Does the guy from Criminal Minds have Asperger's?

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03 Oct 2013, 2:15 pm

There was a part a couple of years ago where a kid whose family got kidnapped had it, and some lady made a comment to him. I'm not sure how they spell his name (Reed, Read, or Reid?)

Fnord
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03 Oct 2013, 2:19 pm

From Wikipedia:

Quote:

Dr. Spencer Reid is a fictional character from the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds, portrayed by Matthew Gray Gubler. Reid is a genius with an IQ of 187 and an eidetic memory. He is the youngest member of the elite Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI who holds numerous degrees, and specializes in statistics and geographic profiling.

...

As is characteristic of people with Asperger's Syndrome, Reid is socially awkward. He often fixates on things (prompting Morgan and other team members to have to tell him to be quiet), and misses social cues at times (for example, unknowingly changing the subject of a conversation). The unknown subject in "Broken Mirror" noted this, and Gubler stated in an interview in the show's second season "[Reid]'s an eccentric genius, with hints of schizophrenia and minor autism, Asperger's Syndrome. Reid is 30 years old with three Ph.D.s and one can not usually achieve that without some form of autism." Writer Sharon Lee Watson stated in a twitter chat Reid's Asperger traits makes the character more lovable.

Note that last sentence!

We're LOVEABLE!

:heart:

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Aleithei
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03 Oct 2013, 2:26 pm

That is funny to know that they actually said he has aspergers.
especially since a few days ago my aunt (who has no idea of my diagnosis) said he reminds her of me :lol:

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DrHouseHasAspergers
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03 Oct 2013, 2:28 pm

The episode you are thinking of is called Coda and the boy had classic autism. He was also nonverbal. It was speculated that Reid had some autistic tendencies (perhaps Asperger's) because of how he was able to connect to the boy relatively easily. One part in particular is when the boy was playing the piano and Reid started playing a rather complicated tune along with him. Another agent commented that he didn't know Reid could play the piano. Reid said he couldn't but it was essentially all math.

There was also an earlier episode (Broken Mirror) in which the culprit taunted the team via phone call and said that they didn't even recognize the autistic traits in one of their own (referring to Reid).

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03 Oct 2013, 3:52 pm

I knew it had been mentioned within the context of the show at least once that Reid might have AS, but I don't recall whether it was ever stated outright.

The same thing was done on House, when another character speculated that his obsession with treating every case as a puzzle and his inability to comprehend (and impatience with) human emotional behavior and reducing all social interaction down to the meme "Everybody Lies" might be indicators of Autism, but no definite conclusion was ever drawn and I don't think it was ever mentioned again.

But of course we're loveable - Temperance "Bones" Brennan is a brainy, socially inept sweetheart and even Sheldon Cooper is endearingly amusing, especially when he's driving everyone around him crazy. If only those shows would admit that they've intentionally modeled these characters' behaviors using Asperger Syndrome as a template. Big Bang Theory even lifted Sheldon's love of trains straight out of the DSM, apparently not realizing that it was an example and not to be taken literally. How Autistic of them. :wink:

rebeccadanielprophet
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27 Dec 2017, 3:33 pm

DrHouseHasAspergers wrote:

what episode did that happen (when they say they didnt see that reid is autistic)??? I want to know

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