Autism is a specialized way of thinking and interacting with the world.
It is simply a neurophysiological idiosyncrasy in how the brain
processes information. Autism is characterized by perpetual hyperfocus,
intense mental concentration fixated on one thought pattern at a time to
the exclusion of everything else, including one's own feelings. Having
an autistic brain is analogous to living 24/7 in an intellectual
laboratory into which emotional and social distractions are prohibited
from entering. Autism is currently considered to be a disorder, i.e., a
pathological condition. It most assuredly is not. Michelangelo, Mozart,
Darwin, Jefferson, Edison, Tesla, and Einstein were autistic and can
hardly be said to have been suffering from any mental pathology.