Michelangelo autistic?

[zakur]

Story (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20040531/michelangelo.html) Renaissance artistic genius Michelangelo may have had Asperger's syndrome, a milder form of autism that causes people to have difficulties with social interaction, experts say.

A by-product of Asperger's can be a special talent in a particular area such as art, music or mathematics.

The research by U.K. and Irish autism experts, published in the Journal of Medical Biography, argued that Michelangelo met a number of the criteria for Asperger's.Yet another historical diagnosis, like FDR had Guillain-Barre syndrome (http://host.randi.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29845) or Alexander the Great died of West Nile Fever.

[Luciana]

I'm so skeptical of those historical diagnoses. I can't tell if they derive from educated guesses based on reliable data, taking in consideration the knowledge we now possess, or if it's meant just as an attention-seeking ploy from "scientists" with an agenda.

Whatever Leonardo da Vinci "had", it had to be much more than "just" Asperger's, as da Vinci's accomplishments and talents were one of a kind.

I wish I could be more enlightened regarding those historical diagnoses, as so far, they look entirely bogus to me.

Btw, according to some, Sherlock Holmes was autistic and his father killed his mother when he was a child. Beat that!