Did Walt Disney have Asperger's Syndrome?

Answer 1

I was reading "Imitation of Life" which is about the whole history of animation, and I have to say I think he was. It really stuck out to me that he was what NTs would call "obsessive" with perfecting the craft of animation. Some people didn't like working with him for his perfection-driven approach and desire not just to be a good cartoonist, but to truly re-imagine what animation as a medium was capable of. But that's also what makes him admirable. Obsession with trains is something of a stereotypical trait but you can't deny most people who are obsessed with trains are on the spectrum. He also had utopian dreams of building the perfect society of the future. I think a lot of us are dreamers of that sort too. He also had what seems like what they call "black and white thinking", which is considered a symptom. He seemed obsessed with good things like the pure love found in Fairy Tales, but wanted to erase any bad endings, because he was so driven by hope and unshakeable optimism. Notably, autistic spectrum people have similar adherence to strong beliefs and principles, even though the relentless optimism thing isn't something we all share in particular. I am obsessed with animation and I think a lot of us are, mainly because by exaggerating emotional expressions and reactions of the characters to a situation, we come to gain understanding of human emotion. Walt pioneered putting emotional and physical realism in his animation art. Snow White is full of strong, even overdone perhaps, emotional expressions. I love that about Cartoons and anime because in real life, I can be frustrated that everyone hides their true emotions and makes it hard to guess what they're actually feeling. The queen in Snow White doesn't make you guess that she's angry and jealous, she lets the audience know that very clearly with her eyes, tone of voice, and body language. It's nice because it lets us imagine a world where emotions were expressed more plainly and honestly, and such a world would be so much easier to understand and navigate for people like us.

Answer 2

Walt Disney had Special Interests that transcended time. Most people, especially NT's will not hold interest for as many years as Walt did when trying to get the rights to Mary Poppins. He never gave up on his idea until he achieved it. It is truly a CLASSIC film. I glad he didn't give up. I have similar Special Interests myself. They are not obsessive, we can walk away, but we care deeply about them and don't want to walk away, we want to see them become fulfilled. We offer the world a better place, we see things in a different way and desire to share our vision of a better world. Listen and learn. Aspergers is Awesome! Walt was a tremendous example of this dream.

Answer 3

I have Asperger's syndrome. It takes one to know one. We are best to recognize another, better than a professional! Really! For obvious reasons! I say yes! Here are several reasons why.

Absolutely adored trains! So did several of his fellow animators who worked for him. They had yards that connected together and they co-owned a toy train big enough to ride on. His daughter was, if I remember correctly nine years old before she realized every American family didn't have a train in their back yard one could ride on. Had a bad temper. Yes! Sweet Walt Disney was so bad tempered his workers used to warn each other by intercom with words from the movie Bambi, "Man is in the forest!" when he was coming down the hallway to their department! Every member of the Donald Duck family has Autistic traits. Look at them! Donald has melt downs. Ludwig Von has our gestures. Daisy bursts into tears easily as do many of our females. Can't tell the Nephews apart and they act by the book as so many of us do. Scrooge knows how to make money (Many a a big Autistic family had or has one of those! And Gyro Gearloose! (Need I say more here)! Look at the original Absent minded Professor! Disney and many of his characters was a champion for us before we had a label here in the US! He was perserverated on getting his reason for being on Earth done. If not we'd not have had the first full-length animated movie. Snow White hardly made it. There certainly was no money to finish it. His whole life he was perserverated on becoming a better Artist, on creating beauty at all costs! Every think tank is a hot bed for us, a sheltered work shop for us, and animation labs certainly are those! "What do you call a Neurotypical in a research and development lab?" "Lost!" Oh yes! Walt Disney is one of us! I say "Is" not "was" because he is still self aware somewhere in an uploaded state and better than ever, probably working on Disney Galaxy now! Because that first crazy-wise Neanderthal who started the long fight back against death and covered her dead loved ones in Flowers was certainly one of us too and that fight will not end until we've made New Jerusalem; that 1500 mile long, gem covered cube mentioned in the last two chapters in The Bible. We build it for real sure as we built for real the submarine Nautilus, the Moonship Columbia and the International Space Station, (a concept that started out in a Victorian Science Fiction novel called the Brick Moon). Because of Relativistic, circling Space-Time it already exists and the Carpenter (one of us?) already has His well deserved Kingdom! Because we Humans want to live forever and want Animals to do so also we Aspergerians build that too, go around curved Space-Time and upload all Life and give Christ His well deserved Kingdom, including Animals because "not even a Sparrow falls apart from the Father. " Sure as Jules Verne has His NASA, St. John has his and Science fulfills all Faith. Because we want to. Because we can! Because we have ten to fifteen more billion years of Universe left to figure out how to! No other reasons are necessary.

Answer 4

No, he did not.