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Oh man, not Asperger's
again.
If I get any more blunt
about this, people will conclude I'm being rude. I don't know -- maybe rudeness
is required to make this subject go away. Common sense and decent respect for
the memory of someone we all claim to admire don't seem to be sufficient to make
it go away.
First of all ... why on
earth is anyone in medicine or psychiatry or psychology diagnosing dead people?
Even if the diagnosis is right-on, you can't do them any damn good. Is there
some shortage of living people who need assistance?
Is there an argument here
that by accurately diagnosing the long-dead Glenn Gould, this will somehow help
the living? Someone should try to make that case. I'm not buying
it.
I don't recall GG as an adult or GG's
parents ever seeking professional help for any perceived emotional illness or
suffering. Ought not all such inquiries begin with the "patient"
him/herself asking for help? Or are we entering a new "proactive"
phase of psychiatric assistance, where people are hauled in for adjustments
without even asking for help?
GG's parents did recognize a problem,
and they sought the perfect professional help for him: the finest piano teachers
they could find.
Again I would remind people of the
notorious trendiness of psychology and psychiatry. Will Asperger's make the time
cut? Will anyone even remember it twenty years from now, except as an
embarrassing footnote?
Compare the stature and lasting
achievements of those pointing the Asperger's finger at GG with Gould's own
stature and enduring achievements. Small wonder such "experts" want to
drag him down to their miniscule size. They already know they're doomed to
obscurity, if not oblivion. And Gould will grow in fame and admiration
forever.
Who has bedroom wall posters of
Asperger?
I remember some of those
dreaded symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome.
*
age-inappropriate interest in trains
*
intellectual curiosity
* capuccino
obsession
I think Asperger's Syndrome, certainly
as applied in GG's posthumous case, is a symptom of our increasing and
widespread dread of non-conformity, and trying to stamp out non-conformity and
intellectual diversity is a disease psychologists have always suffered from.
Most of us have made our painful
adjustments to the cookie cutter, and deeply resent and fear anyone who
notoriously and unashamedly resisted being mass-processed and seems largely to
be rewarded and praised for non-conformity.
What we have in GG is someone whom God
randomly touched with a massive intellect and -- pardon the comparison with
someone GG himself didn't like -- the natural-born talents of a Mozart. That's
the clearest symptom here: a great talent that appeared spontaneously in early
childhood. Many people are clearly terrified and resentful of this kind of
thing. Many people go so far as to want to stamp it out, or to think they have a
mandate from society to help stamp it out. Heaven knows how many children have
successfully had their natural talents and diversities stamped out, by schools
assisted by loving, concerned psychologists.
Those in the USA with some familiarity
with public schools today should ask the question: If GG went to public school
today, would he be among the millions of kids now thuggishly coerced into taking
Ritalin? Would he be diagnosed as disruptive? I know if I were recycled to
today's public schools, they'd be leaning on my parents to dose me with
Ritalin.
This is all about conformity. In GG's
posthumous case, it's ghoulish. GG wasn't sick. Efforts to portray him as sick
are sick.
The poor man. His terrible Asperger's
Syndrome gave him a rich, rewarding life, the admiration of millions, honor from
his fellow Canadians while he lived and beyond, and profound insight and talents
into the most sublime music. This is a disease that enriches the lives of
millions of perfect strangers.
Small wonder this subject raises my
hackles. If these brilliant healers had only diagnosed and treated GG in time --
we wouldn't be here on this List, and I wouldn't be able to put a Glenn Gould CD
on my stereo. He would have been well adjusted. I might have bought homeowners
insurance from him.
Bob
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