Asperger's and Self-Esteem: Insight and Hope through Famous Role Models by Norm Ledgin

Author:Norm Ledgin [Ledgin, Norm]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781935274391
Publisher: Future Horizons
Published: 2011-11-30T23:00:00+00:00

Fixated and Childlike

Born Manya Sklodowska in Poland in 1867, the woman we know as Marie Curie had problems of awkwardness that vexed her, was “noticeably” deficient in emotional reciprocity (as an adult, “undemonstrative with her own children”), was strongly fixated and described as obsessed, and was unable socially and professionally to integrate herself into realms of celebrity and personal gain.

“She did not know how to be famous,” wrote daughter Eve. Her mother had won two Nobel Prizes, one in physics that she shared with her husband Pierre in 1903, and one in chemistry in 1911. Marie Curie had no notion of exploiting the stature they gave her.

Manya, or Marie, was able to read at the age of four and possessed an “amazing memory.” She grew to express “disgust with her own clumsiness.” She developed no sense of clothes-consciousness. Many people were struck by her delicate, childlike appearance.

As a scholar Manya had an “innate power of concentration” so strong that nothing—no summoning nor deliberate noisemaking nor other attempted distraction—could draw her attention. Often she appeared obsessed with details of her work. Contemporaries said she had no detectable sense of humor and took everything “deadly seriously, starting with herself.” In her teens she would fall ill, “suddenly collapse physically in times of great strain,” according to one account. There was not only a suspected “deeper disorder” but the family’s simply stated view of her condition—“nervous troubles.”

As for family influences, her mother was a gifted pianist and vocalist, and her father taught physics and mathematics. Because the Sklodowskas were in modest circumstances thanks to her father’s bad investments, Manya gave up an opportunity for advanced study temporarily to help her sister Bronia go first to study medicine. Then she took her turn.

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