Characters with Psychological issues

necia phoenix · Aug 8, 2007

In my main WIP (which is a fantasy), the mc has what his society calls War-Syndrome, basically PTSD. In several other stories and wip's I have characters with severe psychological issues.

What are your thoughts about characters with issues such as schizophrenia and anxiety attacks, PTSD, MPD and other mental illnesses?

(Just thinking that this would be a interesting topic)

Azraelsbane · Aug 8, 2007

If my characters didn't have psychological disorders, they wouldn't be near as interesting.

I'm all for crazies. No one is normal anyway. We all just like to pretend.

reenkam · Aug 8, 2007

I've had characters with psychological issues. I've read books with characters with psychological issues. I don't feel any different about them in relation to other characters in either instance.

:Shrug:

veinglory · Aug 8, 2007

I prefer they be realistic. I don't like stereotypes or lazy mistakes like mistaking schizophrenia for multiple personality. I really hate unrealistic 'psychologist' characters.

Shady Lane · Aug 8, 2007

I had a ms with an anxiety disorder awhile ago, my last ms had a kid with bulimia, and in this one my poor kid has severe social anxiety and mild OCD. And his mother is probably schizophrenic, though at this point she's not fleshed out enough for me to be sure.

I torture those kids until they bleed.

Azraelsbane · Aug 8, 2007

veinglory said:
I prefer they be realistic. I don't like stereotypes or lazy mistakes like mistaking schizophrenia for multiple personality. I really hate unrealistic 'psychologist' characters.

I agree with this. If you're going to make what disorder they have an important part of the story, then you should definitely know the differences in disorders. It just depends on the story.

For the most part, all my characters could be classified as having disorders, but it's not a main part of the story. No one is diagnosed or anything. It's just the way they are.

Oberon · Aug 8, 2007

My MC in my second novel has multiple personality disorder, it's central to everything. My son is schizophrenic, I have a schizophrenic cousin, I know what that is like, and it is definitely not multiple personality as most people believe. I think dissociative is closer. Anyway, I didn't intend to get into psych. when I started, but the possible convolutions fascinated me as I got into it. I did research to make sure I wasn't too far off the mark. Show me a sane person and I'll be sure not to trust him/her.

Neurotics build dream castles. Psychotics live in them. I forget who said that.

reenkam · Aug 8, 2007

veinglory said:
I prefer they be realistic. I don't like stereotypes or lazy mistakes like mistaking schizophrenia for multiple personality. I really hate unrealistic 'psychologist' characters.

I definitely agree with this. I would hate if a disorder were portrayed incorrectly because there are people who actually suffer from the problems and it just seems, well, rude...

Oberon said:
My MC in my second novel has multiple personality disorder, it's central to everything. My son is schizophrenic, I have a schizophrenic cousin, I know what that is like, and it is definitely not multiple personality as most people believe. I think dissociative is closer.

I think the APA changed the name of multiple personality disorder to dissociative identity disorder. Well, in the DSM, at least. I'm not sure about everywhere else.

sanssouci · Aug 8, 2007

I have a character that develops PTSD from people constantly telling him he has PTSD.

His parents put him through a slew of different therapies and treatments to deal with issues regarding (what they assumed was) a traumatic experience, though he was totally fine to begin with.

benbradley · Aug 8, 2007

estermish said:
In my main WIP (which is a fantasy), the mc has what his society calls War-Syndrome, basically PTSD. In several other stories and wip's I have characters with severe psychological issues.

What are your thoughts about characters with issues such as schizophrenia and anxiety attacks, PTSD, MPD and other mental illnesses?

(Just thinking that this would be a interesting topic)

Azraelsbane said:
If my characters didn't have psychological disorders, they wouldn't be near as interesting.

I'm all for crazies. No one is normal anyway. We all just like to pretend.

I agree, we're all "imperfectly adjusted" to some extent or another, though issues such as schizophrenia and MPD are at the extremes. Actially, having one or more characters diagnosed or labeled as this-or-that can actually take away from the drama, and drop a character into the reader's stereotype of what a "depressed person" or (the dreaded, and not even an established psychological disorder) "codependent person" is. Just let characters be characters, and let the reader figure out who's crazy. Different readers may not always pick out the same crazy person, which can say more about the readers than the characters.

ZannaPerry · Aug 8, 2007

This is an interesting topic. In fact my villian was going to have psych problems which ultimately makes him kill but not realize what he is doing. Though, I have to say that I will put that idea of a story on the back burner.

benbradley · Aug 8, 2007

veinglory said:
I prefer they be realistic. I don't like stereotypes or lazy mistakes like mistaking schizophrenia for multiple personality. I really hate unrealistic 'psychologist' characters.

I've seen this a lot, and I once even thought myself that they were the same before I learned otherwise (I learned all this stuff more out of self-defense than anything else!).

One contribution to the confusion is surely The Who's "Quadrophrenia", a double-LP "rock opera" (apparently trying to duplicate their success with "Tommy") which has four "main themes" and is supposedly about someone with four personalities.

justpat · Aug 8, 2007

I like a good crazy character, as long as he/she is not over-the-top.

necia phoenix · Aug 8, 2007

benbradley said:
I agree, we're all "imperfectly adjusted" to some extent or another, though issues such as schizophrenia and MPD are at the extremes. Actially, having one or more characters diagnosed or labeled as this-or-that can actually take away from the drama, and drop a character into the reader's stereotype of what a "depressed person" or (the dreaded, and not even an established psychological disorder) "codependent person" is. Just let characters be characters, and let the reader figure out who's crazy. Different readers may not always pick out the same crazy person, which can say more about the readers than the characters.

