Musicians who have (or may have?) Asperger's Syndrome.

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Apparently she was diagnosed with "mild autism", but even then it still sort of surprises me as they surely would have thrown her in an institution back then.

have no idea how to delete posts so

Last edited by franknfurter on 02 Jun 2014, 10:08 am, edited 2 times in total.

She was diagnosed with "mild autism" when she was nine years old.

That would have been around 1970 or so.

I think things were more progressive by then than during the 1950's or early 1960s.

There was much impetus for de-institutionalization then.

I'd be interested to know if she were placed in a special school, or a special class within a public school system.

There's one thing that didn't exist until 1973 in the US: the mandate to attempt to mainstream kids.

I'm posting in this thread for the first time in two months

Pete Townshend said John Entwistle had Asperger's and Roger Daltrey said Keith Moon had autism and savant capabilities. All of them were in the Who.

Michael Jackson obviously had Asperger's. Though people say his childhood was responsible for his eccentricity, it should be noted none of his brothers turned out like him despite being raised in the same environment.

Kurt Cobain had a disturbed childhood, and no social skills at school. He was bullied and developed an obsession with punk rock. Also, depressive disorders are often co-morbid with Asperger's. He stated often how he never fitted in; his personality was erratic before he became a drug addict.

Also, John Lennon DID NOT have Asperger's, he had Borderline Personality Disorder and Yoko Ono is obsessed with finding a cure to autism.

Didn't Kurt Cobain have bipolar disorder?

There was something wrong with Cobain that can't be explained by either bipolar or ADHD; which Cobain was diagnosed with and are commonly co-morbid with Asperger's. His drug abuse also is semi-responsible for his behaviour in his later years. As a teenager he was intelligent, but performed poorly at school. He was unpopular and an outcast who was described as socially awkward. As a child he had an imaginary friend who he blamed everything on and eventually addressed his suicide letter to. It's from his early years that the most evidence for him being autistic can be drawn.

Did he actually have Asperger's? We'll never know, but there is enough evidence for it to be thought about.

How about Van Morrison? He certainly seems to be utterly absorbed in his music, and - career-wise - marches to the beat of his own drum regardless of what his audiences or record company expect from him. Judging by interviews I've read, he also seems to be pretty much uninterested in observing even the most basic social niceties, and has been this way throughout his career (rendering it unlikely that he's merely been spoilt by fame). I think he's an even likelier candidate than Bob Dylan.

The more I think about it, the more likely it seems Kurt Cobain may have been an aspie. I remember reading this interpretation of the song "Negative Creep" of of Nirvana's first album Bleach, and apparently it may have been about a girl Kurt Cobain tried to hook up with in high school. As the story goes, Kurt wanted to commit suicide, but he didn't want to die a virgin so he tried hooking up with this one girl everyone referred to as the "ret*d girl". He felt disgusted with himself afterwards, despite not hooking up with her, so that's where the inspiration for the song may have came from.

I am don't know if he was on the spectrum, he seemed quite comfortable with interviews and worldly but at other times quite naive. Ono herself seems to have more of the stereotypical traits quiet, in her own world, her music discordant.. If it was him or is her that might be the reason she is an Autism Speaks supporter http://www.autismspeaks.org/news/news-i ... ed-nations . That she would hide her's or his would make sense for somebody who hates it enough to want a cure.

So we're just naming musicians we like, then?

Daltrey is a curebie, and actually said "Keith was a savant, the most amazing mimic. He could vacuum a character off someone in 10 minutes and he would then become them. Not just a caricature, he'd get inside. It was scary! He may have been a little bit autistic; we didn't know about those things then. There was definitely something different in his head."

Certainly doesn't sound autistic, and if he was then that's somewhat inconsistent with Roger campaigning for a cure for autism - the people who made him famous would never have existed!

wrt. Entwistle, again a musician saying "I think he was a little bit Asperger's" is a lot different from him actually being autistic.


Wasn't Jackson the youngest and the biggest star, as well as the main target of his father's abuse?

His wife was autistic, I think they'd have put the dots together. Again, "never fitting in" and "depression" and "being bullied" are all common amongst NTs.


I don't think Yoko is obsessed, she's just a patron of Autism Speaks.

I'm also not sure that diagnosis of BPD is accurate. BPD is pervasive and lifelong. Lennon had many periods of emotional stability where he didn't act impulsively, particularly the last five years of his life.

It's hard to tell if somebody's autistic if you don't have daily contact with that person.

Going though my ipod, here is a list of other musicians I suspect may be autistic:

Alanis Morissette
Rufus Wainwright
Fiona Apple
Adele
The Beatles
Stevie Wonder
The Original Broadway Cast of Wicked
The Jackson 5
Avril Lavigne
Kelly Clarkson
Bob Dylan
Ella Fitzgerald
Diana Ross and the Supremes
American Idol season 4
Taylor Swift
Justin Bieber
Bruce Springsteen
Rebecca Black
Unknown Artist
Billy Idol
Oasis
The Shirelles
Joni Mitchell
Damien Rice
India.Arie
Various Artists
The Pussycat Dolls
Placido Domingo
Labrinth featuring Emile Sande
Lady Gaga
Kris Kristofferson

Last edited by MadHatterMatador on 26 Oct 2014, 3:06 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Only Lady Gaga and Bob Dylan are likely candidates. The Pussycat Dolls, Rebecca Black, Justin Bieber, and several others are as neurotypical as it's possible to get.

I was just kind of making fun of the over-diagnoses in this thread. I think the only ones who have that many traits of ASD are Bob Dylan, Fiona Apple, and Taylor Swift, but even with them, I wouldn't go as far to say that they have it.