THE BIG BANG THEORY
PART II
Dr.Sheldon Cooper, the autistic genius
Does the tall, slender, annoying, constantly-talking theoretical physicist, who is the center of attention, demonstrate some of the characteristic traits of autistic people?
One of the major traits of people with autism is the fact that they avoid eye contact. They actually can't make eye contact with people when they talk and prefer not to communicate that much. Although they suffer from a disorder that separates them from the world and traps them between isolation walls, some of them possess extraordinary abilities, and their achievements during a lifetime are equal to five or six ordinary people.
There is a long list, including high-profile historical scientists and artists such as Newton, Einstein and Beethoven. It's called List 123. This is the number of people with extraordinary abilities throughout history who had autism disorder.
Dr.Sheldon Cooper, who sees a Noble prize in physics in his future, is proud of himself for being the 124th genius being added to the list.
As we see during the very first seasons, Sheldon mentions that when he was a child, his mom has taken him to a mental health expert and he has examined him and confirmed that he was not crazy. Well, obviously, we as the audience laugh when he says that, but this is proof that he had been acting oddly as a kid and that had made her mom take him to specialists. However, we never hear what the diagnosis had been. He also mentions that law enforcement officers had contacted his parents when he was a child because he had tried to get access to missile fuel in order to build his own spacecraft.
People with autism are usually obsessed with certain things.
We see that Sheldon had a big collection of comic books and he is very possessive about them. He is also obsessed with franchises like Star Wars, Star Trek, and Lord of the ring. His other obsession is with trains. He sets his toy trains railways and puts on his cap, blows a whistle and plays with them the same way a child does. He has extensive knowledge about trains and their mechanical system and their routes. Actually, he takes his girlfriend on a train trip on valentine's day and that's where they have their first kiss.
The other autistic personality trait of Sheldon is repetitive behavior. He has a bathroom schedule for which he had signed an agreement with his roommate. Therefore, Leonard is not supposed to violate the agreement codes regarding food and how they share the bathroom and the common area of the apartment. We see in a scene that Penny has prepared scrambled eggs for Sheldon in the morning after she had spent the night with Leonard but Sheldon throws the food away in the trash can and says: "Wednesday is French toast day!" He also puts on the same type of cloth every day. It's always a short-sleeved shirt that he wears over a long-sleeved shirt.
And he also wears the same jacket. His other funny repetitive habit is when he knocks on Penny's door. Every time he must do three knocks before penny opens the door. So if Penny opens the door after the second knock, he somehow manages to hit the door frame for the third time to complete.
Sheldon has his own spot on the living room sofa and no one else is allowed to sit on it. He sits on the right corner of the sofa to eat his breakfast every morning. He sits there when they are having Chinese or Thie food with friends at night and he sits there when he watches Dr.Who on BBC every day at the same time.