him say he can see it in himself.

I always thought that Kramer, Elaine and George were more spectrumistic, not Jerry.

Hehe.

Last edited by AspieUtah on 07 Nov 2014, 1:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I've always thought that all the characters in Seinfeld were somewhat Aspie-ish.
1. They speak their minds, bluntly.
2. They question and dislike social convention.
3. They notice details that others overlook.
4. They often appear to lack empathy.

Other thread on same topic
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt270069.html

So far from what I have seen the media coverage has been pretty positive but those commenting on the articles have been critical of the self diagnosis.

We don't really know what kind of diagnosis Seinfeld sought or completed. He certainly could afford an adult diagnosis. But, even if he didn't choose to be officially diagnosed, and resorted simply to accomplish a self-diagnosis based on what he described as his recognition of known characteristics, he accomplished what he undertook. For many people, especially those for whom a diagnosis at his age would only be a personal satisfaction, that is fair enough. We shouldn't expect cookie-cutter diagnoses for everyone.

For example, an individual who has been officially diagnosed still retains the right to live his life as if he were neurotypical, and never disclose his diagnosis. So, too, does an individual like Seinfeld have the right to seek the kind of diagnosis he chooses, including self research and self diagnosis, and disclose his opinion about himself. After all, the task of researching spectrum characteristics and completing spectrum screening tests is made extremely easy with the online availability of all kinds of academic research papers and tests. Is such research and testing any less valid for that individual than an official diagnosis?

PS with the whole diagnosis vs. self-diagnosis, it's funny that society doesn't say to someone who claims to be "depressed" if they have a "diagnosis"?yet you mention autism and well, you need some formal diagnosis although you might have read A LOT and finally seen how your ENTIRE LIFE falls into place?

Exactly!

Depressed has multiple meanings. It can mean an emotion or a medical condition. When someone says they are depressed it doesn't necessarily self-diagnosing w/ medical depression

Like I said in the other thread we don't know if he read a few articles or he did a thorough research job which would include taking to family members about his young days. We don't know if his issues are are just social which could be caused by a number of conditions, or if he has additional sensory and executive functioning issues. He might have them and not know about them because he assumes everybody else is like him or he did not even know to look for them because all everybody wants to talk about are the social issues. I do think self diagnosis if done correctly is probably right, but I do think a specialist has a better chance of being correct. The problems are lack of psychical and financial access because there are so few specialists in older Adult Autism, and that you are likely to be misdiagnosed,and invalidated, and even accused of fictitious disorders if you go to a generalist because they are working off of the the autism definitions from way back when they were in school. So self diagnosis is the absolutely the correct thing to do if you do not have access to a specialist. Lack of access is not the problem for Jerry. As mentioned he probably does not need professional diagnosis because his life both on the career and personal are seemingly is going well. But by going so public he did become a public face of Autism at a time of backlash against perceived over diagnosis with self diagnosis the center of attention. Practically all of us have been victims of attempts to invalidate us because people perceive us as making excuses if not outright faking it. Having a person who is seemingly doing well going public saying I think I have it only solidifies this incorrect impression. I don't think this is Jerry's fault he was quite honest that he only thinks he has it and that it is a broad spectrum, it lies in the fault all those people making ignorant assumptions. And even if he got diagnosed there would have been plenty of people who would have said the psych diagnosed him because he wanted associations with fame. I still wish this was not done in this way. Hopefully as he sees the reaction he will react in a way that will help us.

I agree that maybe Jerry can get a "real" diagnosis, but Daryl Hannah was diagnosed while she was still a child and it seems the autism community, not autistics, but those warrior parents that see autism as something 100% negative didn't like her coming out either. So really, I'm not sure that a diagnosis would really make any difference in Jerry's case. Heck, I know some parents pushing pills and diets and everything else who tell parents that autism is "curable and/or treatable" by using X, Y or Z, yet once they meet a young man who has improved greatly without those same treatments, they claim that the child never had autism to begin with or was not very severe. So again, while I can see both sides, it makes no sense to me why parents of severely autistic children are so against the HFA/AS crowd or even anyone with autism who has improved.