From: Brett Paatsch (paatschb@optusnet.com.au)
Date: Thu May 01 2003 - 18:09:02 MDT
> The price of genius
> Isaac Newton suffered a nervous breakdown at the age of 50.
> Throughout his life he was taciturn, had few friends and was often
> so engrossed in his work that he forgot to eat. Albert Einstein
> repeated sentences obsessively until he was seven years old, became
> a notoriously confusing lecturer and was generally acknowledged to
> be a difficult person. Both men were certainly geniuses, but did
> they also have something else in common? Simon Baron-Cohen has
> assessed the personality traits of both men, and believes they may
> have shown signs of Asperger syndrome, a form of autism...
> http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993676
>
> R.
"three key symptoms of Asperger syndrome: obsessive interests,
difficulty in social relationships, and problems communicating."
One doesn't need to be a genius, on those symptoms I might get
bouts of "Aspergers" at least once a week. Sometime more.
What relationships aren't social? Who determines whats obsessive?
If someone is astute enough to think (accurately as with Newton
and Einstein) that they have some radical new insight into the laws
of physics why woudn't they deem such investigations worthy
of obsession. Problems communicating? Communication requires
at least one willing listener as well. Stop blazing new intellectual
trails and one stops needing to coin new jargon to mark the
route and then "communication" gets easier.
Brett
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