Elon Musk, Greta Thunberg, Anthony Hopkins share Asperger’s ‘superpower’

Elon Musk has disclosed his diagnosis with Asperger’s syndrome, a condition that may explain his extraordinary intellectual focus and social awkwardness.

Billionaire entrepreneur and inventor Elon Musk revealed his diagnosis with Asperger’s syndrome on US television’s Saturday Night Live. Picture: Brendan Smialowski / AFP

Elon Musk knows how to make an entrance. The multibillionaire inventor of reusable rockets and the Tesla electric car kicked off his TV hosting debut last week by announcing to viewers of the US sketch show Saturday Night Live that he was the first person with Asperger’s syndrome to present the program — “or at least the first to admit it”.

That it turns out he wasn’t — comedian Dan Aykroyd, who has spoken publicly about his own ­Asperger’s diagnosis, hosted the show in 2003 — only adds to the intrigue surrounding Musk’s surprise admission.

Swedish environmentalist Greta Thunberg speaks of her ability as ‘Aspie power’. Picture: Francois Walschaerts / AFP

Typically, says Julia Micklewright, the chairwoman of Aspie UK, a charity and support group, people with the condition “tend to feel uncomfortable in social situations, generally don’t like making small talk and can come across as arrogant”.

Musk is known for his social awkwardness at times, as well as for causing offence with impulsive, off-the-wall comments on social media, upsetting some of his 53 million followers on Twitter. “Look, I know I sometimes say or post strange things, but that’s just how my brain works,” he said on Saturday Night Live.

Yet despite being “differently wired”, Micklewright says, people with Asperger’s often have extraordinarily high levels of intelligence and their inability to see the bigger picture and to be “emotionally closed off” means they often come up with solutions to problems others don’t see.

Not all people with Asperger’s are geniuses, but these factors, paired with a common shared characteristic of a heightened ­passion or interest — in anything from art to music, trains or computers — are likely to be the underlying key to their success.

“Every autistic person is different, but there are skills that many people with Asperger’s have that can be tremendously useful and prove an advantage,” Nicholls says. “They can be very good at pattern recognition and have extraordinary memory skills, for example, helping them to become pre-eminent in a particular field.”

Hopkins has said in interviews that his Asperger’s has helped him as an actor, giving him an unparalleled ability to remember his scripts. “I definitely look at people differently,” he said. “I like to deconstruct, to pull a character apart, to work out what makes them tick — and my view will not be the same as everyone else.”

Anthony Hopkins says his Asperger’s has helped him to remember scripts and to analyse the characters he plays on screen. Picture: Ernesto Ruscio / Getty Images

Nicholls says that about 1 per cent of the population is thought to be on the autism spectrum, although the true figure could be higher. A study of more than seven million children carried out by researchers from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Psychiatry and published in JAMA Pediatrics in March, found that about one in 57 children in the UK is on the autism spectrum, suggesting numbers are far higher than previously reported.

It has been speculated that high achievers including Mozart, Newton, Einstein and Van Gogh might have been diagnosed with Asperger’s had the condition been identified in their lifetime.

Micklewright says that eight of her members were recently headhunted for top cyber-security positions, and she suspects that NASA scientists and Nobel prizewinners have displayed the preoccupation with detail, obsessive interests and their own unique filter that is associated with the condition.

“Most people who have contributed anything meaningful to society probably had Asperger’s,” she says.

The Times

Comedian Dan Aykroyd has spoken publicly about his Asperger’s diagnosis.