DENNIS STILLINGS: DOES OBAMA SUFFER FROM ASPERGER’S SYNDROME?
“Harry, I have a gift.” —Barack Obama
Some months ago a friend of mine proposed the notion that Obama was possessed of some physical and psychological quirks that might indicate the presence of Asperger’s Syndrome (high-functioning autism).
Before going on to discuss this possibility, strong caveats are due: (1) I am not a mental health professional of any kind; (2) Even for a professional, “diagnosis-at-a-distance” is usually a bad practice, and (3) it appears from what little I’ve read that Asperger’s is a difficult diagnosis to make.
What emboldens me to say anything at all is that an article entitled “A Shrink Asks: What’s Wrong with Obama?” by psychotherapist Robin of Berkeley (American Thinker, June 11, 2010, A Shrik Asks: What's Wrong with Obama?), has gotten considerable attention on the internet. Of course, all sorts of other unqualified people have freely commented on the piece.
The commentators seem to have settled on Asperger’s Syndrome, even though that is only one of the possibilities discussed in Robin’s paper, and that in an almost dismissive manner.
I contacted Robin and pointed out that there were at least a couple of strong Asperger’s symptoms that had not been considered: (1) Obama’s almost legendary clumsiness. His inability to throw a baseball is well documented. He has actually bowled a 37 during the time of his campaign. His basketball ability pretty much kept him on the bench in his youth and, as far as I can tell, no video footage of his golf game exists. (2) Verbal glitches—possibly the reason for the ever-present teleprompters. Without them, he tends to generate long, rambling and disconnected monologues. In my opinion, his famous “corpse-man” mispronunciation has not been adequately explained. In grade school, “corps” is used as an illustration of the non-English manner in which French “borrow-words” might be pronounced. Furthermore, it seems incredible that a person with Obama’s education and political background would not have come in contact with such expressions as Marine Corps, corps de ballet, or Drum and Bugle Corps—among others. Could this be symptomatic of autistic rigidity and inability to generalize into other contexts?
And, finally, there is his infamous inability to relate: Old people should take pain pills instead of expensive medical treatments. He giggles when asked about the economy. He opened a presentation with a shout-out before announcing the Ft. Hood shootings. Then there are his vacations, golfing, partying and fundraising during the oil spill.
A major symptom of Asperger’s Syndrome is an inability to pick up on social cues and to adjust emotionally to a situation.
Contrary to all the Conservative commentators, Obama may well not be narcissistic at all, but simply manifesting a typical feature of autism.
I passed on my thoughts about this to a very liberal friend of mine, who remonstrated with me for “picking” on Obama when “he already has too many problems to deal with.” A couple of days later, I received a stammering e-mail from her telling me that she had related my speculations to a close friend of hers who actually works with autistic people including those with Asperger’s.
The opinion of this professional was that it was “likely” that Obama had the condition.
The public has become much more aware of autism in recent years, but is probably not so well acquainted with the variation known as Asperger’s Syndrome. Its sufferers are well aware that they have a problem, and it is probably hereditary. It may or may not be of significance that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius reported that:
“President Obama [announced $5 billion in NIH grants that would] include the largest-ever investment in an Obama administration priority that has so far gone mostly unnoticed: autism research.
President Obama has made autism a focus from the first days of his presidency. Less than a week after he was sworn in, my department’s Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee released its first-ever strategic plan for government autism research. And President Obama has backed this plan by adding $1 billion to his budget for autism over the next eight years. Altogether, the federal government will provide nearly twice as much funding for autism research in the upcoming fiscal year as we had just three years ago.”
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A person who suffers from Asperger’s read an earlier draft of this article, and made the following comments:
As someone who has Asperger's Syndrome, I think it's very possible Obama also suffers from the condition, too. The only thing holding me back from coming to a firm conclusion is the lying. Obama is a serial liar, as I'm sure most reading this would agree. People with Asperger's generally find it nearly impossible to tell a lie. Also, we do have empathy for people, we just have a hard time expressing it. That's something I myself have worked very hard on through the years. Obama, in my humble opinion, is just plain rotten, and doesn't give a flying hoot about anyone or anything. So, he may have some sort of malfunction, such as Asperger's, but I believe it's just as likely he is plain old evil.
Enormous trouble has been taken to erase Obama’s past, so we may never have the information necessary for a reliable diagnosis, just as we lacked information for evaluating him as a choice for president. Is President Obama a Manchurian Candidate of demonically clever construction? The perfect leader for destroying the country with no consideration for the people, for their traditions, or for their children?
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