Thursday, November 10, 2011

Lili's thought for the day



Is Daniel Tammet to neuropsychological research what Helen Demidenko was to the Australian literary establishment?

Love me, I'm a celebrity autistic/ethnic fictional writer!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Take a look at this:

http://mentalglitch.co.cc/

Amazing savant or the next Daniel Tammet? I'll be following this one closely.

Mr Anon

Lili Marlene said...

I've been blocked from looking at that site for security reasons. Any alternative links?

Anonymous said...

The link works for me, not sure what's happening there. His facebook page also has some information:
http://www.facebook.com/mentalglitch

It's a guy claiming to be a "prodigious savant". Since I posted that link, I've already found compelling evidence that he's a fake:

https://profiles.google.com/freakshowmagic/about
"Mentalist, Illusionist, Magician, Showman, Con-Artist, Miracle Worker... whatever you decide to call Paul, he is the best choice for your performance needs."

Mr Anon

Lili Marlene said...

His Facebook page says he's a graphic and web designer and his website is still one that is tagged as a security risk by my security program thingy.

"Paul is also a Prodigious Savant and has Synesthesia (Synæsthesia), both of which are very rare conditions, but can be very beneficial, especially towards brain research and understanding what makes a person a genius. Along with that, Paul has a horrible time with social interactions, and in a few cases in his life, numbers were the only things he could rely on to be there for him. Numbers are his escape routes, but also his means for communication."

Gosh, sounds like someone we know! I guess it is just a matter of time before Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen does a study of the bloke.

Anonymous said...

Well, Mr Baron-Cohen hasn't popped up yet, but the other usual suspect has. According to an article in his local news quoted on his website:

"Dr. Darold Treffert, a Wisconsin psychiatrist who has been studying Savant Syndrome for over 40 years, has had extensive discussions with Paul and recently diagnosed him with Savant Syndrome. "

Source: http://mentalglitch.co.cc/ (under "media"), if you're brave enough to ignore the security warnings.

Mr Anon

Lili Marlene said...

What is the name of the local paper? I've tried searching the "online" version of the Plainview News and found nothing, but it's a common thing for online versions of papers to be pretty useless.

I'd be very interested in any verifiable media story backing up a claim about a diagnosis by Treffert.

Lili Marlene said...

I's be interested in finding out who might be mentioned in this paper by that silly old duffer Treffert, but I can't be arsed signing up for the stupid conference.
http://www.awares.org/conferences/show_paper.asp?section=000100010001&conferenceCode=000200140008&id=346