Anemone's Research Emporium

Michael Fitzgerald's speculations about famous people and autism

Anemone Cerridwen
June 29, 2008

Michael Fitzgerald has written a number of papers and books diagnosing famous people of the past as autistic. [Note: as always, I use the term autistic to refer to everyone on the autistic spectrum, including Autistic Disorder, Asperger Syndrome, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified.] These diagnoses are controversial - some people are happy to think of Albert Einstein, Hans Christian Andersen and Andy Warhol, for example, as autistic, while others are highly sceptical. It would take a considerable amount of time and space to critique every one of his diagnoses, so I will focus primarily on Hans Christian Andersen, since I had read up on him before reading Fitzgerald's assessment, and before having any idea anyone considered him autistic, and so had an opportunity to form my own impression without prejudice.

Fitzgerald diagnosed Andersen in his 2005 book: The genesis of artistic creativity. But it would probably be a good idea to have a look at Fitzgerald's concept of autism, described in greater length in his earlier 2004 book: Autism and creativity, first.

Fitzgerald and autism

Fitzgerald believes that high functioning autistic people may be capable of great creativity, and that, by examining famous creative people who may have been autistic, we can learn about creative genius in general.

He writes:

How individuals achieve greatness can hinge on many, often inexplicable, factors -- hence the fascination with puzzling personalities, which may prove difficult for the biographer. This point has been raised by Virginia Wolff and quoted by Kuehn. She declares that 'biographies are difficult, if not impossible to write, because people are all over the place'. Describing such people as 'all over the place' is in fact shorthand for being enigmatic, which is certainly part of the creativity and eccentricity of HFA/ASP. In this book the diagnosis of HFA/ASP attempts to reduce this chaos. [Fitzgerald 2004: 16]

I'm not sure that Wolff meant to imply that people who are "all over the place" are either enigmatic or autistic. It's possible she was referring to the tendency of all people to be both complex and inconsistent a lot of the time. But who knows?

Next, Fitzgerald discusses the nature of Asperger Syndrome:

The present author has expressed the view that we should retain the term 'autistic psychopathy', particularly when serious antisocial behaviour is involved (see Table 2.1). [Fitzgerald 2004: 23]

In the table (2.1) referred to here, he compares Asperger Syndrome to Antisocial Personality Disorder (what most people think of as psychopathy). He seems to believe that autistic disorders would be better described as personality disorders, along with Antisocial Personality Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Schizoid Personality Disorder etc., instead of as developmental disorders, as they are now. This is not to imply that he thinks autistic people are psychopaths, just that he seems to take a different slant on autism than most clinicians do today. He does argue, though, that Hitler, everyone's favourite psychopath, was also autistic. I'm not sure where he gets that from, but it may be because Hitler was highly creative (he was a skilled artist) as well as highly screwed up. To my knowledge there is no documentation that Hitler had any social or communication impairment that significantly interfered with work or personal life, as is normally understood for autism.

Fitzgerald relies heavily on Gillberg's description of Asperger's:

1. social impairments
2. narrow interests
3. repetitive routines
4. speech and language peculiarities
5. non-verbal communication problems
6. motor clumsiness

Compare this to Oliver Sacks' shorthand description of autism, based on the original descriptions by Kanner and Asperger:

Kanner's and Asperger's accounts were in many ways strikingly (at times uncannily) similar--a nice example of historical synchronicity. Both emphasized "aloneness," mental aloneness, as the cardinal feature of autism; this, indeed, was why they called it autism. In Kanner's words, this aloneness "whenever possible, disregards, ignores, shuts out anything that comes to the child from the outside." This lack of contact, he felt, was only in regard to people; objects, by contrast, might be normally enjoyed. The other defining feature of autism, for Kanner, was "an obsessive insistence on sameness" in the form of repetitive, stereotyped movements and noises, rituals and routines; finally, in the appearance of strange, narrow preoccupations--highly focused, intense fascinations and fixations. The appearance of such fascinations, and the adoption of such rituals, often before the age of five, were not to be seen, Kanner and Asperger thought, in any other condition. [Sacks 1995: 190]

It is unlikely that we will see this kind of detail from the childhoods of people long dead, especially since, in the past, people didn't pay much attention to child development. However, "aloneness" and "insistence on sameness" may show up in less exaggerated form in adulthood, especially the aloneness.

Fitzgerald relies heavily on social isolation for his diagnoses, which is fair, although it is probably normal for historic geniuses to be a little isolated - it's not as if there are tons of people just like them to hang out with, so you need to be careful with that. Unfortunately, Fitzgerald fails to distinguish between the kind of isolation typically experienced by gifted people, especially growing up, before they have had a chance to find a peer group (Webb et al., 2005), and the kind of lifelong isolation autistic people are vulnerable to. Narrow interests are also typical of many gifted people, and he fails to distinguish the two groups here as well. It is actually probably safe to assume that the vast majority of famous historical figures (especially the ones that got there under their own power instead of inheriting their fame) were exceptionally gifted in some way or other, but probably not autistic, since autism involves significant social impairment, and it's hard to become famous when you're socially impaired.

