DPP: Tigger on the Couch

[lizziec]

Today's DPP is inspired by a book I have called "Tigger on the Couch: The neuroses, psychoses, disorders and maladies of our favourite childhood characters".

In it the author puts forward diagnoses of various characters from childhood books. These include Tigger (ADHD), Pollyanna (in denial), Peter Rabbit (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) and The Wicked Witch of the West (Explosive Personality Disorder).

This book has inspired me to ask - what neuroses, psychoses, disorders and maladies do pilots, or those they have close relationships with, have? What is your pet theory? Can you offer any evidence?

I think that Kara has some PTSD in the mix, certainly after New Caprica, and (possibly an unpopular opinion) have never had a problem believing that Lee is depressed at points - I really see it at the start of S3. Bill also clearly has some issues that cause the behaviours we see from him throughout the series.

As with yesterday, feel free to post your own theories, links to fic or meta or write some fic of your own :)


For anyone who missed it, yesterday's DPP on Counter-Factual Pilots is here.

Comments

[poppypickle.livejournal.com]

In it the author puts forward diagnoses of various characters from childhood books. These include Tigger (ADHD), Pollyanna (in denial), Peter Rabbit (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) and The Wicked Witch of the West (Explosive Personality Disorder).

This sounds both awesome and crazy. So crazy awesome?

As for our pilots, I think Kara obviously has abused child syndrome...

[rachelmack.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think Kara totes as an attachment disorder, at the very least.

I'd agree that Lee suffered from depression, but really, I think the entire fleet probably suffered bouts of it from one time or another - I mean, the entire human race was wiped out, and they were flying around space looking for a planet that may or may not exist.

[lizziec]

Oh, I think Kara totes as an attachment disorder, at the very least.

I think that may help explain the way she treats her relationships within the series. We talked a bit yesterday here about Kara's running away from Lee in UB, but I think running away and running back (or attempting to push away and then pull people back) is something she does to a number of people throughout the series. I'm not sure I can think of a relationship in the series that she managed to maintain as consistently good for the entire four series.

I'd agree that Lee suffered from depression, but really, I think the entire fleet probably suffered bouts of it from one time or another - I mean, the entire human race was wiped out, and they were flying around space looking for a planet that may or may not exist.

I suppose so, but it was Lee's I really connected with and felt true to me. I think to that I'm bringing my own baggage (in that my depression - which I've had on and off since 2004 - follows a fairly similar pattern to Lee's in the early s3).

[lizziec]

I think it's crazy awesome. I especially like the idea of Pollyanna being in denial ;) There's a section on the Hundred Acre Wood, one on Disney, one on Alice in Wonderland, one on Peter Pan and one full of miscellaneous entries. It certainly makes you look at some characters a different way.

I think Kara obviously has abused child syndrome

That certainly wouldn't surprise me. There must be huge mental scars from her upbringing. I'm fairly sure that Kara herself has several different kinds of... not mental illness exactly, but tics and neuroses etc that can be traced to all the stuff she's been through, even just in the series.

[shinyfab.livejournal.com]

That book sounds awesome. I'd never thought of any childhood characters that way. Totally fascinating.

I would say Kara absolutely had PTSD, even before Caprica and likely a result of childhood abuse and probably coupled with abused child syndrome.

Now that you mention it, Lee definitely seems to go through bouts of depression. His spacewalk and thoughts of suicide wouldn't be out of nowhere. His eating binge I would say is a pretty good sign too. Huh.

Boy. That works well doesn't it? Put all their psychoses in a room and see how long it takes to explode. yikes.

[lizziec]

That book sounds awesome. I'd never thought of any childhood characters that way. Totally fascinating.

I know, right? :D Some are a bit out there, but some make total sense when you start to think about it :)

Boy. That works well doesn't it? Put all their psychoses in a room and see how long it takes to explode. yikes.

I'm pretty sure it's the driving force behind a great many of the plots :)

[anastashial.livejournal.com]

I'm another who has no problem seeing depression as something specifically affecting Lee. He's clearly in a PTSD state when he has the Olympic Carrier flashback.

[lizziec]

He's clearly in a PTSD state when he has the Olympic Carrier flashback.

Somehow I'd managed to completely blank that out, but yes, I think you're right - they even set it up with the flashbacks and everything at the start of the next epi... and then they show Bill being not terribly fatherly in his response to Lee (wasn't it pretty much "suck it up?") but Laura offering a lovely moment of quiet reflection and mutual support (though I disagree with her that the Olympic Carrier could be viewed as a mistake because given the facts in the heat of the moment was there really any other choice?)

Gah, overused parentheses again. Apparently that's my neurosis...

[anastashial.livejournal.com]

Not only was it "suck it up" then, it was "suck it up" when Kara died.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

It's hardly a controversial statement to say that Lee did suffer from depression esp. around the time of his near-suicide and also in early S3 - both times in which he went a bit off the deep end with behaviour you wouldn't think of as typical for him (going to a hooker, giving up and eating himself into a state when Kara left him for Sam).

And both he and Kara show signs of PTSD, too. I don't doubt that that's pretty common among the Fleet and all its officers, but Kara seems to have it worst after New Caprica and around the time of Maelstrom. And that's not even considering the way her abusive childhood messed her up.