First of all I understand your view and why you would think that. But in my opinion he does have Autism, and by 'he' I mean the BBC's Sherlock. I have Asperger Syndrome and even before I had any idea that I had AS I could relate to him A LOT, I never related to anyone the way I related to him. The best 'evidence' is that the things he does, by that I mean when 'normal' people consider those things rude, inappropriate etc., are thing most people just don't understand, they have no idea why he acts that way, they think he does that because he's just an asshole. But I, and other autistic people, do understand why he does the things he does. I tend to act like him a lot. And I totally understand why someone who doesn't have Autism could think he's a Sociopath, I used to think I was one myself before I found out about AS, but he obviously does care, but he shows it in ways non-autistic people don't understand, that's why we're almost always misunderstood. The reason you give why he's not are thing we learn along the way, the things that don't come natural to me are thing I learned, and I can see that in Sherlock as well. The most obvious thing though are his breakdowns, when his brain just overloads, it's something that I happens to me a lot and I've seen it happen to Sherlock a number of times. You just shut out everything else, which might come over as ignoring and being rude, but it's not on purpose, we only later realise what we have done. There's a lot of things why one might suggest that he's autistic, but you can only see them when you understand the way autistic people think. I'm not saying that he actually he is, but it is highly probable. But on the other hand, he is definitely not a sociopath, he shows empathy but not in the ways you'd expect.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-22 08:55 pm (UTC)But in my opinion he does have Autism, and by 'he' I mean the BBC's Sherlock. I have Asperger Syndrome and even before I had any idea that I had AS I could relate to him A LOT, I never related to anyone the way I related to him.
The best 'evidence' is that the things he does, by that I mean when 'normal' people consider those things rude, inappropriate etc., are thing most people just don't understand, they have no idea why he acts that way, they think he does that because he's just an asshole. But I, and other autistic people, do understand why he does the things he does. I tend to act like him a lot. And I totally understand why someone who doesn't have Autism could think he's a Sociopath, I used to think I was one myself before I found out about AS, but he obviously does care, but he shows it in ways non-autistic people don't understand, that's why we're almost always misunderstood. The reason you give why he's not are thing we learn along the way, the things that don't come natural to me are thing I learned, and I can see that in Sherlock as well.
The most obvious thing though are his breakdowns, when his brain just overloads, it's something that I happens to me a lot and I've seen it happen to Sherlock a number of times. You just shut out everything else, which might come over as ignoring and being rude, but it's not on purpose, we only later realise what we have done.
There's a lot of things why one might suggest that he's autistic, but you can only see them when you understand the way autistic people think. I'm not saying that he actually he is, but it is highly probable. But on the other hand, he is definitely not a sociopath, he shows empathy but not in the ways you'd expect.