He argues, and I agree, that there are many eccentric people who are not autistic:

Indeed, many people with HFA/ASP are described as being eccentric. At the same time the majority of the people, in my experience, who have the word 'eccentric' attached to them do not meet diagnostic criteria for HFA/ASP. [Fitzgerald 2004: 35]

However, in my view, he does not make a case that the people he describes as autistic are more than just gifted and eccentric.

He also argues, and again, I agree, that it is not particularly useful to distinguish between high functioning autistic (HFA) and Asperger Syndrome (ASP).

In general, Fitzgerald's argument frequently sounds like: "this person was x; autistic people are x; therefore this person was autistic", forgetting that sometimes non-autistic people are also x. What's more, x varies from one example to the next. Person 1 is autistic because they're anal-retentive about facts (as are autistic people). Then, with persons two and three, their mysticism points to them being autistic (autistic people may also sometimes be mystics, though I don't know how common it is). Additionally, he doesn't say "might be" with anyone - it's always "is", which is taking a strong stand when we can never be quite sure about people who are no longer around to be interviewed.

Fitzgerald and Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was a Danish writer famous for his fairy tales, especially The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid. He was obviously exceptionally creative and sensitive, and also socially isolated, living in Copenhagen while most creative types gravitated to Paris or Vienna. He was also highly effeminate, and probably homosexual or bisexual. He never married, and his sexuality posed problems for him his entire life. I read up on him some time before reading Fitzgerald's assessment, and did not see any reason to see him as autistic. Creative, yes. Unusual, yes. Isolated, yes. But not autistic. To me there was something missing, or rather, something not missing, that I would have needed to see, to see him as autistic.

Here are some of the comments Fitzgerald (2005) makes about him:

He had a kind of autistic restlessness. [Fitzgerald 2005: 37]

As opposed to what other kind of restlessness?

Was it an autistic imagination, like that of W.B. Yeats? [Fitzgerald 2005: 38]

Didn't know there were other kinds of imagination, either.

There is an autistic directness about his fairytales. [Fitzgerald 2005: 39]

Well, yes, his writing is direct, suitable for children. Fairy tales are usually like that. Autistic people can be direct, but not all direct people are autistic.

He showed by the extent of his travels that he was a man of courage -- courage is a very common feature of persons with ASD. [Fitzgerald 2005: 43]

Well, I think so, too, but non-autistic people often travel, too, and can also be courageous, so travel and courage are hardly diagnostic.

His autistic compulsiveness was shown in the way that he repeatedly told his life story. He also had the autistic persistence that often leads to success in highly talented persons. One of his rituals was to go to the theatre every night.

In 1827 he became obsessed with the Collin family; he held an autistic-like obsession with them for the rest of his life. [Fitzgerald 2005: 43]

Andersen was probably in love with Edvard Collin. I'd like to go to the theatre more often, though every day might be a bit much. I don't know about all the autobiographies.

When he was a child, his mother noticed his fastidiousness in cutting clothes for his puppets. This appears to have been a rather autistic kind of activity, not unlike the paper cut-outs that he later indulged in, particularly at parties. [Fitzgerald 2005: 44]

His paper cut-outs were brilliant. If I concentrate hard, I can sometimes make snowflakes. I'm told they have competitions for this sort of thing.

Nonetheless, as is common with persons with Asperger's syndrome, his self-esteem was fragile and easily crushed by people around him. [Fitzgerald 2005: 46]

Lots of other people have fragile self-esteem, too.

Wullschlager has noted that he had 'a manic sense of self-grandiose ideas about fortune and nobility, interleaved with a fear of madness and rejection'. This kind of grandiosity is not uncommon in persons with Asperger's syndrome. [Fitzgerald 2005: 46]

And in other insecure people too?

Anderson wrote in a letter in 1832: 'I am a peculiar being! . . . I can never enjoy the present, my life is in the past and in the future, and there is in reality too little for a real man. I have been in bad, very bad spirits.' His description of himself as peculiar is classically autistic. [Fitzgerald 2005: 47]

You don't have to be autistic to be peculiar, or to think you are peculiar, do you?

It seems that everything that make Andersen unique is attributable to autism, since Fitzgerald has already decided that Andersen was autistic: "Andersen was autistic, and Andersen was x, therefore x is an attribute of autism."

Persons with Asperger's syndrome probably have a child's perspective, and because of their major difficulties with a sense of identity and a sense of self have enormous problems in their search for a sense of meaning to their life. [Fitzgerald 2005: 47]

And here I thought our mental processes were a mystery! I think this comment is a major stretch even if applied to a formally diagnosed individual.

