Pianists with Aspergerīs syndrome.

[richard black]

AS isn't an on/off, you've either got it or you haven't, thing - there are degrees of it. The teenage son of a friend of mine has it moderately - he's a great kid, slightly odd when you first meet him, extremely good at some things and surprisingly rubbish at others, and that's not so surprising in an AS person, evidently. His mother told me once, on the basis of her reading around the subject (which as you can probably imagine is considerable) that I could by some definitions be diagnosed as very mildly AS. Now that I'm well over 40 and seem to be getting on with life as adequately as the next misfit that's pretty much academic.

Another friend has a son of 6 or 7 who, she's been told, could be labelled with AS, but she's taken a conscious decision to avoid asking anyone officially because, she says, what practical difference will it make? He's unusually bright and a bit 'different' and she and he will just have to live with that. Fair enough. I can certainly see both sides of the argument.

I understand that AS is so common at the Government Communications HQ in Britain (the listening station full of boffins and linguistic geniuses that exists to snoop on the airwaves of the world) that there's an Asperger's Club, where the average IQ (for whatever that slightly dubious measure is worth in real life) is about a squillion. Make of that what you will!

[ryguillian]

I agree.

But new science shows that the line between being insane and a genuis is very little.

Do you mean to imply that Asperger's syndrome and "insanity" (I can only presume that you mean something like antisocial personality disorder, or maybe schizophrenia) have some sort of link? Because, if so, I'm sure that the American Psychological Association would like to know about your findings.

Best wishes,

Ryan.

[lohshuhan]

what is Asperger's? 

[pianochick93]

ahha, so it basically means 'normal' except the social impairment and random focussed interests.

I know 3 people with Aspergers, so pretty much, yeah.

Also they say the first thing that comes into their mind, and don't stop to think it over. One of my friends who had it once said to my mum when she said "I'm going home to take a bath" he replied "I didn't know they made baths big enough for you"

He didn't mean any offence, it was just that it came into his mind, and therefore popped out of his mouth.

People with Aspergers also have trouble putting themselves into other peoples shoes, and so they often say things that are hurtful, but think that because they themselves wouldn't find them hurtful, other people wont.

[sevencircles]

Dan Akroyd and Vines frontman Craig Nichols have got the diagnosis Aspergerīs syndrome actually.