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Diagnosing Jefferson: Evidence of a Condition That Guided His Beliefs, Behavior, and Personal Associations

Until the DNA test, historians were on the wrong track about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Today, as they question Jefferson's character and apparent contradictions and follow another wrong track, they should be looking at his condition -- which explains everything... -- His 54-year obsession with building and rebuilding Monticello. -- His fiction-based notions influencing the Declaration of Independence. -- His choice of 15-year-old Sally, essentially his sister-in-law, for a 38-year companionship. -- His out-of-control financial deterioration despite a lifelong habit of recording every penny he spent. -- His inner conflicts over slavery -- and the slaveownership thrust on him by his father's death when he was 14. In Diagnosing Jefferson the author contends (with confirmation by a number of scientific authorities) that Jefferson's characteristics were compatible with Asperger's Syndrome and that he was on the" autism/Asperger's continuum". Norm Ledgin matches high-functioning autism with many examples of Jefferson's behavior, evidence furnished by -- but never examined by -- the historians themselves.