French Psychiatrist Uses Star Wars To Increase Awareness Of Boderline Personality Disorder
Two French researchers have diagnosed Darth Vader as having Borderline Personality Disorder, according to a letter scheduled for publication in the journal Psychiatry Research.
Psychiatrist Eric Bui of Toulouse University Hospital in France says that understanding the fictional Star Wars villain may increase awareness of Borderline Personality Disorder or BPD. He and Rachel Rodgers, researcher at the French Center for Studies in Applied Psychology, have used Darth Vader as an example to help medical students understand and identify the disorder. Critics say the comparison is unfair. While those with BPD may be hard to live with, most are not homicidal megalomaniacs bent on killing their children.
In the movies “Revenge of the Sith” and “Attack of the Clones”, Anakin Skywalker – the future Darth Vader — displays six of nine diagnostic criteria for the personality disorder. His is impulsive and has anger management issues. He fluctuates between idealizing associates and mentors, and devaluing them.
Anakin Skywalker has abandonment issues, particularly after the murder of his mother. He betrays the other Jedi Knights out of a fear of losing his beloved wife, Padme Amidala, who is pregnant with their child, Luke Skywalker.
Skywalker obviously has identity issues, eventually changing his name to Darth Vader in a move the researchers characterize as the ultimate in identity disturbance.
French psychiatrist Bui identifies two dissociative episodes in the movies, when Anakin tries to separate himself from emotionally stressful events. One occurs immediately after Skywalker slaughters a tribe of Tuskens who have killed his mother. The second occurs after he slays the young Jedi, as he voices paranoid delusions about Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Dr. Bui is confident that with proper treatment including cognitive therapy, Anakin Skywalker could have overcome his psychological problems. Even under the revised DSM-V, Skywalker would qualify as a borderline type personality. “From what we know as the future DSM-V, Anakin is a ‘good’ to ‘very good’ match to the future BPD,” Dr. Bui said in an interview with LifeScience.
Although personality disorders are not as dramatic as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, they are permanent and pervasive. While there is no cure for a personality disorder, with enough therapy an individual with BPD can learn to modify his or her behavior so it is not destructive to others.
By Joni Holderman, [email protected], contributing reporter for Mental Health News.