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Originally Posted by Stephen
Based on these behaviours, but judged relative to modern day expectations obviously, he would probably be diagnosed with Aspergers if he were alive today.
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Interesting hypthesis, Stephen, that Mozart might have had Asperger's.
I looked into this and found a good article online about creativity and Asperger Syndrome, which is thought to be linked to the intensity and intellectual creativity associated with many admired, innovative people:
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The Benefits of Asperger's Syndrome
About the Benefits of Asperger's
Diane Kennedy, an author and advocate for Asperger Syndrome, writes, "They are our visionaries, scientists, diplomats, inventors, chefs, artists, writers and musicians. They are the original thinkers and a driving force in our culture."
Hans Asperger, the German doctor who discovered the syndrome, would agree with Kennedy's assessment. He believed that "for success in science or art, a dash of autism is essential. The essential ingredient may be an ability to turn away from the everyday world, from the simply practical and to rethink a subject with originality so as to create in new untrodden ways with all abilities canalized into the one specialty."
However, it is absolutely impossible to diagnose anyone posthumously or without having the person in the room. Clinicians can only diagnose Asperger Syndrome by observing behaviors. Another problem in throwing people like Mozart and Benjamin Franklin into the Asperger population is that even if a person is in front of them, doctors have a hard time distinguishing between intellectual giftedness, Attention Deficit Disorder and Asperger Syndrome. There has been little research into the personalities of intellectually gifted people, but the few that have been done show that they are often intense, restless, strong-willed, and sensitive to light and sound -- all qualities of Asperger Syndrome.
People with very high IQs often question the status quo, resist direction, have long attention spans, undergo periods of intense work and effort, and like to organize things even as children. Other people often perceive them as "different." All this is the same with those who have Asperger Syndrome.
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Originally Posted by jekluc
Apparently Bach once pulled a knife on a bassoonist and they had to be physically restrained.
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Ha ha! This seems to be true, and there is a good back-story. I read that Bach pulled the knife in self-defense after the bassoonist attacked him because Bach had compared his bassoon-playing with the sound of a nanny-goat.
A very sensitive bassoon player: I thought bassoons were *supposed* to sound like goats bleating!
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Bach's Personality
Bach wasn't patient with incompetents, or tolerant of effrontery that got in the way of his work (witness his reactions to the Scheibe attacks).
Recall the incident in which he pulled off his wig and threw it at another musician, exclaiming, "You should have been a cobbler!"
And the one where he disagreed with Silbermann's organ tuning so vehemently that he called 1/3 of it "barbaric".
And the one where Bach pulled a dagger on a bassoonist (nobody injured, fortunately; and according to Bach the dagger was only in self-defense against the other guy's attack; the bassoonist was upset because Bach had compared his playing with the sound of a nanny-goat).
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