This was written about two years ago but thought it was a great fun read.

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…”
Continue Reading…