Diagnosing Jefferson

Rating:
Summary: Had little hope
Review: I'm an Aspie teenager who had little hope and was down in the dumps until I read Diagnosing Jefferson. Now I believe there are many ways in which I can succeed in life, just as it happened for a brilliant eccentric like Thomas Jefferson.

Rating:
Summary: Even critics agree with this book's discovery
Review: I'm gratified that reviewers most critical of Diagnosing Jefferson appear to agree with its important findings--that Thomas Jefferson was on the autism/Asperger's continuum. Quibbling with the author's need to furnish scholarly evidence or with his freedom to speculate with precise logic and reason is pointless. The point is this: Has the author made an extremely significant discovery? I and many others believe that he has!

Rating:
Summary: To understand what made Jefferson tick, this is the book.
Review: I've read Mr. Ledgin's book, and I've read several Jefferson biographies. Obviously the critics of this author have not read Diagnosing Jefferson through, and they have admitted as much. Intellectual integrity requires more.

The author has examined and exploited helpfully something all other biographers have missed--the opportunity to identify whatever the basis may have been for Jefferson's many idiosyncrasies and so-called contradictions. Had the biographers simply assembled the quirks puzzling them and discussed them with a neuroscientist or developmental pediatrician or psychologist, they would have arrived at the same conclusion Mr. Ledgin has given us.

A staff member for the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Dianne Swann-Wright, admitted on the Today show last year, "there was a personal side of Thomas Jefferson that many of us just simply haven't been able to understand." Mr. Ledgin explains that personal side in order to help us understand. Does intellectual curiosity extend only so far as scratching one's head, or are historians ready to listen to well-reasoned answers based in careful research?

I heard Mr. Ledgin speak in Charlottesville, Va., at the Festival of the Book this year. He is more knowledgeable about the very personal side of Thomas Jefferson than most, if not all, the biographers whose works I've read. It should be obvious to a reader of his entire work, including his bibliography and footnotes, that he has examined the Jefferson literature thoroughly, which is what he wrote was the basis for his assembling the eccentricities. His placing of Jefferson on the autism/Asperger's continuum as a result has been backed by at least four experts in that field and another in the behavioral sciences.

This is a landmark work. We must understand that autism and its high-functioning feature, Asperger's Syndrome, are parts of a spectrum condition; some people are disabled by it, some are enhanced by it. The author explains all of that extraordinarily well. One can be both productively brilliant and a high-functioning autistic--like Jefferson, quirky as can be, but a great achiever and mental giant nonetheless.

The reader can learn as much about Asperger's from this book as he or she can about Jefferson. For understanding what made Jefferson tick, this is the book to read.

Rating:
Summary: Has given us insight
Review: If writers lacked the right to approach the same subject from different perspectives, we would need only one book about Thomas Jefferson. Currently there are about 600 in print.

What's so wrong with a book that goes into the personal side of the man, that it has to flush out mean-spirited critics who spin out irrelevancies and go off on tangents? Those critics show a complete lack of understanding of high-functioning autism, clearly a possibility for Jefferson on the strength of the evidence.

I think Norm Ledgin has given us insight about the nature and character of Jefferson that I wish other writers had tried to do. They scratched their noodles about TJ's odd behavior but didn't even come close to trying to figure out what made him that way.

Rating:
Summary: Missreading Ledgin
Review: Mr Berstein has read a book that none of the rest of us have read. His call for a Jefferson Scholar is both eliteist and insulting to Mr Ledgin. As a lawyer(I assume) Mr Bernstein needs to learn basic Biology and Neurology. This is an example of a person reviewing a book who does not have the background to do so.

Rating:
Summary: The author should have done his homework.
Review: Norm Ledgin is a man with an ax to grind. Thomas Jefferson suffered from a mental disorder known as Asperger's Syndrome, he says, and he's out to prove it. Right up front, on page seven, he tells us, "We will find that no other conclusion about Jefferson is available." Equally dogmatic is the last sentence in the same paragraph, "And it is equally important to appreciate that no other condition yet known to science provides an explanation for (Jefferson's) bizarre behavior."

If you're going to make a sweeping claim like that one you should at least examine some of the alternatives and tell readers why they will not serve as an explanation for Jefferson's behavior, bizarre or otherwise. Did Mr. Ledgin evaluate Jefferson's known and suspected medical conditions, for instance? If he did, why did he eliminate them as "...evidence of a condition that guided his beliefs, behavior, and personal associations"? We are not told.

Did he look at any of the major theories of personality? If he had, he might have discovered ways of seeing Jefferson without invoking mental disorder or disability. There is nothing in the book to suggest that he did. Is Mr. Ledgin familiar with David Keirsey's theories of temperament or Isabel Briggs-Myers writings on Psychological Type (see below)? We are not told.

