Michael Fitzgerald (psychiatrist)

Michael Fitzgerald is an Irish psychiatrist and professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Trinity College, Dublin.^[1] He was the first professor in his field in Ireland.^[1]

Views on autism

See also: Historical figures sometimes considered autistic

In an interview with The Telegraph, Fitzgerald shared his views on autism and other psychiatric disorders:

"Psychiatric disorders can also have positive dimensions. I'm arguing the genes for autism/Asperger's, and creativity are essentially the same. We don't know which genes they are yet or how many there are, but we are talking about multiple genes of small effect. Every case is unique because people have varying numbers of the genes involved. These produce people who are highly focused, don't fit into the school system, and who often have poor social relationships and eye contact. They can be quite paranoid and oppositional, and usually highly moral and ethical. They can persist with a topic for 20-30 years without being distracted by what other people think. And they can produce in one lifetime the work of three or four other people."^[2]

In 2004's Autism and Creativity: Is There a Link Between Autism in Men and Exceptional Ability?,^[3] Fitzgerald says that Lewis Carroll, Éamon de Valera, Sir Keith Joseph, Ramanujan, Ludwig Wittgenstein and W.B. Yeats may have been autistic.

In 2005's The Genesis of Artistic Creativity: Asperger's Syndrome and the Arts,^[4] he identifies the following historical figures as possibly having been autistic:

• Writers – Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll, Bruce Chatwin, Arthur Conan Doyle, Herman Melville, George Orwell, Jonathan Swift and William Butler Yeats.
• Philosophers – A.J. Ayer, Baruch de Spinoza, Immanuel Kant, Simone Weil, and Ludwig Wittgenstein^[5]
• Musicians – Bela Bartok, Ludwig van Beethoven, Glenn Gould, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Erik Satie.
• Artists – Vincent van Gogh, L.S. Lowry, Jack B. Yeats and Andy Warhol.

In 2006's Unstoppable Brilliance: Irish Geniuses and Asperger's Syndrome,^[6] he discusses Daisy Bates, Samuel Beckett, Robert Boyle, Éamon de Valera, Robert Emmet, William Rowan Hamilton, James Joyce, Padraig Pearse and W.B. Yeats.

Bibliography

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• Autism and Creativity: Is There a Link Between Autism in Men and Exceptional Ability? - November 2003 (ISBN 978-1583912133, Routledge)
• Succeeding in College With Asperger Syndrome (with John Harpur and Maria Lawlor) - January 2004 (ISBN 978-1843102014, Jessica Kingsley Publishers)
• The Genesis of Artistic Creativity: Asperger's Syndrome and the Arts - July 2005 (ISBN 978-1843103349, Jessica Kingsley Publishers)
• Asperger Syndrome: A Gift or a Curse? (with Viktoria Lyons) - December 2005 (ISBN 978-1594543876, Nova Science Publishers)
• Unstoppable Brilliance: Irish Geniuses and Asperger's Syndrome (with Antoinette Walker) - December 2006 (ISBN 978-1905483037, Liberties Press)
• Handbook of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (editor with Mark Bellgrove and Michael Gill) - June 2007 (ISBN 978-0470014448, Wiley)
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Creativity, Novelty Seeking, and Risk - February 2009 (ISBN 978-1604568554, Nova Science Publishers)
• Young, Violent, and Dangerous to Know - July 2010 (ISBN 978-1608769520, Nova Science Publishers)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} ProfessorMichaelFitzgerald.eu
2. ^ The Telegraph: Albert Einstein 'found genius through autism'
3. ^ Fitzgerald, Michael (2004). Autism and creativity: is there a link between autism in men and exceptional ability?. East Sussex: Brunner-Routledge. ISBN 1583912134. 
4. ^ Fitzgerald, Michael (2005). The genesis of artistic creativity: Asperger's syndrome and the arts. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. ISBN 1843103346. 
5. ^ Fitzgerald, M. "Did Ludwig Wittgenstein have Asperger's syndrome?", European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, volume 9, number 1, pp. 61–65. DOI: 10.1007/s007870050117
6. ^ Walker, Antoinette; Michael Fitzgerald (2006). Unstoppable Brilliance: Irish Geniuses and Asperger's Syndrome. Liberties Press. ISBN 1-905483-031. 

External links

• Official website

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Name	Fitzgerald, Michael
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