With my stories (I'm not speaking for anyone else here) the character exhibits the symptoms but, due to it being fantasy, there is no 'diagnosis' per say. I want the reader to see what the character is like not come at it with an idea based on a diagnosis.

I had a cousin who was schizophrenic (RIP Steve) and my mother and grandmother are OCD

there was something else I was going to add but the train of though derailed before it pulled into the station

althrasher · Aug 8, 2007

This thread makes me think of Monk. Lovable, but a little off.

veinglory · Aug 8, 2007

Multiple did become dissociative in the DSMIV, but it is still heavily debated whether this one exists. There are more examples of it by far in literature than reality, it seems.

Esopha · Aug 8, 2007

I have one character with a serious addiction problem. I'm currently working to flesh it out a bit more and try to make it as realistic as possible. A MC of mine has a voice in his head, so he has a bit of a breakdown. Of course, this voice is because there's another entity living in his head.

veinglory · Aug 8, 2007

My new release has a character who hears the voice of his dead lover. But eventually I let that probably be real. In the current story I am writing I try to balance it more so the reader genuinely has trouble telling what is real or delusional.

necia phoenix · Aug 8, 2007

Esopha said:
A MC of mine has a voice in his head, so he has a bit of a breakdown. Of course, this voice is because there's another entity living in his head.

I have a character who shares his head with two gods and a ghost that is stuck with his armor. Inevitably he gets nuttier as he goes along.

I also have an alchoholic/drug addict tavern owner.

about the MPD, interesting I hadn't realized they changed it. My mother was one of those folks who got duped by a therapist who convinced her that she was MPD (mid 90's), you know that whole MPD bandwagon everyone jumped on? That made my teenage years fun[sarcasm] as she(the therapist) had everyone convinced that my mom had about 15 different personalities.

come to think of it that is probably why I write about characters who have these issues, I sorta understand them <g>.

Esopha · Aug 8, 2007

estermish said:
I have a character who shares his head with two gods and a ghost that is stuck with his armor. Inevitably he gets nuttier as he goes along.

I also have an alchoholic/drug addict tavern owner.

Heehee. Kevin has a demon stuck in his head. It gets out eventually (I don't know how yet) and tries to kill his cat. Kevin is not amused.

The character I mentioned before is my Fairy King, who has a physical addiction to fairy dust. I really want to make his problem tangible and real. Research, research...

Xx|e|ph|e|me|r|al|xX · Aug 8, 2007

Xx|I like teh crazies. As long as it's done well/correctly. I don't particularly like it when it's pretty much making fun of serious disorders.

I wrote a short story for a contest not too long ago...the contest prompt was about "dreams" and the dream world vs. reality and whatnot. (it was on Gaia a couple of months ago, and we still don't have results. XD) It was about this guy who, at the age of seven or so, was "diagnosed" with some unknown/rare/whatever degenerative disease. It kind of rotted him from the inside out. He lost his sight, his hearing, most of his feeling, sense of smell, his voice, and his sanity. When he was about seven or eight, he witnessed a gruesome gang murder of a little girl his age, and as he looses it, he keeps reliving it in dreams. Finally the disease kills him. It's kind of sad, but absolutely fun to write!

In my main story, though, everyone's got some sort of psychological trauma. Angel grew up in the "ghetto" part of London, in poverty with arguing and abusive parents, etc. He's borderline-retarded, and that's a problem in and of itself, but the issues he's developed from it are worse. He's incredibly complex. Symphony and Aelfric are losing it for about the same reasons--as vampyres, they're minds are dead, in a sense. They can't grow, change, anything. Drives 'em nuts. Alfie can't get over the fact that he can no longer get in touch with his religion like he used to, and is terrified that God's already forsaken him. Symphony falls victim to Angel's issues. Michel had fallen victim to Angel's father's issues. None of them are "diagnosed" insane, but they're messed up in some way. Aren't we all? With Angel and Michel (especially Angel), it's really not too much of an extreme, even.

I just like exploring all those facets...like a psychological/logical/analytical breakdown. XD|xX

JohnDavidPaxton · Aug 8, 2007

I've never liked a hero who didn't have some kind of major phobia/disorder/illness.

Novelhistorian · Aug 8, 2007

Show me someone who's perfectly well adjusted, and I'll show you a boring character. I'm not sure I've met anyone who's got no psychological tics. But as people have been saying, psychotics and sociopaths are at the extreme. Unless the story depends on it, I wouldn't go into the DSM or start throwing diagnoses around, because the chances of making a mistake are good, and the chances of evoking a stereotypical response even better. But I say this as someone who's married to a clinical psychologist, who can tell me what sounds plausible. If I show her my work, I'd better have all the motivations plausible, or she'll shoot the ms. full of holes--metaphorically, of course. She's only partly nutty.

JoNightshade · Aug 8, 2007

Everyone's got their quirks. Someone said it often says more about the reader than it does about the character depending on who the reader picks out as "crazy." I agree. One of my characters is extremely paranoid. Is he crazy? No, because people really have tried to kill him for most of his adult life, and being paranoid was justified. Now he's old and nobody's after him, and it's not so justified, but... does the situation change make him crazy?

julief · Aug 8, 2007

my characters are more V code types than full out disorders. Although the new MC is definitely depressed.

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