Daniel Tammet: the Boy with the Incredible Story
by Lili Marlene
Is Daniel Tammet a trained memory sportsman and showman, or a natural savant as the result of Asperger syndrome combined with synaesthesia?
Is Tammet impaired in his ability to read and recognize faces, as he has claimed many times?
Is Tammet's "diagnosis" of synaesthesia using the TOG-R beyond question?
Does another eccentric British memory feat performer have a greater or more genuine claim to fame than Tammet?
Have flaws in the scientific study of Daniel Tammet as a neuropsychological case exposed alarming deficiencies in the way that science is conducted?
Is Daniel Tammet (AKA Daniel Corney and Daniel Andersson) to neuropsychology what Helen Demidenko (AKA Helen Darville and Helen Dale) was to the Australian literary establishment?
Is the concept of "savant syndrome" little more than an expression of ignorance?
Have some memory researchers understated an association between synaesthesia and superiority in memory?
Should we be skeptical of articulate and popular celebrities who claim to be on the autistic spectrum?
In my book I do not tell you how or what to think, but I give you plenty to think about.
Many people have known for a long time that the life story of the author, celebrity and performer of intellectual feats Daniel Tammet which has been told countless times in books, television and journal papers is incomplete in ways that matter and questionable in too many ways to count. Let me (Lili Marlene, my pen-name) take you by the hand and show you the alternative story hiding in plain sight. Learn about the surprising role of the PR industry in the science of neuropsychology. With my meticulous eye I have reviewed the scientific literature, popular media, journalistic coverage and statistical data pertinent to Daniel Tammet in excruciating detail. Be advised that this book is not merely a rehash of writings that I have previously published at this blog - it is a work of over 40,000 words.
Readers who have already purchased a copy of my new book please be advised that I have now made available a revised edition of the book, which you can download for free from Smashwords. I am now trying to restrain myself from making any more revisions of the book. Thank you for your support, and happy reading!
P.S. I've made another major revision. I might even make more in the future.
Is Tammet's "diagnosis" of synaesthesia using the TOG-R beyond question?
Does another eccentric British memory feat performer have a greater or more genuine claim to fame than Tammet?
Have flaws in the scientific study of Daniel Tammet as a neuropsychological case exposed alarming deficiencies in the way that science is conducted?
Is Daniel Tammet (AKA Daniel Corney and Daniel Andersson) to neuropsychology what Helen Demidenko (AKA Helen Darville and Helen Dale) was to the Australian literary establishment?
Is the concept of "savant syndrome" little more than an expression of ignorance?
Have some memory researchers understated an association between synaesthesia and superiority in memory?
Should we be skeptical of articulate and popular celebrities who claim to be on the autistic spectrum?
In my book I do not tell you how or what to think, but I give you plenty to think about.
Many people have known for a long time that the life story of the author, celebrity and performer of intellectual feats Daniel Tammet which has been told countless times in books, television and journal papers is incomplete in ways that matter and questionable in too many ways to count. Let me (Lili Marlene, my pen-name) take you by the hand and show you the alternative story hiding in plain sight. Learn about the surprising role of the PR industry in the science of neuropsychology. With my meticulous eye I have reviewed the scientific literature, popular media, journalistic coverage and statistical data pertinent to Daniel Tammet in excruciating detail. Be advised that this book is not merely a rehash of writings that I have previously published at this blog - it is a work of over 40,000 words.
Readers who have already purchased a copy of my new book please be advised that I have now made available a revised edition of the book, which you can download for free from Smashwords. I am now trying to restrain myself from making any more revisions of the book. Thank you for your support, and happy reading!
P.S. I've made another major revision. I might even make more in the future.
I'm enjoying your book, good to see how you have fitted so many pieces of the puzzle together. I'll comment more when I've finished.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, just when I thought Mr Tammet wasn't hitting the media so much, there's this:
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/14/health/pi-day-memorizing-numbers/index.html#disqus_thread
Tomas
Thanks for your kind comments! Another revision of the book is in the works, which you should be able to download for free as you've already bought it. I just can't help myself.
ReplyDeleteI'll get back to reading that article. I see the journalist who wrote it has a name that rings a bell. I thin she was the one who wrote a piece about synaesthesia that made it sound like a disease, which provoked some disgruntled comments from the synaesthete community, and later all the comments on the article just disappeared. This new story should be interesting, but probably not in a good way.
It was better than I expected, but I'm not sure how much of the credit should go to the journalist, as she apparently altered the article in response from criticism from a commenter. Julian Asher is still giving this journalist interviews. I don't think his defense of his identification of Tammet as a synaesthete amounts to anything. Let's hope this marks a turning point in press articles about Tammet. It's actually balanced and researched. Thanks for letting me know about this.
ReplyDelete