Michael Jackson had Asperger's?

Post Reply New Topic

I've seen some places mention Michael Jackson had Asperger's and I have to say I am surprised because I wouldn't think it. I'm a huge fan of him since childhood and I'll agree he was eccentric and a little strange, but I never really saw AS traits in him now that I am learning more about it. He was said to be shy and withdrawn but his shyness and need to withdraw didn't occur until his 20's when he became mega-famous. It seemed fame destroyed him in a way and he started getting even more eccentric.

In interviews he makes eye contact and speaks clearly and can answer questions quickly and thoroughly. He had a sense of humor and was often very emotional and he hugged people a lot, he even said his family and friends were the type to hug. I would say his loner behavior and all of his quirks would be due to the pressures of fame and not being able to relate to people because he was a showbiz kid.

Now someone I do think has AS traits is Kristen Stewart. I used to think she was just stoned out of her mind all of the time (which might be possible) but now I am learning more about AS she does strike me as having AS signs. Also, Robert De Niro (moreso when he was younger and earlier in his career) seems to have some AS signs too..not making eye contact with interviewer, being short and even coming off as rude in interviews, not talking much and not showing much humor. He's also said to be really shy in real life.

It would not surprise me if he were.

Actually there are some subtle indicators of potential eye-contact aversion, particularly when he was younger. He does show some indicators of odd gait, and odd posture, he clearly had odd prosody. His interest in music included detailed knowledge and recall that astounded others, including others in the music industry. So far as I know, while always somewhat of a keen performer, he has always been shy off-stage.

I do not agree that he always answers swiftly, in face I would consider he habitually "grabbed for time" by making a long drawn out "well" before responding to questions, and I would hardly construe being thourough a contra indicator for AS.

I am not sure quite what you have "learned" about AS, but having a sense of humour and liking to hug people are not legitimate contra-indicators of AS; neither is "being emotional".

I have no idea whether or not Micheal Jackson had AS, but it would not surprise me and I see no particular reason to assume he did not.

Actually, if you read interviews or watch old interviews when he was a kid on youtube or somewhere, you'll find he was an outgoing and spunky kid, he really didn't become reclusive and shy until 20's. He talks about how when he was a teenager he had acne problems and a big nose and his family made fun of him for it and at that point he started to withdraw, and it only got worse as he got older. That is why I don't think he has AS, because it's like his crap childhood and fame caught up with him in his 20's and he didn't know how to handle all of it so he retreated into himself.

I think he was just a man that sadly had a difficult childhood, and he experienced abuse and large amounts of pressure to be perfect at a young age and as he got older he had no idea what to do with himself. I think he had a lot of issues with himself and was not a very happy man, but I'm just not sure about the AS.

Every site I've looked at so far mentions sense of humor might be weak and that emotions and touching are something that most people with AS don't favor. I didn't mean to be offensive or anything, but these are just a couple examples of what most sites say and things that I am finding apply to me too.

Hello,

I cannot judge him. But the traits that you are missing on him, I also do not have. That excludes me from being "Asperger", but I am still in the spectrum, and Asperger's is still the big known group closest to my profile.

I don't know him, but I know that unbalancement of some hormones involved in ADHD can also play a role in vitiligo.

If you video-tapped me during an interview in which I was the focus of postive attention as a child, I doubt I would have appeared much different.

I think these things are impossible to determine from the only kind of perspective people who did not know nor attempt to clinically assess the man in an appropriate context could possibly have.

\
Nor ought you be. I doubt you are a clinician with relevant diagnostic expertise, much less that you actually clinically assessed the person concerned. I have no idea whether or not he had AS; it would not surprise me if he did, but I cannot see how either of us could possibly have any evidence based grounds for any firm opinion either way. It is not as though AS is entirely common, nor as though people characterized by it have a flashing neon sign anouncing the fact on their forehead.


Plenty of people with AS have an excellent sense of humour. I love a good laugh myself and can be quite witty at times (although it is not to everyone's taste, there are people who find my particular sense of humour very entertaining). Many people with AS have sensory anomalies (in fact it is my suspicion that all do), but these are not uniformly distributed. What is excessively pleasurable to one person with AS (in terms of sensory stimulus) can be exceedingly painful to some other person with AS and neither here nor there to yet another person with AS. Any issues with respect to touching are usually an idosyncratic symptom of irregular sensory processing.
As for emotions, being poor at coping with them, recognizing them (in self or others), regulating them, or expressing them are all not uncommon in AS. Bowling is a not uncommon hobby of humans. Would you extrapolate from that fact that if it does not bowl it is unlikely to be human, and if it is human it probably goes bowling often?

As to being offensive, so far as I can tell there is nothing offensive in your comments.

If you believe everything you read, anyone even remotely famous has Asperger's.

good post......jackson was a hopeless drug addict, i guess that will mimic asperger like symptoms

Haha, good point! I guess some people on the spectrum want to put a famous face to our condition. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.

Thanks for all the replies guys, very interesting to see what you all have to say! No, I am not a clinician but I love MJ and thought this topic would be fun to discuss, so I am not trying to diagnose anybody or put a famous face on AS or anything like that.

As for the AS traits, is there a really decent website that has good information that you all use? Because everything I've read says pretty much the same stuff.

Depends what information you are looking for. Finding everything on one site is unlikely in my view.

I think that he did have AS. He showed many characteristics. He also lacked a lot of social skills.

It's hard to say because of the way he was raised.

I thought he was autistic and on the spectrum long before he was listed. I love you Michael.

Michael Jackson was a true aspie. True aspies can sense the aspieness in him, intuitively.

Aside from all the things already mentioned about him, such as eye contact issues, bad social timing, inability to handle money etc, according to one if his brothers he was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a kid. This was a common misdiagnosis before Asperger's became offical and well known.

His dancing also shows very typical signs of aspieness. The rigid movements. Similar to those Hitler (another aspie) used during his speeches. Just like Hitler practiced his speeches, gestures and even eye movements for hours, Michael Jackson practiced his dancing and trademark moves into infinity without even seeming tired.

Michael Jackson acknowledged kinship with Adolf Hitler in an interview he made some years back but which wasn't released until September 2009 after his death. He praised Hitler's "showmanship".

MJ and Adolf Hitler were TRUE aspies.

Last edited by Adolf on 10 Feb 2010, 5:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I don't think he was on the spectrum. He suffered SO MUCH psychological, physical, mental, and emotional abuse during his childhood that I think that's the root of his development of eccentricism, inappropriate peer level relationships, and over-all quirkiness and emotional issues. Oh, the damage childhood trauma can do....

That's stupid.