Hijacking famous people by Apserger & ADHDs communities

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I noticed that many Aspies and AHDs as well often try too attach their diagnosis to famous persons.


Many think that Einstein was an Aspie, or Mozart, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Edison was an Aspie, while ADHD think they ware not Aspies but ADHD

While we cannot give adequate diagnosis for some who is already DEAD after all

BTW i wonder does Asperger and ADHD are somehow linked?

AS kid i went every year to special summer camp founded by our Polish ministry of Health.

It was Camp for kids with emotional problem?
Like Asperger, ADHD, depression.

I had many ADHD friends there. I wonder does Autism & hyperactivity is somehow linked, they are diametrically different from us, autistic.

I too have noticed that people love playing armchair psychiatrists and diagnosing (deceased) geniuses with various conditions.
Einstein, for example, was diagnosed with conditions ranging from ASD, ADHD and dyslexia to schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder by many on the Internet.

Chances are, he didn't have any of those conditions. He may have had some very weak treat which resembled many conditions, but it's safe to say that it was, by far, subclinical. Same goes for Bill Gates, or most of the other alleged famous people with Asperger's. However, those who had been diagnosed with it professionally and clinically most likely have it.

I can not speak for the ADHD community but I find the idea of diagnosing historical figures and celebrities un Aspie like and just plain wrong. All one can go by is usually awkward social presentation in videos, maybe a few interviews and observations by those who knew them. To diagnose you have to know what the person was like most of there lives, take careful observations and hopefully have structured interviews with thise who know them. As ASD traits mirror triats of other conditions, and most people have some Autistic traits a diagnosis needs to be thorough.

Saying I suspect or highly suspect this person is an Aspie is fine if you do it for fun. I do it myself. What I strenuously object to is what I see over and over and over again here and elsewhere blanket statements without any caveats at all that so and so historical figures was or is an Aspie. You are not Bill Gates or Einstien or Adam Lanza who was actually diagnosed by Fred Volkemeer of Yale, member of the DSM committee. Bill Gates if he has been diagnosed has every right not to share that information with you or anybody else.

A step up from that is the diagnosing of fictional characters even when the creator and writer of those characters has emphatically said numerous times the character does not have autism

I think it is a bunch of nonsense. And I think it trivializes autism.