#oh this person has a cluster B disorder because they are bad

[disabledunitypunk]

CW for uncensored references to ableist and transphobic slurs

"Haha look at the stupid braindead disabled people that think stupid and crazy and paranoid and idiot are slurs" really isn't the take you think it is.

"Hahaha, I, a person largely privileged and unaffected by slurs referring specifically to lack of sanity or intelligence and/or presence of paranoia - or someone who has internalizes ableism about these things, think you're insane and unintelligent and hysterical for thinking insults based around an inherently disabling part of your identity are fine, actually."

That's what you're saying.

Call yourself crazy, stupid, paranoid, whatever. I truly don't even care that much if you're using it for a form of neurodivergence less typically directly affected by sanism.

But my gods, you are so cruel and ignorant. It doesn't actually MATTER what you think is a slur, when other people more affected than you and more aware of how it affects given groups say it is.

Y'all sound like the trans people insisting that "cuntboy" and "zippertits" aren't slurs. Whether you've never been called that because of your agab, or you have and you're simply an assimilationist who doesn't care about other less privileged people in your subset of the community, it doesn't matter. You don't get to decide for everyone that a derogatory word based on innate identity isn't a slur.

One of the most basic ways ableism functions is by framing disabled people as "overreacting" and "hysterical" about our own oppression. You contributing to and perpetuating that does not make you the "detached rational intellectual" that you seem to think you are.

Consider why you consider intelligence to be good and lack of intelligence to be bad, when you can no more change your level of intelligence than the amount of functionality of limbs you have. You either have the capacity to learn, process, or retain information well, or you don't. Consider that a significant deviation from the average, is as much a disability as a significant deviation in limb functionality or number.

Consider when you say "oh, haha I do have paranoid schizophrenia/PPD/etc but I don't find the word paranoid to be a slur" that you've either been lucky not to have had it used against you violently and directly as such, or have written off the violence you have faced as justified due to your own internalized ableism.

Consider that when you say "oh this is a bunch of terminally online discourse, these people have no idea what real oppression is like" that language shapes and is shaped by very real oppression. That's why the conversation is not "don't ever use these words" but "consider what your meaning and purpose is when you do".

(I've even seen people who are against some slurs that affect people with cluster B disorders say this shit. How you can recognize "narcissist" and "sociopath/psychopath" as slurs and not "stupid/crazy/insane/paranoid/hysterical", I'll never understand.)

The conflation of unintelligence and insanity with immorality and even dangerousness, the dehumanization of people with intellectual disabilities and mad people, the connotations of disdain and disgust attached to words like "stupid" - these are all used to further maintain and justify the subjugation of disabled people.

After all, if you can convince people that we are lesser; that we need it for our own protection and the protection of good, sane, intelligent people; that we deserve it; all by making our very identities into an insult, why wouldn't people who benefit from oppressive systems do so?

You've won the battle on public opinion before it's even begun.

But even beyond that, maybe actually think about the damage it does to have your innate and marginalized identity treated as an inherently bad thing. Some of the people I've seen saying this shit should absolutely know better, because I KNOW they have diagnoses that are treated as such. Think about how, if your very existence was always treated as somewhere between a laughingstock and a plague, something that made you annoying at best and dangerous and/or incapable of making your own decisions at worst, how you'd feel.

Think about how you feel about people you think are "stupid" or "crazy" and imagine or remember how it feels when people treat YOU that way because of your disabilities.

More importantly, if that thought exercise doesn't help, stop it. Stop pulling the ladder up behind you. Stop throwing the most vulnerable people under the bus. Stop using intelligence and sanity as measures of worth and likeability. Stop using words based in other people's identities, or even your own, as insults.

Reclaim all you want. I'm firmly against any policing of reclamation.

But consider that reclaiming means treating a word/identity as neutral, empowering, or positive. And consider that reclamation only applies to the labels you use for yourself.

#slurs #uncensored slur usage #ableism #sanism #neuroableism

[npd-goro-akechi]

I see a lot of people yell about how narcissism =/= NPD to excuse the use of narcissistic as an insult/label for abusers.

