I doubt many of us here are trained psychologists or anything of the sort, but we're just analyzing fictional characters here so it's not like expertise is needed or anything. Just for fun. Being that we're discussing specific characters, obviously spoilers will abound and some of us may not be familiar with some of them. Just keep that in mind.
I'll start things off with the character that inspired me to make this topic: The director of Project Freelancer in Red vs Blue, AKA...
Again, I'm not an expert on psychological diseases, but I found the comparison interesting at least. Your turn.
I'll start things off with the character that inspired me to make this topic: The director of Project Freelancer in Red vs Blue, AKA...
Dr. Leonard Church, and by extension Church himself.
This all started when I was surfing Wikipedia and got on the subject of psychological disorders. I read about this [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderline_personality_disorder] one in particular and it struck me that many of these symptoms are apparent in the director. Breaking it down:
People with BPD experience emotions far more intensely than most people, and often react by shutting down their emotions altogether. The director rarely reacted strongly to things, but he had some extremely strong outbursts at time. In season nine it was pretty clear that the freelancers were pretty terrified of the director when he was pissed off. This also shows in the season 10 finale where he just sinks into an inescapable depression and eventually kills himself. Which brings me to my next point:
BPD sufferers are prone to self-hatred and self-harm. This is a pretty big point in my opinion. One of the biggest defining characteristics of the director was his self hatred and his justification for torturing Alpha was that he was simply torturing himself. It seems to me he projected a large amount of his self-hatred onto the two things he saw much of himself in: Agent Carolina, his daughter, and Church, his AI copy. And of course eventually he kills himself after a long period of self-inflicted suffering.
BPD sufferers also tend to see things in black and white with little room for gray. This one is pretty obvious, especially in the director's letters in season 6: "when faced with extinction, EVERY alternative is preferable."
And lastly, BPD sufferers tend to variably idealize and demonize the people closest to them. This is seen less with the director himself, as his closest relationship was killed before the series began, but it is seen with Church and his relationship with Tex and his friends. At times he seems to despise them, even calling Tex a "rotten *****" and referring to everyone in Blood Gulch as nothing but problems he has to deal with on a daily basis, but then he can just as quickly show a lot of affection for them, especially with Tex who he chases to the ends of the Earth until he finally lets her go.
So that's pretty much every symptom of BPD shown in Church, both real and AI. Church seems a lot more stable than the director mind you, but then he had to go through absolute hell before he got to that point.
This all started when I was surfing Wikipedia and got on the subject of psychological disorders. I read about this [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderline_personality_disorder] one in particular and it struck me that many of these symptoms are apparent in the director. Breaking it down:
People with BPD experience emotions far more intensely than most people, and often react by shutting down their emotions altogether. The director rarely reacted strongly to things, but he had some extremely strong outbursts at time. In season nine it was pretty clear that the freelancers were pretty terrified of the director when he was pissed off. This also shows in the season 10 finale where he just sinks into an inescapable depression and eventually kills himself. Which brings me to my next point:
BPD sufferers are prone to self-hatred and self-harm. This is a pretty big point in my opinion. One of the biggest defining characteristics of the director was his self hatred and his justification for torturing Alpha was that he was simply torturing himself. It seems to me he projected a large amount of his self-hatred onto the two things he saw much of himself in: Agent Carolina, his daughter, and Church, his AI copy. And of course eventually he kills himself after a long period of self-inflicted suffering.
BPD sufferers also tend to see things in black and white with little room for gray. This one is pretty obvious, especially in the director's letters in season 6: "when faced with extinction, EVERY alternative is preferable."
And lastly, BPD sufferers tend to variably idealize and demonize the people closest to them. This is seen less with the director himself, as his closest relationship was killed before the series began, but it is seen with Church and his relationship with Tex and his friends. At times he seems to despise them, even calling Tex a "rotten *****" and referring to everyone in Blood Gulch as nothing but problems he has to deal with on a daily basis, but then he can just as quickly show a lot of affection for them, especially with Tex who he chases to the ends of the Earth until he finally lets her go.
So that's pretty much every symptom of BPD shown in Church, both real and AI. Church seems a lot more stable than the director mind you, but then he had to go through absolute hell before he got to that point.
Again, I'm not an expert on psychological diseases, but I found the comparison interesting at least. Your turn.
