Asperger Syndrome: pathologizing male genius and creativity

Page 1 of 1 [ 7 posts ] 

aspiesavant
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Feb 2015
Posts: 579

08 Feb 2015, 3:31 pm

Interesting article:
Asperger’s Syndrome: is it just another way of pathologizing creativity? And genius? Especially MALE creativity and genius?

Excerpt:

Quote:
All of this leads me to believe that “high-functioning Asperger’s” is basically just BS. Easily distracted, creative, eccentric, able to become deeply absorbed into topics (like hanging flower baskets rather than red lights) – those are all fairly common traits.

pills

So why pathologize them? We used to be able to accept the socially eccentric with little problem, but now we need some sort of “diagnosis” and drug-taking or behavioral therapy regime to deal with what used to be considered “normal human variation”.

I started reading around about Asperger’s and the following two facts kept leaping out at me:

Most people diagnosed with this “illness” are men

Asperger’s is highly correlated with scientific or mathematical genius

http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/10/w ... in-common/

http://www.autism.org.uk/about-autism/a ... op-it.aspx

Indeed, Simon Baron-Cohen, one of the world’s leading autism researchers, points to several of the world’s greatest minds as meeting all the diagnostic criteria for Asperger’s Syndrome.

Newton
Mozart
Einstein
Darwin
Curie
Bartok
Godel


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC539373/

Other famous people who meet the diagnostic criteria for Asperger’s include:

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989, winner of Nobel Prize in literature in 1969, playwright, poet, novelist, left-handed cricket player)

Richard Borcherds (b. 1959, diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, winner of Fields Medal 1998, professor of mathematics)

Paul Dirac (1902-1984, winner of Nobel Prize in physics in 1933)

Paul Erdos (1913-1996, winner of Wolf Prize in mathematics 1983/4)

Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865, mathematician, physicist, astronomer, polyglot, and child prodigy)

Keith Joseph (CH, PC) (1918-1994, British conservative politician)

Enoch Powell (MBE) (1912-1998, real name John Enoch Powell, controversial right-wing British politician)

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970, philosopher, winner of Nobel Prize in literature in 1950)

William Shockley (1910-1989, winner of Nobel Prize in physics in 1956, co-inventor of the transistor, Silicon Valley pioneer, professor, advocate of eugenics, sperm donor with the Repository For Germinal Choice)

Vernon L. Smith (b.1927, diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, winner of Nobel Prize in economics in 2002)

William Butler Yeats (1865 -1939, winner of Nobel Prize in literature in 1923, poet, dramatist)

http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/showthread.php?tid=3991

With the exception of Marie Curie, they are ALL men.

genius

Is Asperger’s just a code word for male genius?

Why do we need to turn male genius into a disease? What could be the reason for that? Why would we want such a self-destructive diagnosis?



graywyvern
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Aug 2010
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 666
Location: texas

10 Feb 2015, 3:02 pm

several separate ideas are jumbled together here. there's a critique of medicalizing difference (yes), a rather undercooked gender-account of autism-spectrum (alas), & mostly, a reaction to the trending of Asperger's as a topic (who wouldn't want the media attention to go away?)... & (worst for me) a complete obliviousness to how female "genius" has simply been, by & large, erased out of many accounts of intellectual history. this last stupidness made it hard for me to read it to the end.


_________________
"I have always found that Angels have the vanity
to speak of themselves as the only wise; this they
do with a confident insolence sprouting from systematic
reasoning." --William Blake


smudge
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Sep 2006
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,716
Location: Moved on

10 Feb 2015, 3:06 pm

graywyvern wrote:
... & (worst for me) a complete obliviousness to how female "genius" has simply been, by & large, erased out of many accounts of intellectual history. this last stupidness made it hard for me to read it to the end.


This. A biased history record discredits the whole idea being "male genius".

Urgh.


_________________
I've left WP.


Pizzagal3000
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 25 Dec 2014
Gender: Female
Posts: 152
Location: In The Land Of Quality Music

10 Feb 2015, 3:15 pm

aspiesavant wrote:
Interesting article:
Asperger’s Syndrome: is it just another way of pathologizing creativity? And genius? Especially MALE creativity and genius?

