As I said, I work with an agency that serves people on
the autism spectrum. It is indeed a spectrum: Even
people diagnosed as having Asperger are different,
though they do share certain characteristics, such as
those you mentioned. Most, if not all, have other
traits that help make them individuals. Except perhaps
in certain extreme cases, the autistic traits are
mixed with others, with different degrees and variable
expressions of themselves and that mix defines the
person, along with personal experiences and the like.

I myself dispute the supports and even the particular
arguments Mr. Ledgin uses in making his case. However,
I suspend judgment on whether Jefferson was an
'Aspie,' as people with Asperger Syndrome sometimes
refer to themselves, as we cannot know short of time
travel and a formal set of evaluations. The
possibility remains open.

Everybody is different, including people on the autism
spectrum. That is why I am bothered by the apparent
implicit comparison made by Mr. Ledgin between
Jefferson and his own son, an adult with Asperger
Syndrome. Despite references to diagnostic scales and
the like, his determination is made as it was
inspired: By a supposed resemblance between Jefferson
and the young man.

The particular thing about Asperger Syndrome is that
it is not simply a "milder" form of autism, but a
different kind of disorder, one with some relationship
and resemblance to autism (including High-Functioning
Autism, which may or may not be a separate condition -
it is still debated). Was Jefferson an Aspie, we may
never know for sure.

Am I? That is what they tell me.



--- Reyesuela <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I have NOT read the book.  However, my brother is
> autistic, and my grandfather has Asperger's.  I've
> also volunteered in the special ed department of my
> local public school.  TJ, autistic to ANY extent?
> Bosh, bosh, bosh.  His entire political life is
> inconsistent with such a disability.  He would have
> been flatly incapable of participating in a
> meaningful debate with give-and-take on ANY subject,
> he would have avoided the public eye, and he would
> have been dreadful at giving speeches.  Even his
> personal life is inconsistent with anyone on the
> autistic spectrum.
> Some of the features of autism and Asperger's
> include:
> -need for total predictability--change of any sort
> is bad, if not disastrous--this would make the
> vagaries of a political career unbearable
> -inability or difficulty in comprehending the
> existence other people's points of points of
> view--heavily "pre-occupational"--this would make
> coherent debate or argumentation very difficult, and
> it would make the person appear highly selfish
> -difficulty carrying on a conversation--habit of
> talking at and not with people--leads to a
> reputation for oddity or boorishness
> -great difficulty in understanding one's own
> emotions, greater difficulty in expressing
> them--strong attachments can be formed, but mutual
> attachments of any sort are rare--appreciation of
> the opposite sex in the more profound cases never
> passes beyond the theoretical--a promiscuous
> autistic at any level is almost a contradiction in
> terms
> -great difficulty in deciphering emotions from tone
> of voice, expression, etc.--tendency to be a
> literalist--avoidance and dislike of figures of
> speech--this also make casual conversation
> difficult, as the autistic must carefully sift
> through and reinterpret all signals for memorized
> matches for facial expression, sarcasm,
> exaggeration, etc., and he often makes mistakes
> -difficulty in making eye contact
> -avoidance of using people's names and using
> descriptions and relationships instead to specify
> them
> -avoidance in using questions--makes statements of
> desire to avoid a direct refusal
> -avoidance of social interaction
> -inability to deal with people outside of an
> expected context--e.g., meeting a teacher in the
> grocery store or a business associate at the gas
> station
> -aversion to interacting with strangers
> -bullet-like speech--words are spoken with force
> even in a casual setting
> -love of absolutes, extremes, and logic--black and
> white dichotomies--extreme difficulty in
> compromising
> Anyhow, this is only the beginning, but suffice it
> to say that no autistic could ever come across as a
> man of the people or even vaguely charismatic, and
> he'd be a disaster in politics and diplomacy except
> under exceptional and very sheltered conditions.
> Louis XVI is a much, much better candidate for
> autism, more profound than just Asperger's, too, and
> his disastrous career would be typical of an
> autistic in a similar position.
>
> --Rey
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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