Obi Wan
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Diagnosing Anakin Skywalker
Diagnosing Anakin Skywalker
by Carolyn Kaufman, PsyD
A group of French researchers have proposed that Anakin Skywalker had Borderline Personality Disorder. This article looks at why, along with the evidence for and against such a diagnosis.
WHAT IS BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER?
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is essentially an inability to modulate (manage) emotion, which means all emotions come out far more intensely than the average person’s — especially the negative ones. Because most of them were raised in unhealthy, abusive situations, people with BPD don’t tend to have healthy coping mechanisms, and that means they experience a lot of difficult emotions. Rage and depression are two of their most common emotional states. The internal chaos is so overwhelming that many self-injure (cut, burn, or otherwise deliberately harm themselves) in an attempt to get the inside pain out into a physical form.
Splitting
If the first hallmark of BPD is self-injury, the second is “splitting.” When children are little, they go through a stage where the “good” Mommy (or “good” Daddy) they love and the “bad” Mommy (Daddy) they get angry with feel like two different people. Most people eventually integrate the two and come to understand that you can love and hate someone at the same time. People with BPD continue to split into adulthood, which means they categorize other people into those who belong on pedestals and those they hate. And they can shift people from one category to the other very quickly.
People with BPD are often frantic to have someone else there to deal with all that emotional overload for them, which can be exhausting for the other person. They will do anything to hold onto the person — scream, cry, beg, threaten to kill themselves (or make an attempt), or use other manipulative methods.
Controversy
BPD is a controversial diagnosis, though. Feminist therapists and institutions tend to feel very strongly about not diagnosing anyone with BPD. They believe the symptoms are actually indicative of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and that referring to someone as “borderline” is stigmatizing them rather than addressing the problem. (Especially because some therapists don’t want to work with BPD — it’s arguably the hardest thing to deal with because BPD clients need so much.)
ANAKIN’S SYMPTOMS
So what about the Anakin we meet in Star Wars episodes I, II, and III?
The diagnosis works, at least for those episodes, if you spin it right.
Anakin has particularly strong negative reactions to a variety of events, which could arguably be due to an inability to deal with the unpleasant feelings they cause. He certainly has trouble taking Obi-Wan’s criticism, and his ourburst in the Tuskan camp after watching his mother die is extreme: he goes berserk and kills everyone. Then when he sees Padme he breaks down, saying, “I killed them… I killed them all…even the women and the children…”
Padme tends to regulate emotion for him, and as a result he has her on a pedestal…until the end of episode III, when she confronts his movement toward the Dark Side. In an instant he goes from loving her to trying to choke her to death.
The Researchers’ Criteria
The researchers provide examples for the diagnostic criteria they feel fits Anakin’s behavior (starred).
Criterion 1: Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment
**His fear of losing his mother is the basis of all his actions. His efforts to save his wife at all costs, in absence of real threat, end with him turning to the dark side.**
Why is losing his mother the basis for everything?
And since Padme’s life is actually in danger at several points during the films, the authors seem to be pathologizing more or less normal behavior.
A better example would be Anakin’s repeated insistence that he wants to become so powerful he’ll be able to keep people from dying because he can’t tolerate losing them.
Criterion 2: a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation
**His relationships with his masters Jedis, in particular Obi-wan, swings from love to hatred.**
This makes sense; going from adoring Padme to being willing to kill her so quickly also fits this category.
Criterion 3: Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms
**He experiences a major dissociative episode after his mother’s death and when his wife abandons him.**
There is no evidence of dissociation, which is a split in consciousness that leaves one feeling disconnected from oneself or one’s environment. In more extreme circumstances, people will have amnesia for their behaviors.
But Anakin knows exactly what he did in the Tuskan camp. He justifies his behavior with “I hate them…they’re animals, so I slaughtered them like animals.” At the end he says, “I’m a Jedi, I’m better than that,” which you could argue was the part of him that didn’t want to do it and was stuck watching the rest of him act, but that was added to the DVD release to try to soften what he did. It wasn’t in the version that showed in theaters.
Criterion 4: Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging
**Pod racing from an early age, he often takes unnecessary risks in battles by acting on impulse.**
Children have no real concept of danger or death at the age when Anakin goes pod racing. Anakin does do a lot of other impulsive things, though, long after he knows better.
A good example is jumping out of a “car,” which is hovering hundreds of stories above the ground, to catch Padme’s would-be assassin in another “car” below. He gets in trouble with Obi-Wan constantly because he does things without thinking (or thinks and just doesn’t like what he’s supposed to do instead). And he does go running into fights without much thought.
Criterion 5: Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger His mother’s death induces uncontrollable anger in him.
**His lack of self-control leads him to argue frequently with the members of the council.**
How much of this is just immaturity on Anakin’s part? Should it really be diagnosed?
Criterion 6: identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self
**Before turning into Darth Vader he is very unsure of who he was, and what he wanted.**
All teens go through normal identity confusion, figuring out who and what they want to be, but Anakin does know one thing: he wants to be extremely powerful and do whatever he wants.
IS THAT GOOD ENOUGH EVIDENCE?
To carry the diagnosis through episodes IV, V, and VI, you have to find an explanation for Vader’s calm control.
One might be that someone with BPD can often regulate emotions better if he has a strong outside system to keep him from exploding. For example, some people with the diagnosis do well in the military because there’s so much structure and no tolerance for emotional outbursts. The structure regulates them. Likewise, when someone starts behaving inappropriately in a therapist’s office, sometimes the best thing to do is take the tough love approach and tell them to cut it out, put their backside in the chair, and do therapy.
But there are still problems, most notably the fact that there is a better diagnosis, and that’s Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).
Grandiosity, a focus on power, a desire to be admired and even worshipped, and a strong belief that he shouldn’t have to play by the rules are all characteristic of NPD, and they’re all characteristic of both Anakin and Darth Vader. He meets all of the criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and he meets them without any real need for explanation.
SO DID ANAKIN SKYWALKER HAVE BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER?
Probably not, but he sure nailed the Narcissistic Personality Disorder diagnosis.
Now, as for what’s wrong with George Lucas, compelled as he seems to be to keep mutilating the original Star Wars films… I don’t have a diagnosis for him, but I sure wish someone would make him stop.
About the Author
Dr. Carolyn Kaufman is a clinical psychologist and professor in Columbus, Ohio. A published writer, she runs Archetype Writing: Psychology for Fiction Writers (http://www.archetypewriting.com). Visitors will find not only articles about psychology tailored to their needs, but they can ask Dr. K their writing/psychology questions. She is often quoted by the media as an expert resource, as she was in Wired News for this topic (http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2007/05/anakin_syndrome).
Becoming Obi-Wan
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