Could George have suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from Beatlemania? | Page 3 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

minime said

The Walrus said

unknown said
I think that George might have had a very small case of Asbergers. This would explain why he got so angry during that period: he was overwhelmed by always being surrounded by so many people, and he expressed that through anger. That would also explain his obsession with India because that is sometimes a side effect of Asbergers

Though maybe I’m just over thinking all of this.

Okay, firstly it is Asperger’s, not Asbergers. If you struggle to spell, use the abbreviation AS.

Secondly, there aren’t “small cases”. People display different symptoms, people learn different coping strategies, and people learn at different rates (be they NT or Aspie), but nobody has a “small case”, not to the extent of only displaying symptoms on a few occasions in their lives.

George was introverted, but he seemed perfectly capable in social situations, he didn’t seem at all distressed by being in sensory cauldrons like Shea (only made weary by constant touring and fame), his speech was neither overly formal nor pedantic, he had no trouble understanding nuanced speech, he did not seem to have issues with mind blindness. Furthermore, people with AS tend to be rather clumsy and struggle with fine motor control; they also commonly speak with a boring, blunted tone and little use of intonation or inflection. George Harrison was a world class guitarist, and not only a capable singer, but one who had a successful career and sang on more than one #1 hit.

Now, I don’t think either that George has AS, I find it pretty ridiculous to think so, but I don’t totally agree with the way you back up your claims.

Asperger’s belongs to same “group” of syndroms as autism, but that doesn’t necessarily mean all the symptoms are same or presented. There are a lot of people with AS who don’t have any problems with motoristic skills, and are able to speak normally. As it happens, I know such a person ( not to say that all of them are the same, though).

What you didn’t mention is that people with AS often have a burning passion for a very specific subject, and if you strecth the truth a little bit, you could claim that George’s Indianism was a sign of that. I don’t buy it.

 

Neither do I believe that any of the members had PTSD.

Asperger’s Syndrome is greatly misunderstood, and those who have people close to them with the diagnosis know what I’m speaking of.  Although it’s classified as a “disability”, it’s far from being one.  These individuals’ ability to function “normally” are only hindered by the state that the world is around them which places heavy emphasis on social behaviour, which is a lifetime struggle for them due to the framework and pace that their minds process thought at, which is much more advanced than that of the average human.  The Syndrome is named after Hans Asperger who doctored the first intense research on these special minds in the 1940s and is exactly the same diagnosis as High Functioning Autism which is much different than the other forms found on the Autistic Spectrum, for example, speech impairment is virtually non-existent to a person diagnosed with Asperger’s and they in fact often excel with a clear (and loud!) speaking voice, unlike other Autistic persons.

While I’d agree that George seems an unlikely candidate for Asperger’s, John on the other hand appears to display many tendencies that those with Asperger’s have.  It’s also misunderstood that these persons are “hermits” or avoid social contact which also isn’t really the case for many of them.  Sure, they’ll avoid these situations when they can for their anxiety level raises considerably around others, but many learn to cope with crowds by putting on a social front with dramatic results such as John often appeared to be doing.  John Lennon , in fact, has been mentioned in more than a few papers citing examples of persons who possibly had Asperger’s, which wasn’t even being given official diagnosis to anyone in the country that I live in (Canada) until the mid 1990’s, people like Mozart, Einstein and even Bill Gates are frequently noted as well, not just because of their social behaviour but because of their brilliant minds.  Persons with Asperger’s speak and do things as they think instead of thinking beforehand, which often gets them into uncomfortable situations for those around them, does this not sound a bit like John?  Certainly not George, who always appeared to think clearly before speaking.

Asperger’s persons are of an extreme nature, whether it’s anti-social or overtly flamboyant, they think in Black & White, or very logical thought which accounts for the advanced mathematics skills but struggles to grasp the English Language which is anything but logical.  John kind of made the language more logical for himself with his wordplay by changing things around to suit his thought processes, which on the outside to a trained scholar would appear goobledegook for not abiding by the rules.  Pay close attention to the bit on the ‘Anthology’ next time where George discusses John’s discomfort with disabled persons and shows shots of John mocking them to relieve his anxieties, that’s very Asperger’s when it comes to self-regulation strategies in social situations.  John is not only a strong candidate for the Syndrome, but a likely one in my opinion, if he didn’t have the creative outlet to vent as he did with music it would’ve probably been even more apparent than it was…:-)