Characters with Psychological issues

[necia phoenix]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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...

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]

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]

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)

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]

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]

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]

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

[necia phoenix]

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 o.O

[althrasher]

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

[veinglory]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[Novelhistorian]

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]

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]

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

[lfraser]

All of my characters are bent in some way. So far I've had an alcoholic, a druggie, an amnesiac....and they're all obsessed about something. That's what drives them, and the stories are really about those obsessions.

[DancingMaenid]

I've had two protagonists who had diagnosable disorders. One was schizophrenic and the other suffered from panic attacks. Right now, I'm developing one who has another personality, though it's actually an incorporeal being that has coexisted with him but now wants to take over his body. Though that's still in the early planning phase.

I think the main thing is not to rely on cliches and really know what you're talking about. Whenever my character has some sort of ailment, be it physical or psychological, I try to do as much research as I need to in order to be able to write it as convincingly as I can, and feel relatively comfortable writing it.

[Red Robin]

In my main WIP (which is a fantasy), the mc has what his society calls War-Syndrome, basically PTSD.


That's a cool idea. I've never stopped to consider whether or not medieval soldiers would ever develop PTSD, even though that sort of thing IS my field of interest in history (social history/violence). I'm going to have to look into it.

Of course, a fantasy world is not necessarily a medieval world. Does your character start to crumble after being exposed to magic, or just the day to day wear of campaigning?

[necia phoenix]

That's a cool idea. I've never stopped to consider whether or not medieval soldiers would ever develop PTSD, even though that sort of thing IS my field of interest in history (social history/violence). I'm going to have to look into it.

Of course, a fantasy world is not necessarily a medieval world. Does your character start to crumble after being exposed to magic, or just the day to day wear of campaigning?


He serves for four or five years in a border skirmish which becomes a full blown invasion. He witnesses the violent deaths of his lover and two best friends (that in itself is a whole quarky thing as his lover was also his best friend's lover...headache central), is field promoted to Commanding officer, witnesses several cities falling to the enemy and all the death and carnage involved. Magic, though used, is limited by the frailty of the mages.

In my WIP he is dealing with the aftereffects of this, certain smells (bonfire, smoke) or sounds (children laughing or crying) sends him into flashbacks. The healers have a potion, a sort of anti-depressant sorta stuff which he is taking but it doesn't seem to help much. He is also carrying the guilt thing. He is a fun character, honestly. :)

[Prawn]

I would suggest reading Shutter Island by Lehane. It is set in an insane asylum and his thumbnail sketches of the inmates are breathtaking.
P

[NeuroFizz]

Psychological suspense is a subgenre that can fit in a number of major categories including mainstream, horror, paranormal, mystery/suspense and fantasy (just to mention a few).

Interesting characters are usually ones who have personality quirks. These may not be significant enough to be considered a mental disorder, though. If a character is being written with a specific disorder, the author should be careful about his/her research. The good thing--most mental disorders don't have such cut-and-dried symptoms that they severely constrain the behavioral characterization of fictional players. I'd like to add, as a personal view, that any personality quirk or psychological condition should be used by the author to help explain the character's behavior, not to excuse it. In other words, the character's behavior should be develped to show the quirk/disorder, so that the behavior points to the disorder, not the other way around.

About Dissociative Identity Disorder, as I understand it, actual cases are rare and some experts believe they are sometimes (frequently?) therapy induced.

[Spiny Norman]

I guess my character doesn't have anything medically specific. He doesn't have any sort of syndrome or disorder, as NeuroFizz said above. He just has plain old depression. And confusion. Normal stuff.

[Sassee]

Mine doesn't have anything major like OCD or PTSD, but she does have other problems. She drinks when she's stressed, has almost no backbone, tends to move from one abusive relationship to the other... but she's still got courage in there somewhere, and learns to fight for herself eventually.'

I'm in agreement with others - well-adjusted, nearly flawless characters aren't nearly as interesting :)

[NeuroFizz]

I'm in agreement with others - well-adjusted, nearly flawless characters aren't nearly as interesting
But they can be, if put in situations that challenge their well-adjusted, nearly flawless characters. This is when writing can get really good, when good characters are challenged to where they have to act in a way that may be very uncharacteristic for them. In other words, there really aren't any personality "types" a writer should avoid, or favor. How well the character plays out is all in the story, and the challenges that come from it.

[Oberon]

quote: 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.

