High-functioning Autistic Celebrities

Post Reply New Topic

These are some of the people I suspect of being undiagnosed aspies;
Angelina Jolie
Jennifer Lawrence
Johnny Depp
Leonardo DiCaprio
Sadie Toksvig (QI presenter)
Daniel Radcliffe
Michael Mcintyre (comedian)
Catherine Tate
Maggie Smith
Adam Young (Owl City)
Heechul (Super Junior)

Possibly Brat Pitt and Benedict Cummberbatch

Do you think they might be, what’s your opinion? Please really think about it because I really think they might be.

Last edited by abrett1960 on 11 Jan 2019, 11:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

Daryl Hannah was so shy as a small child that she was suspected of being autistic.

I believe Daryl Hannah was actually diagnosed with autism.

Anne Hegertty from the British ITV quiz show The Chase is a diagnosed high functioning Aspie.

I’ve always thought Lady Gaga was, and maybe Avril Lavigne.

Yeah, actually I agree with that too. I think you’re right!

I have no idea given that it's all speculation.

A quote found in wiki from Catherine Tate caught my attention the first time I read it:

"Regarding her personal outlook, Tate has said, "I'm an incredibly negative person, so any form of success is only ever going to be a relief to me and set my default position back to neutral.""

That interests me in that "neutral" in my mind is "statis" Are you feeling good, bad or "neutral"? Is something upsetting your "statis"? I like to think that I'm not incredibly negative, but I do tend toward being negative and I can identify with her quote.

Even though David Byrne said he thinks he had Aspergers or Asperger-like tendencies or that he no longer has them (I don't recall his specific comments on the subject), I would put him on the speculative list of people with ASD.

I have suspicions about the late Amy Winehouse. She had little social “filter” , she blurted out immediately what came to mind, was way too naive and trusting, and was often described as honest to a fault and oblivious to her stardom.

The late genius pianist Glenn Gould had many core autistic traits.

I am not against people suspecting celebrities and historical figures as long as they do not make a blanket statement that this person is autistic sans proof. I do like to know why one thinks a celebrity is autistic. Just because they are quirky, different, or blunt does not make them Autistic. It should go beyound that such as Bill Gates “rocking”.

Darryl Hannah has publically stated she was diagnosed as a child.

From your spelling it looks like you have Brad Pitt confused with Benjamin Brat. Lol!
Adam Young claimed that he was an aspie, but was never diagnosed.
The rest of folks on the list....I don't see it. Any evidence of autisticality. Though I don't see any strongly against it either. you will have to elaborate.

Yeah unless they're different to how I've always imagined them, many of these are not. They're almost like the opposite.

My suspicions are:
Nikola Tesla
Emily Dickinson (and/or she was mentally ill. She wasn't 'normal' NT even by Victorian standards)
Andy Warhol (annoying for the rest of us, I think I read somewhere about his light sensitivity. Everyone now thinks if you wear dark glasses indoors you're trying to be 'cool' which started with people doing it to look like him)
Marcel Proust (who bordered up his room in Paris with wood to avoid sound coming through and is obsessed with detail)

James Joyce might be but he was quite adept socially. I think it's more likely that he had just the 'right' level of schizoid gene, that he could make a word salad make sense and put intricate detail into it and it would be art rather than madness. His daughter had the full blown disease.

I think you're more likely to find aspies in things like the arts and sciences than find us somewhere where you need to schmooze to survive like Hollywood. This might even mean Warhol isn't, except that his light sensitivity and his obsession with the same objects over and over and his wanting to make the mundane into art seem aspie to me.

There's a danger we just fill this up with our favourite celebrities... For the record, of those I've listed, my mum likes Dickinson (I'm a bit bored of her because mum loves her so much) and I related to Warhol a lot watching his documentary but I'm not really into his art and I don't know that much about Tesla's work to comment. Proust, I do love, but I think a lot of that is relating to his autism. Joyce I also love, but I was honest about the fact I'm not really sure he's aspie (although I too have similar level of schizoid gene so I'm still being possessive over him).

I think Daniel Radcliff might be for the simple reason that he's dyspraxic and it's a co-morbid. But he's young enough that he's probably closeted about saying it publicly rather than undiagnosed, if it's true. And Sandi Toksvig (pretty sure her name's Sandi not Sadie?) is butch lesbian and intelligent. Not sure about aspie, it's just that it's quite rare to see intelligent people and butch lesbians on TV. But then, she might be.

