Julian Assange - Asperger's??

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*gasps* you're calling this man paranoid?
he's in solitary confinement for 23 1/2 hours a day, not allowed anything to read, w interpol after him- and the sweidsh case hasnt even been presented yet- the US govt put the thumb screws on visa, mastercard and paypal, and his site has been getting hacked.
i'd be peeing myself in fear.

anyway, i maintain he seems more AS than anything else- come on- he's the classic computer geek presentation. that's markedly more AS alone- plus add in all the rest. im surprised finers stephens havent had him tested.

also -what should his mother know? ?????

Last edited by misslottie on 15 Dec 2010, 11:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

He poked the bear. With a freaking huge stick. The bear is pissed off. If he had dumped this many Chinese or Russian documents he would already be dead. He's lucky that the U.S. government hasn't yet entirely abandoned its founding principles.

.

aparently he has a massive 'insurance' file in case he has an 'accident'. that's why.

Meh. The Russians or Chinese would have whacked him out of principle. Then dealt with the consequences of the "insurance" (probably with more bloodshed).

It's great theater.

.[/quote]It's great theater.[/quote]

yes, quite- except for the part w someone languishing in prision, in solitary... w the US govt after them... i'm embaressed by the uk legal system-rolling over for the yanks yet again.

and litvenenko died at my local hospital, just down the rd- so yes, i know THEY do bump folks off for real- just steam roller over dissent- they even flew over here to do it.... but then if you read conspiracy stuff- so do all governements. in fact, its not even conspiracy whispering. it just happens; this case in only distinguished by the spotlight falling on it- which actually affords him some degree of protection.

I made a statement earlier that I didn't think he has Asperger's, but just a narcissist. I want to revise that. I've been pretty involved withe Wikileaks debate on one of my non-Aspie political forums, and so I've been seeing a lot of video of Assange speaking. And I have to say, he speaks, thinks, moves and communicates in a very Aspergian style.

1. He regularly speaks at a lower volume than is typical for conversation, even dipping down to the point it's hard to hear him. And yes, he's pretty monotone and lacks facial expressiveness when he talks. He smiles rarely, and even when he does, it seems a little strange, like he's not sure how to smile.

2. He is, however, attentive to people speaking to him (as opposed to someone who is on the schizophrenic spectrum or has certain personality disorders) and shows no or little deficit in engaging conversation in a structured setting, i.e. an interview, a panel discussion, a presentation, but he does show some awkwardness in his body language (avoids eye contact, has poor posture--looks like he tries to make himself smaller, seems awkward with the placement of his arms). In the few clips of him engaging in more causal conversation, he is even more awkward and hesitant to speak, and comes across very passive for a person who is the head of an organization like WikiLeaks. In all of the clips of him in a casual conservation that I have seen so far, he cautiously repeats what others say to him, like he wants to be sure he understands what they said.

3. He frequently tries to assure the listener/audience of his competency. He's say things like "Not many can read these acronyms-well, I can, but many people can't" or he explains in detail why he took this or that approach to something.

4. He can be very direct and forthcoming about data, facts and information, and is frequently quite meticulous in how he represents that information. He appears quite sensitive to being misunderstood--has often said of people misunderstanding or misrepresenting him that he find it "annoying." But he appears to have difficulty articulating more personal feelings (like using one word--"annoying"--to express a spectrum of emotions). He either struggles for words or diverts to quotes from other people or simply defaults back to a more information-laden communication style (like he did in his letter from jail to his mother, where he starts talking about VISA, MasterCard and US foreign policy and the data they now have of these connections). Some people are interpreting this as him being evasive, and using it to assassinate his character, paint his as deceptive, paranoid, megalomaniac and untruthful. But having seen him do this in different situations, I could argue he has a deficit here in articulating his inner experience and is simply far more comfortable in an information-seeking/information-sharing communication style.

