In The Politics of Autism, I discuss autism history. Some speculate that many famous innovators and scientists were on the spectrum. Elon Musk identifies as autistic.
On May 8, 2021, in an awkward opening monologue, Elon Musk created a small controversy when he claimed to be making history as the first person with Asperger’s to host Saturday Night Live. The next day, Marlow Stern of The Daily Beast pointed out that former cast member Dan Aykroyd has Asperger’s Syndrome and returned to host in 2003. As a secondary issue, the intelligencia were quick to point out that the Asperger’s diagnosis was eliminated in 2013 and blended into Autism Spectrum Disorder (American Psychiatric Association 2013), so more accurately Musk had autism or ASD. However, rarely mentioned in the aftermath was the origin of his diagnosis. According to his biographer Walter Isaacson (2023), Musk was never diagnosed by a qualified mental health professional. He diagnosed himself. And Musk is not alone. He is part of a growing do-it-yourself trend: self-diagnosis.
