Sociological and Cultural Aspects of Autism - Notable Individuals

Notable Individuals

Notable individuals with autism spectrum disorders represent diverse professions such as anthropology, video game design and television production. Some notable artists, authors and musicians and such figures as Richard Borcherds, a Fields Medal winner, Temple Grandin, a food animal handling systems designer and author, Tim Page, a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author and Vernon L. Smith, a Nobel Laureate in economics, also have autism spectrum disorders.

There are many published speculative claims about historical figures who may have had autism spectrum disorders. Henry Cavendish, one of history's foremost scientists, may have been autistic. George Wilson, a notable chemist and physician, wrote a book about Cavendish entitled The Life of the Honourable Henry Cavendish, published in 1851. From Wilson's detailed description it seems that Cavendish may have exhibited many classic signs of autism. Fred Volkmar, a psychiatrist and autism expert at the Yale Child Study Center is skeptical; he says, "There is unfortunately a sort of cottage industry of finding that everyone has Asperger's."

Read more about this topic:  Sociological And Cultural Aspects Of Autism

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