Anakin Skywalker's Personality Disorder?

Much has been made on this board about the role of Anakin's personality and psyche in his fall to the dark side of the Force. As reported on TFN's main page, this article shows us that the APA has decided to take a look at Ani's mind as well.

Darth Vader's Psyche: What Went Wrong?
Anakin Skywalker, Who Became Darth Vader, Had Borderline Personality Disorder, Psychiatrists Say
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

May 21, 2007 -- Anakin Skywalker, the Star Wars character who became Darth Vader, had borderline personality disorder, psychiatrists report.

The news comes not from a galaxy far, far away, but from San Diego, where the American Psychiatric Association (APA) is holding its 160th annual meeting.

Today, experts from the psychiatric department at France's University Hospital of Toulouse told the APA's annual meeting that Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader could "clearly" be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

Borderline personality disorder is a serious mental illness marked by instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior, according to background information on the web site of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

The French psychiatrists -- who included Laurent Schmitt, MD -- based their diagnosis on original Star Wars film scripts.

Skywalker Psyche
Schmitt's team describes Skywalker's symptoms, including problems with controlling anger and impulsivity, temporary stress-related paranoia, "frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment (when trying to save his wife at all costs), and a pattern of unstable and intense personal relationships," including his relationships with his Jedi masters.

Changing his name and turning into "Darth Vader" is a red flag of Skywalker's disturbed identity, note Schmitt and colleagues.

The researchers aren't suggesting that real people with borderline personality disorder are Darth Vaders-in-the-making. Skywalker's symptoms are an extreme, fictional case.

Borderline personality disorder can be treated with psychotherapy and medication. But that wasn't part of Skywalker's script.

I thought this might be a good place to discuss this article, and drove Anakin to the dark side, particularly when an in-universe character, Anakin's grandson Jacen Solo, is trying to do the same thing.

 

wow, dude...

I never thought of it like that..

 

Sometimes, characters in fiction get rounded enough to the point where they are assigned personality qualities that can actually be linked to mental illness. I find this a dicey proposition but it works for several fictional characters of note.

* Doctor Doom, extreme narcissism.
* Cobra Commander, paranoia and delusions of grandeur

And Star Wars examples...

* Palpatine, a persecution complex and extreme anti-social tendencies
* Jacen Solo, old fashioned megalomania.

 

I had a girlfriend with Borderline Personality Disorder...she was alot crazier than little Ani.

Too bad though, she was absolutely gorgeous.

Anyways, I can see an argument for Ani having BPD. But don't people with BPD also practice self-harm (ie cutting)?

 

They might. Then again, Anakin doesn't really suffer from low self esteem as much as he does from an excess of self-importance. The only thing keeping him from being diagnosed with delusions of grandeur is the fact that he really is so powerful. Self harm isn't in every single case, I'm sure.

I think Anakin certainly had personality issues, and Palps exploited them to the fullest extent. If he has a disorder, or a series of complexes, I think it's because his situation deepened the insecurities and problems he already had, and twisted a lot of his characteristics to their negative extensions.

 

Actually, just on Doctor Who they commented that the Daleks actually suffer a massive inferiority complex that they compensate for by being utterly arrogant/boisterous. That seems to the case with Anakin Skywalker. He constantly is, unconvincingly, trying to say how awesome he is when its clear he doesn't believe it himself.

 

this is nothing that the films don't already show. i'd argue tho that anakin did try psychotherapy. unfortunatly his schrink was the head of the jedi council. yoda did tell him the right answer but anakin didn't want to believe it so he didn't even try to get over it.

edit: Charles, how does sidious have a persecution disorder? from the jedi?

 

The difference is Anakin knows he's the Chosen One, the avatar of the Force, the being with more midichlorians than anything else. He feels he's being held back.

 

Actually, I think Anakin is quite certain that for all of his special abilities. He knows he's largely no different from anyone else. Anakin was able to catch up on 9 years of study in a relatively short pace but I remind you that he had his ass handed to him by Count Dooku.

