Diagnosing the mental health of Game of Thrones characters
If you’re someone who likes to apply real-world knowledge to fictional worlds, this story is definitely for you. MTV News recently spoke with a therapist (or Licensed Mental Health Counselor, LMHC for short) about how some of the Game of Thrones characters are doing, mentally speaking.
The interview digs deep on the Lannisters. As expected, Joffrey is a classic sociopath, although the LMHC, Colleen Jordan, notes that only adults can really be diagnosed in such a way. (But the symptoms are there. Of course they are.) She also traces Joffrey’s problems to his parents, Cersei (borderline personality disorder) and Jaime (good ol’-fashioned narcissism). They’re almost literally made for each other:
…the borderline wants to merge, have an identity, be safe and supported. And the narcissist needs someone to essentially worship them and provide them with validation. So the borderline’s fear and focus on abandonment actually feeds the narcissist.
Narcissism runs in the family, too: Tywin is brought up as the “worst” of the family, while Tyrion is noted as being very self-centered despite having somewhat more empathy than the rest of his kin. On the other hand, the Starks have a streak of depression:
Sansa is clearly depressed, she has a depressed affect. Catelyn had that too, at times. And Jon Snow — he’s experienced a lot of loss, which is a trigger for depression, and it’s also common for people displaced from home to experience depressive episodes.
(There’s also a follow-up about Jon’s facial expression, which MTV New describes as “the look of perpetual misery.” Basically, Jon Snow is Eeyore.)
What might surprise a lot of people is that, despite being the product of an incestuous bloodline and a notoriously “mad king,” Daenerys is relatively okay. Maybe that saying about Targaryens being a coin-flip between genius and madness is just that: a saying. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be helping her in becoming a great leader of the people this season.
The full interview has plenty more, including an insightful read on Theon Greyjoy/Reek and whether Arya’s recitation of names is a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder or something else entirely.
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