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Asperger's -- make it stop!



Oh man, not Asperger's again.
 
If I get any more blunt about this, people will conclude I'm being rude. I don't know -- maybe rudeness is required to make this subject go away. Common sense and decent respect for the memory of someone we all claim to admire don't seem to be sufficient to make it go away.
 
First of all ... why on earth is anyone in medicine or psychiatry or psychology diagnosing dead people? Even if the diagnosis is right-on, you can't do them any damn good. Is there some shortage of living people who need assistance?
 
Is there an argument here that by accurately diagnosing the long-dead Glenn Gould, this will somehow help the living? Someone should try to make that case. I'm not buying it.
 
I don't recall GG as an adult or GG's parents ever seeking professional help for any perceived emotional illness or suffering. Ought not all such inquiries begin with the "patient" him/herself asking for help? Or are we entering a new "proactive" phase of psychiatric assistance, where people are hauled in for adjustments without even asking for help? 
 
GG's parents did recognize a problem, and they sought the perfect professional help for him: the finest piano teachers they could find.
 
Again I would remind people of the notorious trendiness of psychology and psychiatry. Will Asperger's make the time cut? Will anyone even remember it twenty years from now, except as an embarrassing footnote?
 
Compare the stature and lasting achievements of those pointing the Asperger's finger at GG with Gould's own stature and enduring achievements. Small wonder such "experts" want to drag him down to their miniscule size. They already know they're doomed to obscurity, if not oblivion. And Gould will grow in fame and admiration forever.
 
Who has bedroom wall posters of Asperger?
 
I remember some of those dreaded symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome.
 
    * age-inappropriate interest in trains
    * intellectual curiosity
    * capuccino obsession
 
I think Asperger's Syndrome, certainly as applied in GG's posthumous case, is a symptom of our increasing and widespread dread of non-conformity, and trying to stamp out non-conformity and intellectual diversity is a disease psychologists have always suffered from.
 
Most of us have made our painful adjustments to the cookie cutter, and deeply resent and fear anyone who notoriously and unashamedly resisted being mass-processed and seems largely to be rewarded and praised for non-conformity.
 
What we have in GG is someone whom God randomly touched with a massive intellect and -- pardon the comparison with someone GG himself didn't like -- the natural-born talents of a Mozart. That's the clearest symptom here: a great talent that appeared spontaneously in early childhood. Many people are clearly terrified and resentful of this kind of thing. Many people go so far as to want to stamp it out, or to think they have a mandate from society to help stamp it out. Heaven knows how many children have successfully had their natural talents and diversities stamped out, by schools assisted by loving, concerned psychologists.
 
Those in the USA with some familiarity with public schools today should ask the question: If GG went to public school today, would he be among the millions of kids now thuggishly coerced into taking Ritalin? Would he be diagnosed as disruptive? I know if I were recycled to today's public schools, they'd be leaning on my parents to dose me with Ritalin.
 
This is all about conformity. In GG's posthumous case, it's ghoulish. GG wasn't sick. Efforts to portray him as sick are sick.
 
The poor man. His terrible Asperger's Syndrome gave him a rich, rewarding life, the admiration of millions, honor from his fellow Canadians while he lived and beyond, and profound insight and talents into the most sublime music. This is a disease that enriches the lives of millions of perfect strangers.
 
Small wonder this subject raises my hackles. If these brilliant healers had only diagnosed and treated GG in time -- we wouldn't be here on this List, and I wouldn't be able to put a Glenn Gould CD on my stereo. He would have been well adjusted. I might have bought homeowners insurance from him.
 
Bob