54
Why Do So Many Mental Illnesses Overlap? (www.scientificamerican.com)
submitted 8 months ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/science@beehaw.org
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] BarryZuckerkorn@beehaw.org 7 points 8 months ago

Plenty of historical figures had what we now recognize as different forms of neurodivergence.

Peter Roget obsessively made lists throughout his life, beginning as early as 8 years old. He also liked to solve chess puzzles and invented the log log slide rule, useful for working out exponents and roots by hand. He appears to have suffered from depression, and used list creation as a mechanism for calming himself. After he retired, he catalogued lists of synonyms and compiled it into categories, creating what would eventually be known as Roget's Thesaurus. Looking over his biography, it's pretty obvious that he would be considered neurodivergent today.

Sherlock Holmes had trademark characteristics of what we would later call Asperger's: obsessive attention to detail combined with disinterest in other humans or their emotions. He's a fictional character, but his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, almost certainly drew on his own life and a few others in his life to create that character.

But we document these historical figures through writing, so anything prehistoric would likely not show up in the same way.

this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2024
54 points (100.0% liked)

Science

13006 readers
42 users here now

Studies, research findings, and interesting tidbits from the ever-expanding scientific world.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


Be sure to also check out these other Fediverse science communities:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS