Mental Illness in ASoIaF

[ARYa_Nym]

The only routines Arya has is her list.She doesn't fit many of the symptoms according to WebMD:

Symptoms of OCD vary with each person and include the following:²

Obsessive thoughts

• Fear of dirt or germs or overconcern about body smells/secretions or the proper functioning of the body
  
• Overconcern with order, neatness, and exactness
  
• Fear of thinking bad thoughts or doing something embarrassing
  
• Constantly thinking of certain sounds, words, or numbers, or a preoccupation with counting or checking
  
• Constant need for approval or the need to apologize
  
• Fear that something terrible will happen or fear of harming yourself or someone else
  

Compulsive behaviors

• Frequently washing hands, showering, or brushing teeth or the overuse of items to hide body smells
  
• Constantly cleaning, straightening, and ordering certain objects
  
• Repeatedly checking zippers and buttons on clothing
  
• Checking lights, appliances, or doors again and again to be sure they are turned off or closed
  
• Repeating certain physical activities, such as sitting down and getting up from a chair
  
• Hoarding objects, such as newspapers
  
• Asking the same question or saying the same thing over and over
  
• Avoiding public places or taking extreme measures to prevent harm to yourself or others
  
• Religious rituals, such as constant silent praying
  

It is common for children with OCD to need to repeat actions until they feel "just right," such as going back and forth through a door, going up and down stairs, touching things with their right hand and then their left (symmetrical touch), or rereading or rewriting school assignments. Children with OCD may not want to go to school or may be afraid to leave someone they trust.

http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/tc/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd-symptoms

[Jon's Queen Consort]

from psychology wikia

There is a psychology wikia? Why I didn't knew this? Thank you!

[Gandalf the Grey]

Why do people think that gutting a cat is the symptom of a mental illness? It hints at a lack of empathy and sadistic tendencies, but in itself those are not mental illnesses.

People are handing out diagnoses left and right and little of them are plausible. How about reading this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICD-10-CM

Torturing animals at a young age is a pretty big indicator of conduct disorder.

http://en.wikipedia....onduct_disorder

I don't believe that many of these diagnoses are correct at all. However Joffrey has shown pretty strong signs of the symptoms of conduct disorder.

EDIT: A lack of empathy and sadistic tendencies are not mental illnesses but are symptoms. They are typically complement certain disorders. And a lot of people that demonstrate them to the extreme quite possibly suffer from them.

Aspergers in Stannis? Based on what? The guy is quite perceptive and quite articulated.

Now, severe megalomania, now we are talking business.

No, not megalomaniac. He has a strong sense of entitlement, but that is different. At times he questions and is sceptical of Melisandre. Him wanting the throne doesn't come from the belief that he is a messiah/hero, but strong belief in his rigid system of justice and law.

I'm not saying it's likely that he has Asperger's (they can be very articulate), since he is quite perceptive. He still has a lot of the features like pedantic conversation, some lack of empathy, and he is still pretty bad with a lot of social stuff (why not many people actually like him). Of course, it isn't GRRM's intention for us to really think of him this way, but he certainly shows some signs of Aspergers.

I'm sure people less lazy than me can find loads of textual references.

[LuisDantas]

I just don't see hints of that strong belief in justice and law in Stannis' parts in the books. It is a fan-made legend, far as I can tell.

Heck, he makes a point of reminding the Night's Watch that they should feel free to circunvent the intent of the law and give him the Gift.

[Jon's Queen Consort]

Torturing animals at a young age is a pretty big indicator of conduct disorder.

http://en.wikipedia....onduct_disorder

Torturing animals is also a part of the Macdonald triad (also known as the triad of sociopathy)

The triad links animal cruelty, obsession with fire setting, and persistent bedwetting past the age of five to violent behaviors, particularly homicidal behavior.

by http://en.wikipedia....Macdonald_triad (the quote is copy paste from wikipedia)

[Dondarria]

"

(And Robin is still probably epileptic)"

He's epileptic, yes, but epilepsy is not a mental illness.

[Tetrarch42]

-Robin might suffer from a conversion disorder, and not epilepsy. Though this might be as tretch. His fits seems as much a function of emotional stress as of physiological stress. However, conversion disorder tends to occur and dissapear suddenly.

-Rhaeger might have major depressive disorder, or dysthmic disordr. Or even a combination of both, potentially with the melancholic classifier.

-Sandor seems like he has phobic disorder for fire, potentially PTSD. I can't recall whether he had involuntary flashbacks of his being burned.

-Gregor Clegane is mentioned to drink copious amounts of milk of the poppy, so that's an Opiod-related disorder right there. He might also anti-social personality disorder(psychopathic) in addition to intermittent explosive disorder.

-The Mad King Aerys has pyromania and probably pyrophilia. Also likely has paranoid personality disorder as well as a narcissisistic personality disorder. Really, there's quite a few things he could meet diagnostic criteria for.

The people of ASOIAF have some serious issues.

[Stormcatcher]

Lysa definitely suffers from paranoia, I'd say.

[A Bong of Ice and Fire]

We've seen many hints of it throughout the books:

Rhaegar for example was said to have fits of melacholy. Did he have depression? Do we see a bit of it in Jon?

Joffery, Ramsay, Gregor, etc - they all have sociopathic tendencies. Even Arya shows some signs.

Sandor is an obvious candidate for PTSD.

Any other observations? More to add?

Joffrey, Ramsay, & Gregor are psycopaths, not sociopaths. Roose Bolton, though, is a sociopath. (This is my medical diagnosis. I am not a doctor, but once I saw one on TV.)