He's also got his D- in Jedi philosophy and calm.

My take is Sidious is one of those people that considers the entire universe out to get the, largely because the Sith training helps reinforce this feeling. So they are fully justified in doing whatever they feel like in making sure that they are protected against it.

 

"Borderline personality disorder can be treated with psychotherapy and medication. But that wasn't part of Skywalker's script."



EDIT: saw Foo's reaction. Nice comeback.

 

Eh, people have been debating whether Hamlet was crazy or faking it for centuries. If your protagonist has enough verisimilitude that experts have psychoanalyze him or her, then you achieved something.

Not that I'm likening Lucas to Shakespeare, but you get my drift.

 

Shakespeare wouldn't mind. It's always good to remember that William wrote for the masses and ripped off liberally his own plots/history.

The only difference was he could do dialog.

 

danke!

wonder what kind of anti-depresants the GFFA doctors have

 

I'd hardly say that. Otherwise my taking a Confirmation name is a mild red flag (maybe a Carnation pink flag) of my Personality disorder. Anakin changed his name when he joined a new faith. Whether there's some deeper psychological significance to his sticking with the name change or not is debatable.

 

Well, granted, Bill made sure there was something for everything in the social strata that showed up at the Globe (from the penny seats all the way up to the aristocrat's gallery), but he never catered to the kiddies.

When will Lucas learn that Star Wars is for hyper critical, embittered 18-35 year old males and not innocent, slapstick loving larvae!

 

Well, duh. I've been saying this for years.

 

It's a common problem.

[image=http://www.shortpacked.com/comics/20050606a.gif]

 

Yes, but besides poetry, that's all he could do . . . have you ever tried reading some of his stage directions? "Enter [character]." "They fight. "Exeunt all."

C'mon, man! They call you "The Bard"! Surely you can do better than that!

 

Bi-polar at the least, sociopathic and sometimes psychotic at worst.

 

Yes, William had another quality Lucas lacked.

Trusting his actors ;-)

 

Actually there is a strange similarity.....

 

Shakespeare: FASTER! MORE INTENSE!

Actor: You can write this **** but you can't say it.

 

Bah, nowadays they have enough mental health illness classifications to stick everyone into one. I myself have seen several psychiatrists in my life. About a year out of college I started to have a difficult time concentrating. They all wanted to blame it on some aspect of my childhood or the fact that I had to be depressed about some current events in my life. They also all felt a need to label my problem as some type of mental illness and give me the SSRI that was most in vogue at the time. I tried to tell them that my life was fine except for the fact that I couldn't think straight. Argh. I finally found one that gave me some really really really mild pseudo-stimulant and didn't want to paste me with "Borderline Anxiety Disorder" or "Acute Chronic depression Disorder". All has been well since then.

So the point of my rant is....Anakin Skywalker was just Anakin Skywalker. He didn't "take" the name Darth Vader, the freaky guy that was going to save his wife gave it to him. At the time he was probably thinking "I don't care if you want to call me Darth Tinkerbell, just save Padme."

 

i hate that the tendency of modern society is to label every "bad characteristic" of a human's personality to be a "disorder" that needs to be treated with drugs or whatever.

in my opinion "bad characteristics" and "bad behavior" are most often a result of someone's past combined with inherent nature... it creates the groundwork for their DARK SIDE you might say...

its that own darn individual's responsibility to overcome these tendencies, lest they end up friendless or in prison or a sith. pumping them full of drugs does nothing to "bring them back to the light"

personally, i can be biatchy, selfish, and self-centered... hell, i admit to relating to anakin on a lot of levels but in the end I'm responsible for my state of mind and my behavior... taking drugs to "fix" that is just circumventing the human journey towards becoming the best personal "jedi" that i can be.

lets not give anakin any excuses for his fall. he had a rough childhood but was given all the opportunity in the world to overcome it.