Excerpt:

Quote:
All of this leads me to believe that “high-functioning Asperger’s” is basically just BS. Easily distracted, creative, eccentric, able to become deeply absorbed into topics (like hanging flower baskets rather than red lights) – those are all fairly common traits.

pills

So why pathologize them? We used to be able to accept the socially eccentric with little problem, but now we need some sort of “diagnosis” and drug-taking or behavioral therapy regime to deal with what used to be considered “normal human variation”.

I started reading around about Asperger’s and the following two facts kept leaping out at me:

Most people diagnosed with this “illness” are men

Asperger’s is highly correlated with scientific or mathematical genius

http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/10/w ... in-common/

http://www.autism.org.uk/about-autism/a ... op-it.aspx

Indeed, Simon Baron-Cohen, one of the world’s leading autism researchers, points to several of the world’s greatest minds as meeting all the diagnostic criteria for Asperger’s Syndrome.

Newton
Mozart
Einstein
Darwin
Curie
Bartok
Godel


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC539373/

Other famous people who meet the diagnostic criteria for Asperger’s include:

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989, winner of Nobel Prize in literature in 1969, playwright, poet, novelist, left-handed cricket player)

Richard Borcherds (b. 1959, diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, winner of Fields Medal 1998, professor of mathematics)

Paul Dirac (1902-1984, winner of Nobel Prize in physics in 1933)

Paul Erdos (1913-1996, winner of Wolf Prize in mathematics 1983/4)

Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865, mathematician, physicist, astronomer, polyglot, and child prodigy)

Keith Joseph (CH, PC) (1918-1994, British conservative politician)

Enoch Powell (MBE) (1912-1998, real name John Enoch Powell, controversial right-wing British politician)

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970, philosopher, winner of Nobel Prize in literature in 1950)

William Shockley (1910-1989, winner of Nobel Prize in physics in 1956, co-inventor of the transistor, Silicon Valley pioneer, professor, advocate of eugenics, sperm donor with the Repository For Germinal Choice)

Vernon L. Smith (b.1927, diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, winner of Nobel Prize in economics in 2002)

William Butler Yeats (1865 -1939, winner of Nobel Prize in literature in 1923, poet, dramatist)

http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/showthread.php?tid=3991

With the exception of Marie Curie, they are ALL men.

genius

Is Asperger’s just a code word for male genius?

Why do we need to turn male genius into a disease? What could be the reason for that? Why would we want such a self-destructive diagnosis?


All those white people you mentioned must not be all that "genius," based on the fact that their so called, "theories and discoveries'" have been applied in ancient times.

Plus, this thread sounds so phallic and patriarchal, a terrible system that can figure out how to use electricity but not how to generate world peace..... :|

What is so "male" about creativity and genius?

I mean, being creative and genius can apply to anything, Not just math and science.....


_________________
I dress anyway want I to, do anything I want to, be anything I want to, cause I got the right to! I is talkin to you(ppl who "oppress" us), boo!----PizzA TimE!! !


aspiesavant
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Feb 2015
Posts: 579

Protogenoi
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 24 Aug 2014
Gender: Female
Posts: 817

10 Feb 2015, 7:46 pm

Pizzagal3000 wrote:
All those white people you mentioned must not be all that "genius," based on the fact that their so called, "theories and discoveries'" have been applied in ancient times.


Wait... what? Quantum electrodynamics was applied in ancient times?


_________________
Now take a trip with me but don't be surprised when things aren't what they seem. I've known it from the start all these good ideas will tear your brain apart. Scared, but you can follow me. I'm too weird to live but much too rare to die. - a7x


aspiesavant
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Feb 2015
Posts: 579

10 Feb 2015, 7:56 pm

Quote:
There are two kinds of sufferers in this world: those who suffer from a lack of life and those who suffer from an overabundance of life. I've always found myself in the second category. When you come to think of it, almost all human behavior and activity is not essentially any different from animal behavior. The most advanced technologies and craftsmanship bring us, at best, up to the super-chimpanzee level. Actually, the gap between, say, Plato or Nietzsche and the average human is greater than the gap between that chimpanzee and the average human. The realm of the real spirit, the true artist, the saint, the philosopher, is rarely achieved.

Why so few? Why is world history and evolution not stories of progress but rather this endless and futile addition of zeroes. No greater values have developed. Hell, the Greeks 3,000 years ago were just as advanced as we are. So what are these barriers that keep people from reaching anywhere near their real potential? The answer to that can be found in another question, and that's this: Which is the most universal human characteristic - fear or laziness?

-- Austin philosophy professor Louis Mackey