The very attitudes and behaviors which the author attributes to mental disorder can, if seen in a more positive light, place Jefferson squarely in one of the less frequent - but still perfectly normal - psychological types. Does Norm Ledgin appreciate this fact? Does he know that statistically people like Jefferson comprise about 1% of the population? If he does, he seems to take it only as license to pathologize and marginalize those who differ from the social norm.

Norm Ledgin should have done his homework. His thesis fails due to the very single mindedness with with he grinds the ax. Readers who are looking for a more balanced approach to Jefferson would do well to avoid this opinionated, narrow-minded book. Instead, read Gifts Differing (Briggs Myers,I., 1980) or Please Understand Me (Keirsey, D. W. and Bates, M., 1978, 1984). Both are available on Amazon.com. and either will provide a better idea of Jefferson's inner workings than Diagnosing Jefferson.

Rating:
Summary: Provocative insight into Jefferson and Asperger's Syndrome
Review: Norm Ledgin's Diagnosing Jefferson is a "heavy" read, thoroughly researched in academic fashion. It discusses the many, many traits and quirks that have puzzled all major Jefferson historians for years...and Ledgin has finally tackled the only possible answer for such behavior and attitudes. The book also gives an excellent overview of just what is Asperger's Syndrome. The point of the book is well-taken by those who have children with Asperger's, i.e. "look what you can grow up to be; Asperger's doesn't have to be a detriment, but rather an asset." More such splendid role models are sure to be found in the future. Others suspected of having Asperger's: Microsoft's Bill Gates, artist Vincent Van Gogh, publisher Joseph Pulitzer, late comedian Andy Kaufman....Diagnosing Jefferson is a "must-read" for Jefferson historians as well as those looking for inspiration in understanding and developing the special talents of those with Asperger's.

Rating:
Summary: Provocative insight into Jefferson and Asperger's Syndrome
Review: Norm Ledgin's Diagnosing Jefferson is a "heavy" read, thoroughly researched in academic fashion. It discusses the many, many traits and quirks that have puzzled all major Jefferson historians for years...and Ledgin has finally tackled the only possible answer for such behavior and attitudes. The book also gives an excellent overview of just what is Asperger's Syndrome. The point of the book is well-taken by those who have children with Asperger's, i.e. "look what you can grow up to be; Asperger's doesn't have to be a detriment, but rather an asset." More such splendid role models are sure to be found in the future. Others suspected of having Asperger's: Microsoft's Bill Gates, artist Vincent Van Gogh, publisher Joseph Pulitzer, late comedian Andy Kaufman....Diagnosing Jefferson is a "must-read" for Jefferson historians as well as those looking for inspiration in understanding and developing the special talents of those with Asperger's.

Rating:
Summary: Just like those who lashed at Madison Hemings
Review: Some who've written reviews of Ledgin's work have been hateful about questioning his motives, that he had "an ax to grind" or a "personal agenda." What did he stand to gain from identifying his Asperger's son with Jefferson? Having such a father-son relationship only qualified him to understand Asperger's Syndrome better than most people.

Did the dyspeptic reviewers and critics think Ledgin was looking for validation that his son is extremely bright and has a promising future? Those of us who read Lawrence Osborne's book, American Normal: The Hidden World of Asperger Syndrome, received a fair, personal, objective, and confirming picture of young Fred Ledgin.

I remember clearly from my Jefferson readings that historical biographers pilloried Madison Hemings for saying he was Jefferson's son by Sally Hemings. They said he did it for personal gain. Old man Madison Hemings was a few years away from dying when he did that, so what could he have possibly gained?

To those who've been carping at Ledgin, claiming he was grinding an ax when all he did was help us understand more about what made Jefferson tick, I say, "Get a life."

Rating:
Summary: Just like those who lashed at Madison Hemings
Review: Some who've written reviews of Ledgin's work have been hateful about questioning his motives, that he had "an ax to grind" or a "personal agenda." What did he stand to gain from identifying his Asperger's son with Jefferson? Having such a father-son relationship only qualified him to understand Asperger's Syndrome better than most people.

Did the dyspeptic reviewers and critics think Ledgin was looking for validation that his son is extremely bright and has a promising future? Those of us who read Lawrence Osborne's book, American Normal: The Hidden World of Asperger Syndrome, received a fair, personal, objective, and confirming picture of young Fred Ledgin.

I remember clearly from my Jefferson readings that historical biographers pilloried Madison Hemings for saying he was Jefferson's son by Sally Hemings. They said he did it for personal gain. Old man Madison Hemings was a few years away from dying when he did that, so what could he have possibly gained?

To those who've been carping at Ledgin, claiming he was grinding an ax when all he did was help us understand more about what made Jefferson tick, I say, "Get a life."