Historical Figures Sometimes Considered Autistic - Specific Individuals

Specific Individuals

See also: List of people on the autistic spectrum

Person	Speculator
Hugh Blair of Borgue – 18th century Scottish landowner thought mentally incompetent, now studied as case history of autism.	Rab Houston and Uta Frith Wolff calls the evidence "convincing".
Henry Cavendish – 18th century British scientist. He was unusually reclusive, literal minded, had trouble relating to people, had trouble adapting to people, difficulties looking straight at people, drawn to patterns, etc.	Oliver Sacks, and Ioan James; Fred Volkmar of Yale Study Child Center is skeptical.
Charles XII of Sweden – speculated to have had Asperger syndrome	Swedish researchers, Gillberg and Lagerkvist
Jeffrey Dahmer – serial killer	Silva, et al.
Anne Claudine d'Arpajon, comtesse de Noailles – French governess, lady of honor, tutor	Society for French Historical Studies, New York Times
Emily Dickinson – poet	Vernon Smith
Glenn Gould – Canadian pianist and noted Bach interpreter. He liked routine to the point he used the same seat until it was worn through. He also disliked social functions to the point that in later life he relied on the telephone or letters for virtually all communication. He had an aversion to being touched, had a different sense of hot or cold than most, and would rock back and forth while playing music. He is speculated to have had Asperger syndrome.	Michael Fitzgerald, Ioan James, Tony Attwood, Peter Ostwald
Adolf Hitler – Austrian born, Nazi-German politician, chancellor and dictator	Michael Fitzgerald and Andreas Fries; although others disagree and say that there is not sufficient evidence to indicate any diagnoses for Hitler.
Thomas Jefferson – US President	Norm Ledgin Tony Attwood, and Ioan James
James Joyce – author of Ulysses	Michael Fitzgerald and Antionette Walker; this theory has been called "a somewhat odd hypothesis".
Bohuslav Martinů – Czech-American composer (1890 -1959)	F. James Rybka
William McGonagall - poet, notoriously bad yet he never understood that others mocked him	Norman Watson
Michelangelo – Italian Renaissance artist, based on his inability to form long-term attachments and certain other characteristics	Arshad and Fitzgerald; Ioan James also discussed Michelangelo's autistic traits.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – composer	Tony Attwood and Michael Fitzgerald; others disagree that there is sufficient evidence to indicate any diagnoses for Mozart.
Charles Richter – seismologist, creator of the eponymous scale of earthquake magnitude	Susan Hough in her biography of Richter
Alan Turing – pioneer of computer sciences. He seemed to be a math savant and his lifestyle has many autism traits about it.	Tony Attwood and Ioan James
Michael Ventris – English architect who deciphered Linear B	Simon Baron-Cohen
Blind Tom Wiggins – autistic savant	Oliver Sacks
Ludwig Wittgenstein – Austrian philosopher	Michael Fitzgerald Tony Attwood, and Ioan James; But Oliver Sacks seems to disagree.

Isaac Newton (1643–1727), Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) and Albert Einstein (1879–1955) all died before Asperger syndrome became known, but Ioan James, Michael Fitzgerald, and Simon Baron-Cohen believe their personalities are consistent with those of people with Asperger syndrome. Tony Attwood has also named Einstein as a likely case of mild autism.

Not everyone agrees with this analysis. According to Oliver Sacks, the evidence that any one of these figures had autism "seems very thin at best". Glen Elliott, a psychiatrist at the University of California at San Francisco, is unconvinced that either Newton or Einstein had Asperger syndrome, particularly due to the unreliability of diagnoses based on biographical information. Elliot stated that there are a variety of causes that could explain the behaviour in question, and points out that Einstein is known to have had a good sense of humour, a trait that, according to Elliot, is "virtually unknown in people with severe Asperger syndrome". This interpretation, however, may be flawed: in his book 'The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome' author Tony Attwood notes that, although "Children with Asperger's Syndrome tend to make a literal interpretation of what someone says and may not understand when someone is joking... a wonderful, if idiosyncratic sense of humour (Darlington 2011)."