In his book, “Autism and Creativity: Is there a Link Between Autism in Men and Exceptional Ability?”, Michael Fitzgerald, a leading authority on autism and Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Trinity College, Dublin, claims Wittgenstein had higher functioning autism or Asperger’s Syndrome (AS). He claims that autism may even be the crucial ingredient of human creativity.
Using Wittgenstein as a case-study later in the book, Fitzgerald argues that the Tractatus and Philosophical Investigations represent a process of social maturation in Wittgenstein, and that his focus on the social dimension of language in the PI mirrors the kind of personal development commonly seen in many people with AS.
Given Wittgenstein’s interpersonal relationships and cognitive styles, Ishisaka Yoshiki concludes Wittgenstein had AS, classification ICD-10. The interpersonal diagnosis is based on the following behavorial characterisitcs of Wittgenstein:
- Egocentric
- Lack of empathy for others
- Lack of sense of social interaction, detached
- Daily life was obsessive, stereotypic, persistent
- Clumsiness
- Strange accent and intonation
Yoshiki compared Wittgenstein’s cognitive style evident in his writings with the cognitive dysfunctions seen in autism. In particular, Yoshiki considers that the lack of integration evident in Wittgenstein’s thinking, its fragmentary and analytical nature, is diagnostically important, and speculates that his preference for pictorial thinking is designed to combat this dysfunction.
One difficulty with Fitzgerald’s and Yoshiki’s claim is that posthumous diagnosis is highly unreliable. Intense interest in a subject (philosophy in Wittgenstein’s case) , difficulties in social interaction, communication and imagination are typical traits of autism, but not sufficient for an autism spectrum diagnosis. It is not possible to diagnose the dead, so nothing definitive can be said about the Asperger status of historical figures. Of course, the lack of diagnosis during Wittgenstein’s lifetime does not suggest that there was nothing to diagnose, but the validity of historical diagnosis is questionable.
Asperger’s Syndrome historical shortlist (in no particular order): Russell, Einstein, Newton, Bartok, Warhol, Nietszche, Gould, Turing, Jung, Carroll.
Links to related material on Wittgenstein and Asperger’s Syndrome:
Did Wittgenstein have Asperger’s Syndrome?
The Genesis of Artistic Creativity: Asperger’s Syndrome and the Arts
7 comments
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August 7, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Dan Dixon
Being new to Wittgenstein I was reading about his two distinct phases and this lead me to think that maybe analytic philosophy is generally a young man’s (and I do mean men, not people) game and as one grows one appreciates the totality of society more and the variability of language. The analytic philosophy or mind, language and identity seemed to chime more with me as a younger man. Now that I’m a bit older I’m seeing more sense in phenomenology and social constructed epistemologies. As one grows older one sees the world in broader brush strokes, and appreciates the nuances in that, rather than focusing on the details and seeking for exactness in those.
But then maybe young men are closer to having Asperger’s, than whatever the opposite of being autistic might be. If we’re talking about some form of continuum from fully autistic to social genius, then we all fall on this somewhere and our appreciation of styles of philosophy also fall along that and change as we become more skilled socially.
August 9, 2007 at 8:49 am
gilded
Hi Dan,
Thanks for dropping by. Feel encouraged to make a habit of it! I’ll drop by your PhD site in return. Nice.
I agree with your overall sentiment. The light available to a man doesn’t diminish with age, but the inclination to concentrate it into a burning point does fade over time.
Here is another thought: some people resist this. Taken with the idea of being somebody or believing in something, they choose not to grow. In a way, they cease to be. This is a reason why I am drawn to the ‘mature Wittgenstein’. Wittgenstein’s later thought is highly sensitive to the twin ideals of exactness or precision in the philosophies of his youth, and he persistently challenges the dogmatism they imply. Some of his earlier ideas survive later on in novel form (e.g., the contextualism of the Tractatus), others are rejected (e.g., the picture theory of meaning). There is both continuity and discontinuity in Wittgenstein’s oevure.
My own unfolding thoughts are recorded on this site in “Bywords”. I’ll respond to your ideas about autism in the coming days. Very interesting!
Simon
August 9, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Dan Dixon
I like your light analogy. Very apt. That works nicely with a number of fields and illustrates how some require that focus, and some require a more dispersed approach.
But I also think that one’s attitude and appreciation of the world does change as one learns more about it. In a “normal” person I think this tends to be a more unconscious process, whereas in someone in the autistic scale this has to be a much more conscious activity.
August 13, 2007 at 2:35 pm
gilded
Dan,
Consider the recognition of facial expressions. You and I recognize immediately, though fallibly, certain facial expressions in others such as anger, fear, happiness or surprise. We are able to ‘internalize’ the paradigmatic emotions. Further, predication of a facial expression in the third-person is not mediated by an inner process of inference or analogical reasoning. If the autistic person can do it all, it is always recognition by a process of inferring from overt behavorial manifestations to statements of facial expression.
It has been documented in persons with asperger’s syndrome that they can learn to identify – with help – primary facial expressions in others by inference, one facial feature at a time, as it were, until they generate a statement of the whole. Still, an autistic person may correctly reason that I am pain, but is nonetheless incapable of showing empathy or sympathy towards me. We may say of someone unable to show sympathy that he has not ‘got it’; that is, the concept of pain. Can this be learnt? Certainly, parents and caregivers take considerable pride away when the autistic child shows ’sympathy’ toward others. Pity plays a role here in our treatment of people with intellectual disabilities.
Simon
March 10, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Asperger
Autistic people have and show sympathy toward others. What the answer of empathy is, is another question. For me, as an Aspie, my way of empathy is much like the proceeding of a phenomenological reduction.
For the questions of young men and similarities of Asperger, it meets a difficult requirement since it then says that young men should easy be friends with Asperger’s, which rarely is a possible outcome. The complexity of Asperger make it to difficult to give an short answer of the differents between young men and human with Asperger.
March 27, 2009 at 9:45 am
Simon van Rysewyk
Dear Asperger,
Can you give an example of a ‘phenomenological reduction’ in relation to autism?
Sincerely,
Simon
March 27, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Asperger
Since its hard for those with autism to experience the other person and its contexts in a social situation, empathy this way isnt a fast and easy way and often end up in chaos and sometimes meltdowns when trying. Therefore the autists often seems to go a more analytical way for it. First they have to observe many social situations and then trying to find some patterns that seems to work in most situations. And then it be a more like a list with what is allowed or not in a social situation, what can one expect of reactions from the others and so on. So it be a form of analysing all and reduce whats observed to the concrete and understandable experience of the social situation, before applying this experience to new situations. A problem with this method is that it doesnt take language-games in account, since that would have been to much work (and the analysing, methods, listmaking and so goes really automatically, so its not just to change it too). My own experience with this method is that in 70-80% of cases it works good.