5. In the Wikirebels documentary, there was some clips of ex-Wikileaks people commenting on Assange's "dictator"-like style of managing Wikileaks, and that these members went on to form OpenLeaks with a more "democratic" style of management. Now we can take that at face value, or we could look at these other points I've made, and consider the possibly that this exodus of a few of the Wikileaks people was due to a conflict of communication styles. Perhaps Assange is an Aspie and like a typical Aspie, had difficulties with the give-and-take of social interactions and working with others, and these people interpreted that as him being a "dictator." God knows, I've been there!

6. He does appear to be very focused on what's ethical, what's true, what's just. He does not appear to be malicious at all, but simply single-minded. It strikes me--and of course, I'm biased, being an Aspie--that he needs to do this, for the world to make any sense to him. He needs some truthfulness out there, some justice, some ethics. And I can see how that could come across as narcissistic and ego-centric. But, for example, all the information they had from Manning's leak, it was that one video of the ruthless, heartless killing of two unarmed journalists and a father with two kids who stopped to helped was the first thing Assange chose to put out there. Moreover, he made sure the first person outside of Wikileaks to see it was someone he felt was ethical enough to do the right thing with that information--a journalist who ended up going to Iraq and tracking down the family of the slain father o tell them the truth of what happened. I think that says a lot of Assange's deeper convictions and priorities. Disagree all you want about how he does it, but I think he does want to do what's right and it seems almost intolerable for him to not try to do what's right.


And like Alex said, that he appears quite functional means little about whether he has Asperger's. People can have Asperger's without it having any discernible impact of their ability to function in society overall. but I do want to stress--and stress greatly-that this is far from a comprehensive assessment of Assange. But I think this is enough to say, "Yeah, quite maybe he's an Aspie."

thank you mercurial- i only heard the radio 4 peice, and saw him speak once on the news, so youve obv seen more of him than i. so yes- youve said eloquently what i as aiming at-- there is *something* in his style of speech which is.. AS. also in the way he is so watchful of the person he speaking to- that's how i am sometimes- listening so hard, narrowing my eyes to understand what's being said.

i realise there is debate about his motives for presnting this info- perhaps for personal glory, rather than activly seeking some form of free-speech- justice- but the rest of his life and persona seem SOOOOOO AS.

its also useful to remember that when speaking of this type of obsession for justice- which ive RUNINED my life in persuing- that its sometimes hard to explain adequatly WHAT one is aiming at. sometimes one begins an explanation and then is side tracked into other..um.. cul de sacs, off in other directions entirely- pulling in seemingly random things. so if he appears to be narcassistic- it may be due to that. it happened to me- when i was honestly doing something For The Good Of Us All (missapproiation of funds)- guess who got it in the neck, and was accused of being on a powertrip etc.

You think only the U.S. government is pissed off? This may yet get a Russian hit squad mobilized, especially if they can make it look like the U.S. did it. The U.S. is the lightening rod, but the power brokers in the world cannot possibly like what Wikileaks is doing. Assange may be smart but he lacks the political savvy to realize that there are plenty of actors on the world stage grateful for him making this a U.S. centric issue. It is not. International politics is not as U.S. centric as we are led to believe. The U.S. may have a heavy hand, but it is certainly not the only one. Assange has demonized the United States and in so doing allowed far worse actors to continue to slink about in the shadows.

that's kind of my point about him being AS- he's all cant see the wood for the trees. SOOO A.S.

why are the russians pissed off? its american data. putin must be laughing his arse off!! my enemy's enemy is my friend etc, surely.
much of it just makes the US look vaguely amusing (and other foreign dignatories look stupid- as ugh- the FOUL suck up emails about how much our foreign sec lurves the USA- humiliating- but sooo funnny).
aside from the bit about the entire middle east wanting american to blitz iran, nothing has been particualy daming baout forign govs- so i imagine they are all chuckling. but watchful.

anyway, i have to go out now. thanks for the fun transatlantic minor bickering- most enjoyable.

