[lbo-talk] re: post-doctorate

[Jim Devine]

I wrote:
> "Also, is it possible that he has Asperger's syndrome
> (mild autism)which is characterized by poor social
> skills, by poor ability to plan one's life, and by
> poor common sense, but by professorial pretensions?"

On 1/24/06, B. wrote:
> ... it strikes me as absurd that now there's a
> hypothesis afoot that he must have some mental
> disorder to account for his, uh, slowness. Man!

I don't think Asperger's is a "mental disorder" as much as a
perceptual disorder (sort of like the need to wear glasses) or a
learning disorder (specifically related to interpersonal relations). A
lot of famous people may have it or may have had it (e.g., Bill Gates,
Albert Einstein). I don't think of it as "bad thing," since my son has
it and I have a mild version. People can learn to live with it and
there is no psychomed prescribed to "cure" it.
--
Jim Devine

"The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an
intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin