Health
An assessment of Joyce's health,
including his mental state, how it underlies his works and life, is in itself
preposterous, if not impossible.
Fortunately or unfortunately it is what we are going to do here because no matter
how far or how close from the truth we will get it is perhaps the most important
aspect underlying his life and works.
In a capsule:
I discussed the issues above with Dr. Darold Treffert an his response was the following
Roque,
The problem is that savant syndrome
is by definition a rare but remarkable condition in which some exceptional abilities
are superimposed or grafted on to some underlying
developmental disorder such as autism (which would include asperger’s)
or other brain disorder such as dementia, brain injury, fronto-temporal dementia,
mental retardation (or even schizophrenia although that is not commonly
the case). So if you call Joyce a savant you may well be accepting an underlying
Autism/Asperger’s. Which is fine if he fits the criteria, but post-mortem,
long distance diagnoses are always problematical. The point I was making earlier
is that there is such a thing as “genius” or prodigy where there is
exceptional ability and performance without underlying brain disorder or defect.
Not all geniuses have aspergers.
And I was making the point that IQ does not define savant syndrome. Some savants,
such as Kim Peek, have very high IQ but are not Asperger’s. We have multiple
intelligences and IQ is but one measure of something we call IQ; that’s
all it measures. Like blood sugar is one part of a blood profile, blood sugar
is not a measure of my total health; a blood profile measures multiple indicators--Na,
K, Hgb, Hct, Hdl, Ldl, triglycerides, BUN, cholesterol etc. etc.
Finally, with respect to whether Asperger’s, genius, schizophrenia or whatever as an underlying disorder, I like Daniel Tammet’s word when he was objecting to the term ‘disabled’. He used the work ‘differently-abled’ since sometimes the ‘dis-ability’ can be an astounding ability in a selected area.
I hope this helps rather than confuses.
Darold Treffert
And it was agreed that the best way to equalize that was:
Dr. Darold, thank you very much for your response and information.
I think that I found a way to figure
out the exceptional abilities of Joyce without coining him definitively under
one or another condition, be it schizophrenic, asperger, savant, etc.
Thanks to your suggestion, I look over Daniel Tammet and found the following:
http://www.neatorama.com/2008/09/05/10-most-fascinating-savants-in-the-world/
The solution to the puzzle is that
the brain has capabilities unimaginable and we are barely touching them and
we are becoming aware of that with researches on the subject like yourself is
doing.
I understood your point and I quote:
If we identify Joyce as Savant
The problem is that savant syndrome
is by definition a rare but remarkable condition in which some exceptional abilities
are superimposed or grafted on to some underlying
developmental disorder such as autism (which would include asperger's) or
other brain disorder such as dementia, brain injury, fronto-temporal dementia,
mental retardation (or even schizophrenia although that is not commonly
the case).
but
The point Dr Darold stresses is that there is such a thing as "genius"
or prodigy where there is exceptional ability and performance without
underlying brain disorder or defect. Not all geniuses have aspergers.
to cope with what he suggests I will use the wording Daniel Tammet (one of the
10 most famous Savants from actuality) uses to define himself "a person
revealilng some exceptional condition should be considered 'differently-abled'
since sometimes the 'dis-ability' can be an astounding ability in a selected
area.
The point is that many fantastic things found in Joyce's novels are a product from some exceptional abilities he has from having a different brain and NOT FROM SOME WISDOM HE HAS FROM BEING ENLIGHTENED or the self assumed and auto nominated prophet of a religion that is extremely obvious and pervasive in Finegans and to this day, although completely recognized, has not yet found an adequate explanation and I think it is that.
I will use the 10 examples above to point out what could have happened to Joyce, WITHOUT having a detectable Medical diagnosis, although always sliding close to some.
I think that will do.
Thank you, once again.
Roque
The result can be seen at prodigiuos aspects of James Joyce's mind that might mean he is a Savant