Was Orville Wright Autistic

Answer 1

Although there is no way of really knowing, I believe there is strong evidence tosupport the ideathat he was on the mild high-functioning end of the spectrum, sometimes referred to asAsperger's Syndrome. I've researched the Wright brothers over a number of years (as an enthusiast, not as a scholar) and only after having an autistic child myself did Inotice similar behavior patterns between my son andbothOrville and WilburWright. These patterns include an intense fixation on a special interest, self-focus, lack of social "filters," inability to differentiate between social contexts, social anxieties and an affinity for machines, science and engineering. Biographers have also dubbed them as "woman-shy," and as writer John Elder Robison suggests, Aspies tend to have a fear of rejection by the opposite sex. Robison's memoir"Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's"offers excellent insight from the point of view of someone with Asperger's and heseemed (to me)to havemany of the same personal qualities that defined the Wrights.