CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Just a thought. As a graduate with a psychology degree, I found it's funny how some popular anime characters seem to exhibit certain mental disorders. Here's a couple I've come up with.

1--Edward from Cowboy Bebop: Attention Deficit-Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD)
2--Vash the Stampede: Bipolar Disorder

If you have any comments or would like to add another to the list, feel free. Again, this is just something for fun .

A good number in Paranoia Agent and Monster have characters with certain disorders.

Azumanga Daioh and Neon Genesis Evangelion (cannot discuss Evangelion though).

Could you be a little more specific as to who? Nevermind the Evangelion bit.

Kagome from Inuyasha, who apparently suffers delusions from a head injury gained by falling into an old well and now believes that she travels to the past and all that.

Yukari-sensei, maybe? How about Sakaki-san? Tomo-chan? Maybe even Osaka?

I practically know nothing about psychology, but I would at least think these might be interesting cases. (Maybe.)

In the manga Othello, Yaya has quite a severe case of multiple personality disorder. Don't know if they ever made an anime out of this series.

Osaka from Azumanga Daioh has some sort of disorder, I'm sure. Space Cadet Syndrome or something XD Not to mention Tomo's superiority complex(I think that's the right term)

I would say that Kenshin has sever bi-polar disorder... even more so than vash...poor guy has to keep himself in check everytime he fights!

95% of the villians in all anime have either severe emotional trauma as a child or are just plain wickedly insane! lol

ChristianRonin wrote:I would say that Kenshin has sever bi-polar disorder... even more so than vash...poor guy has to keep himself in check everytime he fights!

I actually think that the term bipolar is misused frequently - being bipolar does not mean having split personalities, it means the individual can quickly swing from states of severe depression to states of elation and mania.

So maybe Kenshin and Vash would have something more along the lines of MPD? o.o

maybe i mean Skitzo? ( I can't spell the word right...)

Nope sorry, Kenshin does not have any disorder. End of discusssiiiooonnn [/uncle]

ChristianRonin wrote:maybe i mean Skitzo? ( I can't spell the word right...)

Schizophrenia actually has nothing to do with multiple personalities. That's a whole disorder all by itself. As for Azumanga Daioh, I once saw a picture with an accurate caption.

Mr. SmartyPants wrote:Nope sorry, Kenshin does not have any disorder. End of discusssiiiooonnn [/uncle]

Actually, maybe he does....maybe he has post traumatic stress disorder? Although I'm kinda grabbing for that one.

meboeck wrote:Schizophrenia actually has nothing to do with multiple personalities. That's a whole disorder all by itself. As for Azumanga Daioh, I once saw a picture with an accurate caption.

Heh in that case... yeah it's true^^ But yeah... I think the termenology can really be confusing to people who haven't taken any psy courses and just assume it's this and this. Not to try and offend anyone here, but yeah^^ I'd probably say somethign similar if I haven't taken any courses. Even in the case of "multi-personality disoder" (or the more recent name: dissociativee disorder) Kenshin and stuff wouldn't even do with that. You see, there's a difference between changing your personas in different situation (I mean, everyone does it^^) and actually using a defense mechanism with different "people" in your body... Oh and also, skitzo (from the little I remember in the ocurse on it) more has to do with hearing voices and having disturbing thoughts as the such... I'll be taking a whole course just on abnormal psy this year, so can learn more^^

Sorry to turn this from a fun thread to a seriousish one^^ Like I said, not tryign to offend anyone that got the terms wrong, just... educating for next time^^

Schizophrenia just isn't confined to hearing voices, though it's a very common symptom of the disorder. Psychologists divide schizophrenia into three categories. Disorganized schizophrenia is probably the image most people have of the disease, and consists of disorganized thought and speech patterns, grossly inappropriate behavior like giggling at a funeral, etc. Paranoid schizophrenia is characterized by the intense feeling that people are out to get you, along with auditory hallucinations and such.

