| If living in today's society, Thomas Jefferson, our third | | | | writings of other biographers which, in all probability, |
| U.S. president, author of the Declaration of | | | | place Jefferson on the autism/Asperger continuum. |
| Independence and considered by many to be a | | | | Norm Ledgin's comprehensive list includes physical |
| notable intellectual would most likely be diagnosed as | | | | characteristics, social characteristics, restricted |
| an individual with Asperger's Syndrome, a neurological | | | | interests, learning traits and language usage traits. |
| difference in some people. | | | | In each chapter of his book, Ledgin highlights an |
| Because Norm Ledgin is a historian who writes and | | | | Asperger's characteristic that applies to Jefferson and |
| lectures in history and also because he has a son | | | | gives examples from Jefferson's life that fit that |
| diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome he observed | | | | particular criterion. One such chapter relates to |
| characteristics and similarities in the personal life of | | | | Jefferson's "inflexible adherence to specific |
| Jefferson that matched his own son's life. In all | | | | nonfunctional routines or rituals," such as soaking his |
| probability, if Mr. Ledgin's son did not carry the | | | | feet in cold water each morning, recording every |
| Asperger's difference, he most likely would have | | | | "financial transaction to the penny," extensively |
| passed off many of Jefferson's "out of the norm" | | | | recording notes, and "singing under his breath almost |
| behaviors as simply being odd or eccentric just as | | | | constantly." |
| many other historians have done. | | | | Ledgin writes of how a number of historians have |
| For readers who are unfamiliar with Asperger's | | | | described Jefferson's outer demeanor: his "relatively |
| Syndrome, Mr. Ledgin reprints the diagnostic criteria for | | | | stony-faced reserve, his noted lack of "eye-to-eye |
| Asperger's as taken from the 1994 Fourth Edition of | | | | gaze," his "elusiveness," his "far-away" look. The author |
| the American Psychiatric Association and he highlights | | | | states that in his opinion, from everything he has read |
| those criteria which are associated with Jefferson. In | | | | about Jefferson, the one word he would use to |
| his book, Diagnosing Jefferson, Mr. Ledgin lists over | | | | describe Jefferson would be "reserved. |
| fifty traits gleaned from his own readings and from the | | | | |