Fantastic Perspective on Aspergers
Here is an article on Aspergers from England. Two of my sons have Aspergers and I found this to be a very uplifting explanation of the condition.
Royal College of Psychiatrists Annual Meeting 2006 Glasgow Thatcherism founder had Asperger's Syndrome
Embargoed until Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Former Conservative education secretary, Sir Keith Joseph, the man who invented Thatcherism and whose monetarist policies are carried on by the current prime minister, Tony Blair, had Asperger’s Syndrome, a mild form of autism, a leading expert told delegates today.
Professor Michael Fitzgerald, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Trinity College, Dublin, has conducted retrospective diagnoses on prominent politicians, artists and scientists to come up with his findings. “I take all the data that was collected contemporaneously. It is unbiased information and that gives it increased validity,” he said
Sir Keith, Prof. Fitzgerald told delegates, was an influential thinker whose policies have underpinned and controlled the political agenda for the last 30 years. He pioneered the application of monetarist economics to British political economics, developing what would later become known as Thatcherism.
Another Conservative MP, Enoch Powell, who gained notoriety with his “Rivers of Blood” speech, warning about the “dangers” of increased immigration, was another politician with Asperger’s. So too was Éamon de Valera, one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland and a significant leader of Ireland’s struggle for independence. Artists included Irish poet, WB Yeats.
Asperger’s syndrome has been described as an extreme form of ‘maleness’ and usually, but not always, experienced by men. Such people remain immature and ask the sort of questions a child would ask. They are highly focussed and have great powers of concentration. A minority, like Sir Isaac Newton, are true geniuses - the kind of people whose thinking affects human progress either in the arts or science.
“The brain in someone with Asperger’s syndrome is less integrated,” Prof Fitzgerald explained. “It’s in different sections that aren’t well connected and function separately to do science or mathematics.
“Such people are not distracted by human things, like wanting to chat or have coffee. They have more cells in that area - the frontal lobe - and more local connections. Like a computer, they have massively more processing power than ‘normal’ people and can reach enormous levels of concentration.
“Women, who have more integrated, social brains, are less able to do this - which is one reason why women are more able to multi-task. A man is down a cul-de-sac doing his philosophy or his engineering - and that’s all.”
Screening for Asperger’s syndrome - and aborting fetuses which might have the gene - would rob the world of geniuses.
“Genetic screening for Asperger’s syndrome, which we could be capable of doing in 20 years time - would be disastrous. Without people with Asperger’s syndrome we would still be chatting to each other in our caves. They are the ones who develop tools, invented computers and will find us a new environment when we have finally finished with this planet. You’ll find them in universities, in the computer industry, in engineering and mathematics. If we destroy them it could lead to the extinction of the human race.”
Ref.: http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pressparliament/pressreleases2006/pr820.aspx
Royal College of Psychiatrists Annual Meeting 2006 Glasgow Thatcherism founder had Asperger's Syndrome
Embargoed until Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Former Conservative education secretary, Sir Keith Joseph, the man who invented Thatcherism and whose monetarist policies are carried on by the current prime minister, Tony Blair, had Asperger’s Syndrome, a mild form of autism, a leading expert told delegates today.
Professor Michael Fitzgerald, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Trinity College, Dublin, has conducted retrospective diagnoses on prominent politicians, artists and scientists to come up with his findings. “I take all the data that was collected contemporaneously. It is unbiased information and that gives it increased validity,” he said
Sir Keith, Prof. Fitzgerald told delegates, was an influential thinker whose policies have underpinned and controlled the political agenda for the last 30 years. He pioneered the application of monetarist economics to British political economics, developing what would later become known as Thatcherism.
Another Conservative MP, Enoch Powell, who gained notoriety with his “Rivers of Blood” speech, warning about the “dangers” of increased immigration, was another politician with Asperger’s. So too was Éamon de Valera, one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland and a significant leader of Ireland’s struggle for independence. Artists included Irish poet, WB Yeats.
Asperger’s syndrome has been described as an extreme form of ‘maleness’ and usually, but not always, experienced by men. Such people remain immature and ask the sort of questions a child would ask. They are highly focussed and have great powers of concentration. A minority, like Sir Isaac Newton, are true geniuses - the kind of people whose thinking affects human progress either in the arts or science.
“The brain in someone with Asperger’s syndrome is less integrated,” Prof Fitzgerald explained. “It’s in different sections that aren’t well connected and function separately to do science or mathematics.
“Such people are not distracted by human things, like wanting to chat or have coffee. They have more cells in that area - the frontal lobe - and more local connections. Like a computer, they have massively more processing power than ‘normal’ people and can reach enormous levels of concentration.
“Women, who have more integrated, social brains, are less able to do this - which is one reason why women are more able to multi-task. A man is down a cul-de-sac doing his philosophy or his engineering - and that’s all.”
Screening for Asperger’s syndrome - and aborting fetuses which might have the gene - would rob the world of geniuses.
“Genetic screening for Asperger’s syndrome, which we could be capable of doing in 20 years time - would be disastrous. Without people with Asperger’s syndrome we would still be chatting to each other in our caves. They are the ones who develop tools, invented computers and will find us a new environment when we have finally finished with this planet. You’ll find them in universities, in the computer industry, in engineering and mathematics. If we destroy them it could lead to the extinction of the human race.”
Ref.: http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pressparliament/pressreleases2006/pr820.aspx