Was Elvis Autistic?

I’ve always been an Elvis Presley fan, and often find myself stimming to his music. Of particular interest to me is his early, classic 50’s rock, hits from before he was shipped out to the Army.

I was excited to see the new Baz Luhrmann film about Elvis’ life, also being a fan of the film maker since I saw Romeo and Juliet back in the 90’s. His work hits me on a number of different levels - the pacing, the use of color, the music. His films are truly works of visual art, very pleasing to my sensory seeking autistic self.

As much as I enjoyed Elvis’ music growing up, I never really read any biographies or took great interest in him as a person. I was drawn to see the film by my shared love of his music itself and my great admiration of Baz Luhrmann.

The film blew me away, a true work of art. But I don’t seek to review the film here. My interest, rather, is the autistic coding of Elvis throughout the film, and this got me thinking, “Was Elvis autistic”?

The film depicts Elvis as shy, afraid of eye contact, many physical stims, intense passion for his special interests, his “typical” autistic social demeanor, his need to dull his senses in order to function, his near constant masking in order to appease others. I went straight to Google after the film to see what had been written or said by those who knew Elvis personally to get an idea. Of course we cannot diagnose people we don’t know, that’s not our place. I hoped that others could provide us a little glimpse into Elvis’ life.

Unfortunately, I was out of luck. Not much turned up besides a few reddit posts from other people who picked up on Luhrmann’s depiction and a few blogs which explored the idea. More research will need to be done. What do you think?