We autistic people like to meet 'people like us'. So if you surf the web you'll find blogs claiming that this or that tv character is autistic. It doesn't matter if they are meant to be autistic, it is just nice to see find some neurodivergent characters to which we autistic people might relate in some ways. These are my favourites:
Staying on the subject of Sherlock Holmes there is an article of the Davidson Institute in which a form of extreme giftedness is described. They compare the different levels of giftedness with characters in the books of Sherlock Holmes:
"Analytical Inspector Lestrade would solve the case step by step with concrete evidence. Dr. Watson would appreciate clues which had obvious and non-obvious connections to one another and synthesise abstract clues. Sherlock Holmes would find and generate clues which he could hypothetically integrate to solve a crime. Holmes was an interesting mixture of brilliant analytical skills and synthetic ability which enabled him to perceive the minutest details, assign proper weight to each, and to integrate these into a large-scale picture of the entire situation. For us, Inspector Lestrade is of normal intellectual ability, Dr. Watson is of the moderately gifted level, and Holmes is extremely gifted."
I, being gifted myself, relate a lot to this description of the original Sherlock Holmes and will definitely mention him again sometime. Being both gifted and autistic I like to analyse how giftedness and autism influence each other. A great book on this subject is 'Different Minds' by Deirdre Lovecky, which I will comment on more in the future.
- Brick Heck from The Middle: Brick is described as having social problems. In the first seasons he repeats the end of his frases in whisper and later he starts a verbal stim. He occasionally shows proof of not understanding figurative language. He is a know-it-all who likes to correct people whenever they mix up facts, especially if its about one of his interests.
- Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory: Sheldon is the nutty professor, the severely social impaired genius. He is an exaggeration of quirky behaviour, he likes routine, repetition, and correcting people. He doesn't understand sarcasm and he always lets people know that he has superior knowledge, but has no actual bad intentions. Maybe Sheldon is a bit too intensive, but according to some it has been said that he really is thought of as character with Asperger's syndrome.
- Sherlock Holmes from Elementary: I'm a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes, the books and the different movies and tv series. I think he isn't originally supposed to be autistic, but I can't deny that in Elementary he has different autistic traits such as his tight but comfortably clothing, his finger stims while he talks, the repetitive organisation of his lock collection, his interest in bees, his sometimes lack of eye contact, etc. Some of these characteristics might be a sign of him being a recovering drug addict and maybe it's not the character that's autistic but the actor, but I agree in headcanoning his character as autistic.
Staying on the subject of Sherlock Holmes there is an article of the Davidson Institute in which a form of extreme giftedness is described. They compare the different levels of giftedness with characters in the books of Sherlock Holmes:
"Analytical Inspector Lestrade would solve the case step by step with concrete evidence. Dr. Watson would appreciate clues which had obvious and non-obvious connections to one another and synthesise abstract clues. Sherlock Holmes would find and generate clues which he could hypothetically integrate to solve a crime. Holmes was an interesting mixture of brilliant analytical skills and synthetic ability which enabled him to perceive the minutest details, assign proper weight to each, and to integrate these into a large-scale picture of the entire situation. For us, Inspector Lestrade is of normal intellectual ability, Dr. Watson is of the moderately gifted level, and Holmes is extremely gifted."
I, being gifted myself, relate a lot to this description of the original Sherlock Holmes and will definitely mention him again sometime. Being both gifted and autistic I like to analyse how giftedness and autism influence each other. A great book on this subject is 'Different Minds' by Deirdre Lovecky, which I will comment on more in the future.