All his life, Andersen had homoerotic longings and obsessions with individual men. . . . He also had desires for women, but probably less intense than his desires for men. . . .

This sexual ambiguity is possibly a characteristic of Asperger's syndrome. [Fitzgerald 2005: 47]

And here I thought he was gay. Or bi. Or something.

Even at an early stage his identity diffusion was clear, and was seen partly in his effeminacy and love of dressing up. One might say that he operated through a false self and had very little sense of a real self or core self. [Fitzgerald 2005: 48]

Gay, and effeminate. Remember, he sewed puppet clothes, too.

Around the age of 25 Andersen was experiencing the 'continuing loneliness of the rootless young man in the city uncertain how to make emotional connections, and aware of an attraction to certain male friends which none reciprocated with equal intensity'. Here he is showing the social relationship difficulties of autism. [Fitzgerald 2005: 40]

Or homosexuality pre 1990's.

Now we get to his writing:

'The Ugly Duckling' may represent Andersen with his Asperger's syndrome: he wishes that he could look in the water and become or a swan or something different, i.e. a non-autistic person. [Fitzgerald 2005: 40]

Most people don't take the story this way. Who knows what he was thinking? Maybe he just wished he could afford to move to Paris.

Possible this [The Little Mermaid] was his most successful fairytale because it described so accurately the position of a person with autism cut off from the non-autistic human world. . . . The mermaid was an autistic mermaid. [Fitzgerald 2005: 41]

Well, I think he's describing alienation in a more general sense, but it could include autism, and homosexuality, and . . .

One wonders whether the six mermaids at the bottom of the sea in 'The Little Mermaid' had autistic voices -- 'they had lovely voices, more beautiful than human beings'. [Fitzgerald 2005: 43]

I'm autistic. How come I can't sing like that?

From the evidence presented above, it seems very likely that Andersen did in fact have Asperger's syndrome.' [Fitzgerald 2005: 49]

None of these arguments convince me, and some of them make me laugh. (I chose Andersen partly because some of the comments are so funny. Though Fitzgerald is serious, and he is trying to help. So don't laugh too much.)

It should be noted that Andersen was isolated and weird. However, it should also be noted that he was stuck in Copenhagen while his artistic peers were off in Vienna and Paris hobnobbing with each other. He did visit these cities, where he was made welcome, but he couldn't afford to live there, because there was no international copyright back then, so he only got paid for his Denmark sales, and relied on a pension (a government arts grant) from the king of Denmark to make ends meet, which meant he had to live in Denmark. Had he been able to life in Paris or Vienna full time, it is possible his shyness and social awkwardness might have worn off, and he might have taken to this social environment like a duck (or swan?) to water. But since he wasn't able to live there, we'll never know.

It is unfortunate that Fitzgerald's arguments are so weak. It is actually possible that some of the people he describes really were autistic (though not, in my opinion, any of the ones I am already familiar with, including Einstein, Warhol, and Andersen), but I couldn't tell from his descriptions. What I would like to see is a description of a degree of isolation that significantly impairs work or personal life or both (like the one provided by Oliver Sacks for Henry Cavendish - Sacks, 2002), not otherwise explainable, as Andersen's was by lack of funds. Not just isolation in childhood, when the person has no one who shares his or her interests or who is not on the same level intellectually, but also in adulthood, when there is a peer group to interact with, but still little or no interaction with peers, especially if the person wants to interact, but can't get it to work right. What I'd also like to see is a description not distracted by the kind of unconventionality common in high functioning eccentrics who are just weird people having a good time, and are not autistic, the way Fitzgerald's descriptions of Andersen and others get. If it's not diagnostic, leave it out.

We really could use some really solid role models from the past, to build up an accurate picture of what autism looks like from the outside, from a good distance away. It is unrealistic to expect society to accommodate us when they can't even tell what we are like. I would encourage anyone wanting to describe a historical figure as possibly autistic to go for it, but please, be more careful in your arguments.

References

Fitzgerald, Michael, 2004. Autism and creativity: Is there a link between autism in men and exceptional ability? Brunner-Routledge, Hove and New York

Fitzgerald, Michael, 2005. The genesis of artistic creativity: Asperger's Syndrome and the arts. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London and Philadelphia.

Sacks, Oliver, 1995. An anthropologist on Mars: Seven paradoxical tales. Alfred A. Knopf, NY.

Sacks, Oliver, 2002. Henry Cavendish: An early case of Asperger's syndrome? Neurological Foundation of New Zealand (Reprinted with permission from the American Neurological Association). Retrieved from http://www.neurological.org.nz/html/article.php?documentCode=26 on June 29, 2008.

Webb, James T., Edward R. Amend, Nadia E. Webb, Jean Goerss, Paul Beljan, and F. Richard Olenchak, 2005. Misdiagnosis and dual diagnoses of gifted children and adults. Great Potential Press, Inc. Scottsdale Arizona