Does Sherlock Holmes have Asperger?

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For some time I have been working as a security guard in a factory in my city, mainly for night shifts, for example, today, I have a change from 20:00 to 8 am, now it is 4:30 in the afternoon.

It just so happens that during work I have a lot of free time, during work we can read books or browse the internet, I watch Netflix, I found there a modernized series about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, there was a very funny scene.

Does Sherlock Holmes have Asperger Syndrome?

Here we go again...

Sherlock Holmes -- a fictional character -- was created long before autism (and thus Asperger's Syndrome) was defined. The canonical stories also ended long before autism was defined. Therefore, Sherlock Holmes could not possibly have been intended to be autistic. The fact that some of the traits displayed by actors who portrayed Sherlock Holmes may have been autistic is purely coincidental, and may be just bad acting.

I've read a lot of the Sherlock Holmes stories. I'd say, on balance... no.

... and what fnord said.

The inspiration for fictional character of Sherlock Holmes was Joseph Bell, a real-life surgeon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bell
Joseph Bell was a real human who may or may not have had AS - no way to know it today.
In many ways, Sherlock's unusual ways and attention to details are in line with AS symptoms.
I remember Tony Attwood compared AS kids to Sherlock Holmes in one of his lectures, I can't now find which one.

If Sherlock was inspired by real life persons, he may be an exaggerated version of individuals with AS that wasn't any recognized condition but certainly existed at that time, too.

This.

Incidentally, Doyle hated Sherlock Holmes and was massively surprised and displeased that so many people (including his mother ) liked him so much.

Here is the thing about fictional characters, once they are released to the public the creator of the character has no control over how the character will be interpreted. The consumers will interpret the characters as they see fit. They often get it wrong.

Of course the creator of Sherlock Holmes had no idea about autistic traits but the people who "update" Sherlock Holmes and today's consumers do know are interpreting him as autistic.

That's how it works; just because a label doesn't yet exist does not prevent the thing itself from existing. After all, if it didn’t exist, why would it be labeled? There are biographic indications of autistics going back as far as records exist, with Archimedes being one pretty evident example (along with every other natural philosopher I’ve ever read about).

More to the point, just because an author has known such characters, it does not follow that they had any particular category in mind. A character called Brian Lynch appears in two books of hers (that I’ve read) who fits the bill, but that needn’t mean that Mavis Binchey (however it’s spelled) knew that any real person(s) she may have based him on were autistic.

There is a gap as wide as the Grand Canyon between "indications that an ordinary person could interpret", and "signs and symptoms that a mental-health professional could use to diagnose".

Also, I've seen some live stage plays of various Sherlock Holmes stories where the entire cast seemed to have been presenting their characters as autistic.

Sometimes, "Autistic" in a fictional character is nothing more than a sign of deficient acting and/or writing skills.

Just because a character was not intended to be autistic does not mean that a modern interpretation can't write them to be autistic...

Archimedes dude who runs from bathtub into the street naked and shouting Heureka! Heureka! (I got it I got it!) and who when his city was conquered by Romans, told dude who was about to arrest him/kill him "Do not disturb my now"
certainly autistic

Have thought about that too. Anyone who lacked the "social instincts" enough to get killed because he told the Roman soldier knocking at his door to "buzz off because I am busy trying to figure out the formula for calculating the volume of a dodecahedron" had to have been an aspie. Some historic figures you can safely guess about.

And its not a crime to speculate that SOME fictional characters written into fiction prior to the days of autism awareness were autistic/aspie.

Harper Lee populated "to Kill a Mockingbird" with well drawn characters - both the novel and the setting were prior to American autism awareness. But there is no way that Boo Radley was NOT an aspie! Dad grew up on a farm in Kansas in the Thirties and told annectdotes involving a hermit like guy who did odd jobs - every farm town in America seems to have had its own Boo Radley type character in real life back then.

Sherlock Holmes, on the other hand, is a bit contrived as a character. He definitely had some aspie traits. Have only read two or three of the stories. He may have been socially aware in non aspie ways. I don't know. An above poster who has read more of the stories says no to Sherlock being aspie.