Was Einstein an exception?

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I've heard that Einstein is said to have had Aspergers syndrome, so I'm guessing his obsessions revolved around physics. But Einstein excelled tremendously, he must have been very ambitious since he managed to do what he did, he must have wanted to be the best, with great competitive sprit.

But is this part of obsessions typical for people with Aspergers? Do you want to be the best, better than the rest? Or do you like your obsessions and interests because you enjoy spending time with them only?

I don't think someone at his level works for what society will think of him but for the sake of knowledge. I think he'd be above competition with other humans and totally uninterested or motivated by it.

Research for the sake of knowledge is very typical of autistics, even if I don't have any reason to believe that Einstein was autistic.

I don't get obsessed for the sake of knowledge (I don't think being obsessed with bus-drivers will make me become intellectually better than everyone else). I just get obsessed because a) I can't help it, and b) I like something else to focus on other than my anxieties, then again, ha!, it's the obsessions that actually make me anxious because I worry that something's going to come along to make me not ever see my bus-drivers again (the service being stopped, the service being moved to a different company, et cetera). Aspies in the UK better be careful for what they obsess with, because things are changing all the time.

I generally do like being the best, yeah.

His son had Schizophrenia.

I'm betting he had a Schizophrenic Spectrum Condition; Schizotypal PD would be a good fit.

It's hard to tell if people living about a century ago or so were Aspies. We don't have enough elements to make a diagnosis. It's probable he would be considered an Aspie today, but it's only a hypothesis.

This even truer for people such as Newton, which lived third centuries ago

As for the rest, I don't want to be the best (anymore), but I genuinely like my interests.

Einstein was born before MTV and modern day social pressure. The fact that he thought visually rather than verbally (a classic ASD trait) probably helped him a lot as well.

Another obession apart from physics, was the music of Mozart.

I wouldn't really see it so much as an exception. And he had very specific ideas which he believed were relevant and important, and which I don't believe would've had much to do with either end of the ambition spectrum.

He was simply the first recognized for such unique thoughts as those concerning objects having different physical properties under different time-space conditions than the ones we were previously familiar with. Although it's "assumptive" to hack up a bunch of physics equations to provide one thing that "certainly couldn't equal the other", if it's determined by proof of all previous equations leading up to that point, then it definitely falls into the category of innovative.

Was he ahead of his "time"? Certainly. It might've been quite some time after doing what he did that someone else would've been able to replicate the same theories, etc.

You can't really tell that over the Internet. Plenty of Aspies have anxiety problems. Heck, plenty of Aspies have OCD.

Sure, if your only trait is obsessions, and your obsessions ward off anxiety, you could start wondering about misdiagnosis, but... ehh, I don't think Aspies are exempt from either anxiety or turning to obsessions to try to mitigate anxiety.

Didn't he have problems early in school?I heard he was not good at math.I also read that Edison did terrible in school and his teachers thought he was addled.I don't think anyone will know for sure,it's all speculation.

An autopsy of his brain, confirmed that he was Aspergers.

More like, "confirmed he had a weird brain and couldn't rule out Asperger's, but couldn't rule out lots of other sorts of weirdness either". If you could diagnose Asperger's by brain scan, they'd be sticking us in MRI machines to diagnose AS.

Einstein was an exception to pretty much everything. His name wouldn't have become synonymous with "eccentric genius" if he hadn't been an exception to lots of rules.

I know people try to encourage AS kids by telling them that Einstein might have had AS, and that's all well and good, but I hope we aren't getting the wrong idea from that. If Einstein had AS, it doesn't mean that Aspies are eccentric geniuses; it just means that at least one autistic person was, and says nothing about any others. The idea that "It's okay to be autistic because I'm really smart" gives you the wrong idea if you buy into it. It's like you're saying that being smart is what makes a person valuable; that if you weren't smart you wouldn't be valuable. I don't like that. I don't think the value of a human being has anything to do with being smart. You should just be allowed to be yourself. You shouldn't have to "earn" your right to exist.

You can generally see more of a brain when you cut it open, than with an MRI machine.