The following article appeared in today's Toronto "Globe and Mail".  It
doesn't appear to be in the Web edition.

   WAS GLENN GOULD AUTISTIC?
   Archivist believes brain disorder plagued eccentric musical genius.
   Leah McLaren, The Globe and Mail, Ottawa
   February 1, 2000

   Glenn Gould may have suffered from a mild form of autism, the keeper
   of the Gould archives says, a theory that may explain both the
   pianist's musical genius and his eccentricities, which included an
   overfondness for scrambled eggs and an aversion to shaking hands.
   Timothy Maloney.  a musicologist and director of the music division
   of the National Library of Canada, has worked two years on a paper
   contending that the late virtuoso had a neurological disorder
   characterized by social deficiency, obsessiveness and intolerance of
   change.

   Dr Maloney sees Mr. Gould's retirement from the concert stage at 31
   as an effort to cope with the condition, Asperger's syndrome.

   "Every new hall, every new piano and every new person was extremely
   stressful to Gould," Dr.  Maloney said in an interview at the National
   Library in Ottawa.  "As he grew older, he needed to be at a remove
   from society.  This is an arch example of an Asperger's sufferer."

   In Glenn Gould and Asperger's Syndrome, a condensed version of an
   article to be completed in the spring, Dr.  Maloney cites Mr. Gould's
   reclusiveness, obsessive work habits, prodigious memory, even his
   strict diet of scrambled eggs and arrowroot biscuits, as symptoms of
   the disorder.

   In Mr. Gould's time, many reviewers, including The Globe and Mail's
   John Kraglund, expressed their irritation at the performer's famous
   "platform antics," such as humming, rocking at the keyboard and
   conducting the orchestra when either hand was momentarily free.
   According to Dr Maloney, "Gould could no more control such mannerisms
   than play the violin.  They ruled him, not he them."

   Ray Roberts, Mr Gould's close friend and long-time business associate,
   supports the Asperger's theory.  After hearing Dr.  Maloney speak at
   the Gould Gathering conference in Toronto last fall, Mr. Roberts
   was struck.  "Many psychiatrists have come up with theories, but this
   was the first one that seemed to make any sense [Glenn] wanted to
   have his environs and the way he lived very controlled."

   Mr. Roberts added, however, that had the condition been diagnosed
   while Mr Gould was alive (he died in 1982), "he probably would have
   dismissed it out of hand.  Glenn had a penchant for ignoring the
   obvious sometimes."

   Asperger's syndrome was named for the Viennese physician Hans Asperger,
   who published a paper in 1944 describing a pattern of behaviour in
   several young boys.  Although they demonstrated normal language and
   intelligence levels, they had deficiencies resembling autism in social
   and communication skills.  The disorder wasn't recognized by the
   Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders until 1994.
   Since then, scholars have hypothesized that Albert Einstein, Vladimir
   Nabokov, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bela Bartok all may have had the
   disease, which is much more common in men than women.

   Dr.  Maloney first stumbled upon the Gould theory while reading U.
   S. psychiatrist Peter Oswald's 1996 biography Glen Gould: The
   Ecstasy and Tragedy of Genius.  In it, Mr. Oswald (who died shortly
   after the book's publication) makes a passing reference to the
   possibility that Mr. Gould may have been afflicted with Asperger's.
   When he began his research two years ago, Dr.  Maloney, who has no
   medical background, found immediate parallels between Mr. Gould and
   the average Asperger's sufferer.

   The musician's acute sensitivity to light, sound and temperature were
   typical symptoms, as was his phobia about shaking hands.  While he
   was alive, Mr. Gould constantly complained of drafts, required space
   heaters to be placed near his piano and once interrupted a concert
   in Jerusalem until a door at the back of the balcony was closed.
   During his touring years, a sign was placed outside his dressing room
   asking that fans not attempt to shake the pianist's hands, as he was
   "saving them for the next performance."

   Even his musical genius, which has inspired a ballet.  a movie and
   two plays, fit the bill.  According to the official diagnostic criteria
   for the syndrome, many people with Asperger's exhibit an exceptional
   skill or talent in one area and tend to become preoccupied with their
   chosen subject of interest.

   Mr. Gould was a perfectionist who focused obsessively on his art.
   His pristine interpretations of Bach coupled with his astonishing
   technique as a player made him one of the greatest classical musicians
   of the 20th century.

   Though Dr.  Maloney expects some negative reactions from the
   international legions of Gould fans and scholars, he maintains that
   by exposing the supposed illness behind Mr. Gould's genius, he is
   in fact doing the late pianist a "posthumous favour."

   "While the assets that this syndrome brought him - incredible memory,
   tenacious drive, intense focus on his special interests - took him
   to levels of excellence most people can only dream of, the liabilities
   attendant with the condition put him in another realm, that of a
   victim," Dr.  Maloney explained.

   He even suggested that, at times, Mr Gould's repertoire fell prey to
   the disease.  "There is an element of pedantry and extreme inflexibility
   that these people have," he said of Asperger's sufferers.  "It was
   to the detriment of some of his [later] interpretations.

   Sufferers from Asperger's syndrome are generally able to take in
   enormous amounts of information at once, yet exhibit a lessened
   ability to process sequential data.  During his career, Mr. Gould
   excelled at the polyphonic music of Bach, but his later interpretations
   of Mozart and Beethoven (music that evolves in a more sequential
   manner) were slammed by critics.

   Asperger's syndrome now is widely treated with the antidepressant
   Prozac.  Had Mr Gould been successfully treated for the disorder
   during his lifetime, Dr.  Maloney is convinced the pianist on Prozac
   would have still been capable of his sorrowfully beautiful 1981
   recording of the Goldberg Variations.

   "I don't believe [treatment) would have diminished his capabilities
   in any way," he insisted.  "I think it would have been a great relief
   for him."

   Rhona Bergman, the author of The Idea of Gould, is not so sure.

   "There was obviously something different about Gould; he was a genius,"
   she said from her home in Philadelphia.  "You can't take the neurosis
   out of the artist.  It's integral."

   Dr.  Helen Meseros, a Toronto psychiatrist who is writing a biography
   of Mr. Gould, bluntly dismissed Dr.  Maloney's theory.

   "I don't agree with it on the basis of my investigation of Gould's
   early childhood," she said.  "He was a delightful, very advanced
   child, not impaired in any way.  Asperger's children are not even
   able to make eye contact.  They are almost like robots.  Gould was
   nothing like that."

   Despite the critics, Dr.  Maloney insists his theory is "a positive,
   rather than a negative consideration of [Gould's] life and legacy."

Joanne and Phil Stevens
Ottawa, Canada
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