Gregor also suffers from severe migraine or cluster headaches.

[Stormcatcher]

Joffrey, Ramsay, & Gregor are psycopaths, not sociopaths. Roose Bolton, though, is a sociopath. (This is my medical diagnosis. I am not a doctor, but once I saw one on TV.)

Gregor also suffers from severe migraine or cluster headaches.

Do you mind explaining the difference to me? Whenever I've read something about it before, it tends to be a very convoluted explanation.

[Lady Faceless]

Do you mind explaining the difference to me? Whenever I've read something about it before, it tends to be a very convoluted explanation.

I just looked it up; psychopaths are impulsive and sociopaths are calculated.

[A Bong of Ice and Fire]

Do you mind explaining the difference to me? Whenever I've read something about it before, it tends to be a very convoluted explanation.

Well, I think in general a psycopath is someone who is not in good touch with reality and can act violentally.

A sociopath is someone that lacks empathy for others, to a severe degree. This can be a cold, calculating, emotionless person that sees others as just tools or obstacles. A sociopath can be quite scary & dangerous, as they are not restrained by traditional norms of behavior.

This differs from a psycopath, who is more just a crazy person with violent tendencies.

Now some expert can rip me a new one for my simplistic, ignorant understanding of these conditions!

[Teal'c]

Viserys = Asshole

:rofl: Have you got a DSM IV code for that?

[Teal'c]

Stannis - Social anxiety/mild aspergers syndrome?

Mild? The Sheldon Cooper of Westeros?

[Lothar Imbel]

Well I say mild.

he's of normal/above average intelligence. Hardly the sheldonof westeros

thgat's some unamerd maester and his roomates Howyrd, Lenored/random guy from Qarth.

cant froget their romance with.. Penny

oh SHIIIIIIIITTTTT

[Gandalf the Grey]

"

Research suggests that, “psychopaths are a stable proportion of any population, can be from any segment of society, may constitute a distinct taxonomical class forged by frequency-dependent natural selection, and that the muting of the social emotions is the proximate mechanism that enables psychopaths to pursue their self-centered goals without felling the pangs of guilt. Sociopaths are more the products of adverse environmental experiences that affect autonomic nervous system and neurological development that may lead to physiological responses similar to those of psychopaths. Antisocial personality disorder is a legal/clinical label that may be applied to both psychopaths and sociopaths” (Walsh & Wu, 2008)."

So that seems to say that someone is born a psychopath, but becomes a sociopath.

http://blogs.psychcentral.com/forensic-focus/2010/07/sociopathy-vs-psychopathy/

Roose Bolton is a ruthless man, but I don't think he has a mental disorder.

[courser]

I don't know if anyone commented on this but I would also think that repetative blows to the head causing severe concussions would also have an impact on behaviour. Football players and wrestlers who have had repetative concussions have developed behavioural issues as they aged... to the point that they kill their families and themselves.

Often these individuals at the end of their lives have parkinson's like symptoms but they also complain of:

Severe headaches

Behavioural changes (i.e. impulse control issues/anger control issues)

Life as a squire would have you receiving constant blows to the head, then as a knight both in tournaments and on the battle field again there would be traumatic head injuries.

While some of the characters most likely have latent violent tendancies (or perhaps not so latent...Gregor I'm looking at you) this soft tissue damage to their brains and the resulting long term damage to various control centres would probably go a long way in explaining adult behaviours.

I also wonder if one lived in an era of normalized violence would one become immune to the psychological effects?

[jarl the climber]

I don't know if anyone commented on this but I would also think that repetative blows to the head causing severe concussions would also have an impact on behaviour. Football players and wrestlers who have had repetative concussions have developed behavioural issues as they aged... to the point that they kill their families and themselves.

Often these individuals at the end of their lives have parkinson's like symptoms but they also complain of:

Severe headaches

Behavioural changes (i.e. impulse control issues/anger control issues)

Life as a squire would have you receiving constant blows to the head, then as a knight both in tournaments and on the battle field again there would be traumatic head injuries.

While some of the characters most likely have latent violent tendancies (or perhaps not so latent...Gregor I'm looking at you) this soft tissue damage to their brains and the resulting long term damage to various control centres would probably go a long way in explaining adult behaviours.

I also wonder if one lived in an era of normalized violence would one become immune to the psychological effects?

Another to keep in mind, beyond the collision type injuries you would also have the risk of heat stroke from wearing armor in the summer and the long term damage it would cause to the knees, back and shoulders and the lack of medical procedures to fix any of these.

People in this world live in a messier world.If they want sausage, they slaughter and butcher a pig, if they want fish, they catch one and clean it. If a family member dies the average person has to bury and prepare the corpse. So you would see a lot more of blood and death to begin with. Warfare is up close and personal for the most part, I guess you would just have to deal with it. I suppose during this current war its harder on the youngsters, who were raised in a peaceful environment til King Robert died.

[LuisDantas]

Do you really think Westerosi are generally less mentally healthy than our own societies?

I would guess otherwise. For one thing, unhealthy people tend to die sooner rather than later in Westeros, with all the opportunity for actually killing oneself during a crisis of some sort. For another, they are generally more in touch with their own goals and purposes - and far less reliant on sleep medicine and other legal and illegal drugs, I would assume.

[y ddraig]

Ned's frequent intrusive thoughts of Lyanna/Rhaegar/Rhaenys/Aegon scream PTSD to me.

Honestly, though, which character in ASOIAF couldn't be (internet-)diagnosed with a mental illness? Even Rickon shows signs of an antisocial disorder.

Varys has penis envy.