There was another point I forgot:

In the thread abut accents, I recall someone here from Australia saying other Australians said he sounded like he had an American accent well, I noticed this about Assange too. His accents modulates. Most of the videos I've seen of him speaking are from the past 6 months or so, so you can't attribute this to change in residence, living abroad, necessarily. Sometimes he has a very definite clear Eastern Aussie accent. Other times it's very flat--I still heard the Aussie in his accent because I'm American, but I'd expect another Aussie would think he sounded like he'd lost his Aussie accent or was talking like an American. It almost sounds like he's tired when he speaks more flatly, like he hasn't the energy to keep up his native East Aussie accent (which actually is quite lovely). But other times, he is speaking with his full Aussie accent. I can parallel to this how when I'm more "cognitively" alert and refresh, I can do my "good" Californian accent, very crisp, very clear, a little whiny, But when my brain's exhausted, I start mumbling and fall into my flat "lazy" Californian accent and I sound like a beach bum who's hungover .

Yeah there's something in his eyes too, I would say--he's either very intensely observing, or he's in his own world, thinking away.

I've had to get after people trying to disparage his character based on sheer personal biases in my political forum. I haven't said anything about him being a possible Aspie (not gonna play the "Aspie card"!)--it's not the right forum for that. But have said I wanted people to consider that perhaps he has a different communication style and that they may be misinterpreting his words and intent. It actually has brought a few people around--they''ll go, "Yeah, I see what you mean. He could just be expressing himself differently." If he is an Aspie, I really would not want him to be painted as the megalomaniac monster. On the flipside, if he was just a megalomaniac monster, I think we'd have seen his malicious side by now. He can be defensive and he has shown frustration and impatience, and he can come across as quite intense like that--all very Aspie-ish. But I have yet to see him respond to anything with any hint of genuine malice--also very Aspie-ish.

I too have made my life harder than it needs to be because I can't tolerate things I see as unjust or unfair. I've quit several jobs because it, and now I have trouble finding work because I have some much anxiety about working somewhere I know I'll get get upset about something I think is unjust. I've been told "You don't think the rules apply to you" a lot--and people tell me they think I'm self-absorbed or full of myself. "You have a very high opinion of yourself"--that's another one, especially when I do that Aspie thing of wanting to "assure" people I'm competent at something. I don't mean to be obnoxious--I just want to people to know I can do it and can trust me to do it right.

I've had my hands slapped for trying to do something I thought was right so many times, I could just cry thinking about it. People have misunderstood my intentions, thinking I was being a b!tch or a bully, or a "dictator." I know I have trouble with give-and-take but even when I've tried to be less assertive or pushy, it's like they find some point to misconstrue my intentions or blame me for something that went wrong. I'm so tried of it.

I'm Assange's age--I really admire that he has the stamina to keep at this. He and I share many of the same ideals, hell, we even quote the same freaking quotes--in the Wikirebels doc, he quotes from Solzhenitsyn's Nobel Lecture a line I've been quoting since 1994, and I was like "Hey, that my Solzhenitsyn quote--get your own!" I think I could easily over-identify and over-empathize with him, if I wasn't aware of the similarities.

Oh and I envy his white hair--I started going gray when I was 14, but I'm not fully gray. it's salt and pepper-ish so I just look tired and washed out unless I dye it. Then when i dye it, I look 10 years younger than i am.

Aspies can learn to be functional.

ruveyn

Everyone who's ever used a computer is an Aspie.

I'd say it's more a case of the NTs needing to learn to be functional, or getting the Aspies to help them do it. After all, we're in a world run by technology.

I mean socially functional.

ruveyn

And yet... and yet. The intelligent and gifted engineers who invented all this technology get paid meager wages, while the marketing and business people, whose sole skills in life are social ones, profit to the tunes of millions and billions. Some of them don't even know how to use the products they sell, let alone how to make them, and yet they are rich and they run the whole show.

What does that tell you?

You can be a great salesmen even as an Aspie; you don't need social skills.

Steve Jobs isn't a very kind friendly guy, neither is he a particularly good socialiser, but he's one of the best salesman around today.

All you need to do to be a good salesmen is understand how to get whoever you're selling to to buy something, and that relies more on observation of your target audience than social skills.

Last edited by Asp-Z on 15 Dec 2010, 3:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plans; which also has nothing to do with what I posted.