Was Michael Jackson autistic?

[Aspie_With_Attitude]

You don't have to watch the video because I am not going to tell you the answer unless if you watch this YouTube video for my answers.

It's a question whether if Michael Jackson was actually autistic.

 

[Cryptid]

1) Michael Jackson was far too sociable to be considered autistic.
2) He also made eye contact with people.
3) He was far from being physically clumsy.
4) You should never let a YouTube video do your thinking for you.

 

[Hypnalis]

Emotionally "locked" at a pre-adult stage. The male equivalent of "The Little Princess".

He deserved the fame and money for his musical and entertainment excellence, but being a very profitable "product" made it even harder for him to deal with his problems.

 

[Misty Avich]

Most likely not.

 

[marc_101]

Apologies in advance if I sound rude, but there is little point in trying to diagnose a person none of us knew well. We only know the public persona. We don't have access to any information about his thought process, motivations, inner feelings, masking ability.

It's pointless at best and damaging at worse to play forensic psychologist on YouTube. Other than YouTube clicks, what is the point of it?

 

[Tom]

Yeah, retro-diagnosis is always going to be spectulation. As an example someone once asked 60 shrinks what they would diagnose Vincent Van Gogh with and got something like 37 different diagnoses.

 

[Misty Avich]

Almost every celebrity and president has been diagnosed with autism by autistics on autism sites. I think some autistics just get comfort in believing that anyone with talent, fame or fortune are autistic because NTs are too "dumb" to achieve anything.

 

[vergil96]

I would be happy to watch and listen, however, the amount of echo and other background noise makes the video completely impossible to understand for me. The sound is so jammed for me that I don't understand most words, while I can comfortably watch youtube or listen to the radio usually. Perhaps there are some software tools for noise reduction or it can be mitigated with microphone settings?

 

[Outdated]

1) Michael Jackson was far too sociable to be considered autistic.
2) He also made eye contact with people.
3) He was far from being physically clumsy.

Those sorts of generalisations are incredibly misleading at best.

I'm ASD2.
I was highly social during my prime years.
I never had any problems with making eye contact.
I've always had superb balance, fine motor control and coordination.

As a side note, I always hated Michael Jackson, even when he was a little kid on the Jackson 5 TV show. I don't know why, I just never liked him.

 

[thejuice]

Yeah, retro-diagnosis is always going to be spectulation. As an example someone once asked 60 shrinks what they would diagnose Vincent Van Gogh with and got something like 37 different diagnoses.

That would also be an interesting experiment for 60 shrinks to do on a patient they can see in person. I suspect they'd be a lot of variance in diagnosis also, but to a lesser degree

 

[thejuice]

I find it interesting to speculate based on incomplete information as long as you're not claiming to diagnose someone. Monetising it on YouTube is morally questionable though.

 

[Tom]

Those sorts of generalisations are incredibly misleading at best.

I'm ASD2.
I was highly social during my prime years.
I never had any problems with making eye contact.
I've always had superb balance, fine motor control and coordination.

As a side note, I always hated Michael Jackson, even when he was a little kid on the Jackson 5 TV show. I don't know why, I just never liked him.

I was ok with him in the Jackson 5. I didn't like the Osmonds. And even at first when he embarked solo. But it just got weird with all the operations and make-believe land. By the end he looked terrible due to all the surgeries.

 

[marc_101]

That would also be an interesting experiment for 60 shrinks to do on a patient they can see in person. I suspect they'd be a lot of variance in diagnosis also, but to a lesser degree

Yes! It's the idea behind "reliability" of tests. It would be great if we could afford re-testing a person. The alternative, which is what the place I went to does, is to do the diagnosis as a team so more than one person talks to a patient.

 

[Outdated]

The alternative, which is what the place I went to does, is to do the diagnosis as a team so more than one person talks to a patient.

This is also how it was for me. I never saw a doctor or a therapist, I just walked in to the AutismSA building and introduced myself. A couple of very nice ladies chatted to me for a little while, they agreed that I was probably on the spectrum and put my name on the waiting list.

Then when my appointment came up I was interviewed by a panel of 3 for more than 3 hours. Then they all compared notes afterwards to come up with a consensus. When I read through my diagnostic report afterwards I was a little surprised at some of their findings but at the same time their logic seemed impeccable and I was quite impressed with the whole process.