Reenkam & Veinglory: You're right, it was changed to DID, not that it makes any difference. At no time in my novel do I mention the disorder by name, or even talk about it as such. It's all about how the MC deals with it and in some instances may be imagining characters. According to abnormal psychiatrist's research, some with the disorder can invent an unlimited number of characters, hard to believe, and it is really hard to know what is actually going on. This young woman is a highly talented actor who has been pretending to be different people, for fun, all her life, but she has only one character who can act without her knowledge. The only questionable thing I did was to have both of them hallucinate another character, who acts as a kind of go-between. Having fun with psychology! Why not?

[Sassee]

But they can be, if put in situations that challenge their well-adjusted, nearly flawless characters. This is when writing can get really good, when good characters are challenged to where they have to act in a way that may be very uncharacteristic for them. In other words, there really aren't any personality "types" a writer should avoid, or favor. How well the character plays out is all in the story, and the challenges that come from it.

This is true... :)

[HourglassMemory]

Were it not for the eccentric, megalomaniacal secondary character in my story...I wouldn't have story.

[Lisamer]

Interesting. I got a rejection by a publisher who liked my writing style but said that readers don't want to read about PTSD- they want to read about women who get the guy, get the job and save the world,

Fortunately, the piece was accepted elsewhere. ;)

[blacbird]

Who doesn't have a psychological issue or two?

caw

[farfromfearless]

I haven't had much experience with PTSD or anything you might want to created a fancy accronym for, but I do feel that characters should have flaws, a fatal flaw, an Achilles Heel of some form or another. If anything, it's a trait that allows readers to identify with them.

[Shadow_Ferret]

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

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.
I disagree with these completely. I don't think someone needs to have any sort of phobia/disorder/illness, etc. to be interesting. If you can't think of a way to make a character interesting without making them maladjusted, well, I don't know, that seems like a crutch.

[lfraser]

I don't think a character has to have major problems to be interesting, but everyone has something inside them that drives them, even if they don't recognise it as such. It's those hidden drives that most interest me in a character.

[Spiny Norman]

Maybe this explains why Superman is so boring to read about?

[lfraser]

Maybe this explains why Superman is so boring to read about?

No inner secrets? No secret lusts? No family tragedy in his past?

[Inkdaub]

We seem to be talking about two different things. On the one hand we have a few 'quirks' or some 'issues' and on the other we have mental illness. They are not the same thing.

As for my writing, I use both without even thinking about it. Write what you know as the man said.

[ChimeraCreative]

OCDs, fixations, irrational fears, depression, multiple personalities, chaotic destructive nature, amnesia, possession... it's all good stuff to inflict on your characters.

For the love of Patron Saints of Writing... please be consistent with your characters afflictions. It makes the muses weep when folks only trot out the illness/afflictions when they're plot essential. Your characters still have the issues in the lulls and dips of your stories.

-An

[Willowmound]

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)

I think all my characters have psychological issues. Heck, I think everyone I know has psychological issues. It's a matter of degree, really.

[AnneMarble]

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)

Hurray for crazy characters! :hooray:

Of course, that said, It DependsTM. There are some writers who make their character crazy in a way that doesn't add to the book. Well phhhbbbt on that.

In my current WIP, one of my heroes has PTST (only they don't have a name for it that I know of as it's a fantasy story). He ends up accidentally killing the hero because of it. Whoopsie. :o Talk about a dark moment. :o

[Atlantis]

I have a character in my urban fantasy book who suffers from a spilt personality disorder. His second personality, called Iapetus, remains dormant inside him for almost his whole life, then when he turns seventeen it starts to "rise up" and seize control of him for short periods. When this happens, his hair and eyes turn bright white, and he becomes nuts. When Iapetus disapears, his hair and eyes turn back to normal. It's been fun writing about this side of my character. Dylan certainly does not suffer from the "average" spilt personality disorder. His other side, while apart of him, exists on another level as a seperate entity, who can see out of his eyes and hear everything going on around him when he is not in control. In essence, they are two beings in the same body, seperate yet one apart of the same whole, like ying and yang, darkness and the light, that sort of thing. I love writing about characters with mental problems. I think it makes them more interesting. Zeus, my villian, is a border-line psycho. He'll have moments when he is cruel, calculating and in control, then he'll snap and begin talking to himself, or ranting out loud. Awesome character. Had a lot of fun him.