American normal : the hidden world of Asperger syndrome

Asperger's has never been clearly defined, bordering autism on one side and high intelligence and verbal eccentricity on the other.

The disease is a kind of cultural lightning rod. First, it's a condition onto which we project the very real and well-founded fears of social isolation inherent in mental illness.

But also attached to it is a kind of admiration and envy and (among those who suffer from Asperger's) a kind of elitism, a sense of being one of the elect, in a world mainly peopled by neurotypicals.