Catatonic schizophrenia is a weird one, in which the person's body is prone to freezing up at inopportune moments. If anyone's seen the movie Patch Adams, the guy who stands around in weird positions in the hospital has catatonic schizophrenia, I believe.

If someone exhibits a conglomeration of these symptoms and doesn't predominantly fit one label, they're called undifferentiated schizophrenics.

^^;;; ...I'm horribly interested in abnormal psychology, if it wasn't obvious. I research it for my writing a LOT...

[quote="Kokoro Daisuke"]
^^]

Heh, how cna you tell it's been a while for me?^^ Oh the stuff I've forgotten in months already! I believe I was also away on the day they went through the disorder, so only got what I did off review notes. The stuff can sure be interesting though...

Oh! Think I thought of one: Ritsu Sohma having borderline personality disorder. Heh, and you can always say that Shigure's editor has dependant personality disorder Can't think of any actual character having antisocial personality disorder, really, because 80% of the cases of anime villians, turn out to have sad pasts that made them who they are today...

Well Asuka and Misato both would be candidates for doctoral thesis by any
psych major,especially Asuka.

Miruko as this disorder where he can't keep his hands off pretty girls and
Sango has this disorder where she can't keep from bashing Miroku on the head with her boomerang when he does so.

MorwenLaicoriel wrote:Actually, maybe he does....maybe he has post traumatic stress disorder? Although I'm kinda grabbing for that one.

The way he's acting in Rurouni Kenshin? I doubt it. Otherwise he's go crazy if he saw somebody die, or somebody get hurt, or even the sight of blood. He would be afraid to kill people.

There are war veterans with PTSD who cannot watch ANY form of media where someone gets shot or killed. They just can't stomach it. If they do they get all crazy. I know a Colonel in my church who had 3 uncles serve in the Korean War, two were in combat and they are they ones I talk about.

You can have a veteran like tending his yard, and if theres like a loud bang or crashing noise from the guy mowing the lawn next door, the veteran could react how he would if it were a bomb/explosive/shrapnel/shot from a firearm. PTSD is crazy stuff.

I highly doubt he would get PTSD from anything else (hypothetically speaking) but the violence he had to go through.

martinloyola wrote:95% of the villians in all anime have either severe emotional trauma as a child or are just plain wickedly insane! lol

*cough* Ghinius *cough*

Clair Leonelli from Heat Guy J wasn't insane, but the emotional trauma he experienced wasn't necessarily severe.

Boogiepop Phantom [spoiler]Tomo has multiple Personality Disorder[/spoiler]
also, one of the Band of Seven on Inuyasha had multiple personality disorder.

Slayers
Gourry-ADD
Lina- not sure if it counts but Ego issues, possibly Kleptomainia
Amilea- ADHD, Klutz
Zelgadis- Anti-social, self-esteem issues
Xellos- chronic liar

rocklobster wrote:Boogiepop Phantom

A LOT of characters have some psychological problem or another in that series. The girl from the first episode (I forget her name) has OCD (she constantly washes her hands and carries germ wipes), and Masami Saotome has a "fetish for indirect suicide" (from the comic and book).

And now to make a somewhat meaningful contribution to this thread, Mai from Tactics exhibited a lot of the tendencies of a borderline personality. (bouts of anger, spontaneous and dangerous actons, the tendency to form quick attachements to people and sever them just as quickly, unsteady family relationships, etc.)

Haru (Hatsuharu) from Fruits Basket.....don't know what it would be though, when he goes "Black"

Full Metal Alchemist

Lt. Col. Frank Archer I would have to say shows signs of superiority complex. Then there's Kimbly and Tucker who both are insane.

I think this thread would be shorter if we listed the anime characters WITHOUT problems. XD

.rai//

Riyo-Chan wrote:Haru (Hatsuharu) from Fruits Basket.....don't know what it would be though, when he goes "Black"

In that case it WOULD be dissociative disorder^^ I mean, he doesn't even remember turning black most of the time, and the whoel thing is due to dissociating himself from stuff that happened before.