John Howard and Asperger's syndrome: psychopathology and philanthropy

John Howard's (1726-1790) motives as a prison reformer appear obscure and a sense of his personality remains elusive. Biographies and contemporary tex ts suggest this is not merely the effect of historical distance: John Howar d was considered eccentric by many of his contemporaries. It is suggested t hat Howard suffered from Asperger's Syndrome (AS), a disorder allied to aut ism. Sufferers may have high intelligence but characteristically,manifest i mpairments in social, communicative and imaginative functioning with inflex ible thinking and an often fanatical preoccupation with a narrow special in terest. The hypothesis may help explain enigmatic aspects of Howard's caree r and personal life, as well as our difficulty forming a sense of his ident ity. The correspondence between Howard's idiosyncratic perspective, putativ ely related to AS, and the direction of the profound 'disciplinary' transfo rmation of eighteenth-century society is highlighted.