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Camus’s L’étranger and the first description of a man with Asperger’s syndrome

The continued discussion about the meaning of Camus’s famous novel, L’étranger, provoked a re-reading, and this, in turn, led to its clinical analysis and further investigation. The book rests entirely on the thoughts, words and actions of its central character, Meursault, and these were found to sh...

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Autor principal: Shuster, Sam
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Dove Medical Press 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5903843/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29695940
http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S157669
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author Shuster, Sam
author_facet Shuster, Sam
author_sort Shuster, Sam
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description The continued discussion about the meaning of Camus’s famous novel, L’étranger, provoked a re-reading, and this, in turn, led to its clinical analysis and further investigation. The book rests entirely on the thoughts, words and actions of its central character, Meursault, and these were found to show impairment of social relationships, communication and interaction, with other traits diagnostic of the Asperger’s subgroup of the autism spectrum disorder. It was then found that Camus had based Meursault on his close friend Galindo, and a search was therefore made for evidence of Galindo’s character; this revealed him to be an intelligent but odd person, who exhibited the characteristic impairment of social and personal behavior of Asperger’s syndrome. Thus, Camus had recognized and understood his friend’s strange behavior before Asperger’s syndrome had been defined; his use of it for the creation of Meursault is therefore the first published account of a man with this disorder. Many of the interpretations and ideas developed from Meursault’s words, thoughts and actions must now be reconsidered, as they are a misreading of the words and behavior of a man with Asperger’s syndrome. The outcome of this clinical examination of L’étranger is unique; it shows that a precise account of a person with a neurobehavioral disorder was made by a novelist before the disorder had been clinically defined.
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spelling pubmed-59038432018-04-25 Camus’s L’étranger and the first description of a man with Asperger’s syndrome Shuster, Sam Psychol Res Behav Manag Perspectives The continued discussion about the meaning of Camus’s famous novel, L’étranger, provoked a re-reading, and this, in turn, led to its clinical analysis and further investigation. The book rests entirely on the thoughts, words and actions of its central character, Meursault, and these were found to show impairment of social relationships, communication and interaction, with other traits diagnostic of the Asperger’s subgroup of the autism spectrum disorder. It was then found that Camus had based Meursault on his close friend Galindo, and a search was therefore made for evidence of Galindo’s character; this revealed him to be an intelligent but odd person, who exhibited the characteristic impairment of social and personal behavior of Asperger’s syndrome. Thus, Camus had recognized and understood his friend’s strange behavior before Asperger’s syndrome had been defined; his use of it for the creation of Meursault is therefore the first published account of a man with this disorder. Many of the interpretations and ideas developed from Meursault’s words, thoughts and actions must now be reconsidered, as they are a misreading of the words and behavior of a man with Asperger’s syndrome. The outcome of this clinical examination of L’étranger is unique; it shows that a precise account of a person with a neurobehavioral disorder was made by a novelist before the disorder had been clinically defined. Dove Medical Press 2018-04-10 /pmc/articles/PMC5903843/ /pubmed/29695940 http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S157669 Text en © 2018 Shuster. This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed.
spellingShingle Perspectives
Shuster, Sam
Camus’s L’étranger and the first description of a man with Asperger’s syndrome
title Camus’s L’étranger and the first description of a man with Asperger’s syndrome
title_full Camus’s L’étranger and the first description of a man with Asperger’s syndrome
title_fullStr Camus’s L’étranger and the first description of a man with Asperger’s syndrome
title_full_unstemmed Camus’s L’étranger and the first description of a man with Asperger’s syndrome
title_short Camus’s L’étranger and the first description of a man with Asperger’s syndrome
title_sort camus’s l’étranger and the first description of a man with asperger’s syndrome
topic Perspectives
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5903843/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29695940
http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S157669
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