Of course, the one good thing about filling it with your favourite people is that you (as an aspie) might know more about them than everyone else does. I'm just really talking about the public images they give off to me.

I find the exercise of fingering celebrities as probable autistics to be devoid of intellectual rigor, and possibly defamatory towards the individuals. Not that being called autistic is defamatory or that there's anything shameful in being autistic; but why don't we leave these people alone to and leave commentary to their occupation or craft and often, their over-publicized personal lives.

Would you like your neighbors saying about you "I think that person has OCD. I often find them checking their door being locked several times before leaving." Or "I'm absolutely certain that person is bipolar, because I've seen them when they're really energetic and I've seen them when they're very down."

I find diagnosis of long-dead individuals, such as Emily Dickinson, to be especially questionable. If we can't competently diagnose anybody as autistic without personal interview and behavioral observation today, how on earth can we diagnose somebody for whom none of that is possible?

First of all, most of this is coming from those of us for whom autism isn't a bad thing but a neutral thing - so it's the equivalent of speculating Shakespeare is bi because he wrote most of his sonnets to a man and they come across as romantic.

Secondly, celeb gossip is what those of us who need gossip (an NT trait I know) do to keep away from the practice of gossiping about neighbours. Gossiping about fictional characters (something else I've seen condemned) is even less harmful but honestly, these celebrities are public figures and used to gossip and speculation and there are worse things celebrities get accused of than being aspie. And the dead ones won't even know about it.

Third, if the neighbours themselves had OCD, I wouldn't mind. Especially if OCD had positive traits as well as negative and they were saying 'that person's got the same good attention to detail as I have, I wonder if it comes about from them being OCD'. Trying to relate to someone isn't a bad thing.

Fourth, many of us who are aspie have been told that being autistic only looks like either being a scientific genius (for your sake I won't name a long dead genius who couldn't tie his shoe laces...) or being severely disabled. We're looking around for role models and people we're like. People we can relate to. I think this is as harmless as the gay example.

I think describing certain geniuses as autistic does more good than harm. Knowing that so and so was probably autistic or had some autistic traits means a kid like I was when I was 15 doesn't think 'I have no hope in life, I'm severely disabled, my personality is a disability' and does think 'I'm different to most people but different isn't always bad, in fact sometimes being different is really good, all these famous people were different and they got on'.

We need to be careful who we diagnose though. Diagnosing people with high social skills gives ridiculous expectations and notions that we're capable of this sort of thing. Most aspies aren't.

I'm not always open about my autism and I'm becoming fairly known in the poetry world (by my real name which I'm not naming here). If someone wants to speculate and say 'she's autistic because of her absolute attention to detail and being a recluse who never left her house in five years and having unusual thoughts and an imaginary world of her own', they'd be right and I wouldn't mind coming across that sort of gossip. Especially if it came from well meaning autistic people and not someone trying to say 'no wonder I don't get her she's got ass burgers hahaha'.

Saying he made "word salad" is like saying Michelangelo liked to sketch. Joyce was imitating the unconscious. His use of language, pun, and portmanteau is brilliant. He's often credited with a use of language surpassing Shakespeare's for a reason. More than simply seeing "nonsense" on the wall, and tilting the frame so it was art, I'd say he showed how little humans wake up to their potential. He was a master of making comparisons of form. I think that's how he's best explained.

Gossip is unavoidable, and is the product of a vital human survival instinct.

I hate it when folks go overboard and declare every historical figure they like, or every celeb they like, an aspie (or gay, or whatever it is that they are vested in), and doing so without evidence.

But at the same time I constantly see aspieness in historic figures, and in celebs, and even in fictional characters.

On balance I would opine that its okay to speculate in public about public figures, past and present, being on the autism spectrum, but it would be nice if you present evidence when you do that speculating on a public forum.

True.

But I'm coming at it from a specific episode in which he noticed his daughter having some very creative word salad episodes of her own and him asking a psychiatrist 'what's the difference between art and what she does'. He got the answer back 'art is controlled'.

Often people who are full blown schizophrenic aren't creative because of the toll the disease takes but the gene can influence those of us who have immediate family members with the disease in a positive way, making us more creative and able to see patterns but without the paranoia and the lack of controlled thought which comes from the full disease.

^^

Great story. I didn't know that. Thanks