And, to people who think that, do you seriously think those people who yell about narcissists and narc abuse are going to turn around and go "oh, not people with NPD though! 🥰🥰" No! The majority will not! When someone on the internet goes, "This person is a narcissist!" in response to someone being arrogant or egotistical, you think that same person is going to suddenly support pwNPD who are outwardly arrogant? Still no!

It doesn't matter that the two terms used to be separate, that the word narcissistic came before the diagnosis, because thats not how people use it currently. People use the two synonymously, to describe people with NPD, anyone who may show symptoms of NPD, or outright abusers - and if you dont see the problem with lumping all of those together I dont know what to tell you.

"You can be anxious and not have anxiety," "you can be depressed and not have depression." Yes, but there are a few things I want to add to that. Neither anxiety nor depression, (though they also both have their share of misinformation!), are not nearly as stigmatized as cluster b disorders. I'm sorry but I just do not buy that "that person is depressed/anxious" has the same connotations as "that person is a narcissist." Linking to the first paragraph, narcissist is almost soley used to refer to abusers, or people deemed to be "bad" due to arrogance and lack of empathy. I do not buy that you are arguing in good faith if you cannot see the difference in how these terms are used. (And many people do have complaints when people use depressed as a synonym for general sadness, or say "I have anxiety" for occasional feelings of anxiety.) And even if narcissism was just a stand-alone trait and used synonymously with egotism or arrogance - once again linking to the first point again - it's still used negatively and those people will still look at NPD negatively. And, like, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, you think people don't link the two together? When people hear narcissist, you think they won't think of NPD? That they'll see the two as completely separate things? C'mon. I'm sure there are more and better thought out arguments against this point because I remember thinking of some but can't remember anymore :(( so that's all on that for now.

I am a person with NPD. I am a narcissist. I am arrogant and egotistical and lack empathy and don't know how to form emotional connections with people. I am not an abuser. I am not a mustache-twirling villain planning how I'm going to "narcissistically abuse [my] next victim". I am literally just some guy, and I think that using the term narcissist as an insult and synonymously to arrogance, with society's current stance on pwNPD and personality disorders, only aids to stigmatization.

#i know there are pwNPD that dont mind and that is ok #i do understand #i just disagree lol #sorry that was long ive just seen a few things on this topic recently and needed to sort my thoughts #because what is tumblr if not an online diary really #⁠actually npd #npd #npd safe #⁠actually cluster b #⁠actually narcissistic #npd vent #cluster b safe #narcissistic personality disorder #npd things #narcissist #narcissism

[olderthannetfic]

in response to "not allowed to name your abuse in polite company" anon

wow okay yeah well here we go. I'm a psychology major, and have been studying psychology for years, and it drives me mental how easily people eat up this Bad Person Disease wank.

I was raised in an abusive environment myself and it took me over two decades to escape. In that in an effort to show support multiple friends went ham on the armchair diagnosing of my abusers, what with their NPD labels and their BPD speculations... mostly it was cluster B labels.

Fast forward to when I'm finally in therapy and dealing with my trauma and guess what. My therapist notices that I'm really struggling with xyz issues and diagnoses me with the Dreaded Bad Person Disease! Womp womp. As it turns out, diagnoses exist to Help the Person the Diagnosis Belongs To, NOT as a handy tool for people to label people they don't like. Whodafuckin thunk.

There is a damn good reason why it is inadvisable to go around slapping labels onto other people when you're not their therapist. Mostly it's because no matter how close you are to that person, even if you live with them, you are not them! You do not live in their head! So unless you are a trained professional that that person came to, voluntarily, seeking help, you can't actually know if that person has xyz mental health issue! You can't just slap the NPD or BPD or whatever label you want on all the bad people you meet and then decide that Everyone With This Label Must Be an Asshole Because I Have Decided That Every Asshole I Meet Belongs to This Label that's not! how any! of this! works! It's ableist because it makes it very hard for people who do have this disorder, whose lives are negatively affected by this disorder, to seek help. Backtracking to me sitting with my therapist first processing that Oh Fuck Does This Mean I'm a Monster? That fucking sucked. I hated myself, I felt that it was hopeless, I was terrified that if people found out they'd shun me, or try to harm me.

What also sucks? I'm not a bad person! Shitty things happened to me in the past that altered my brain chemistry and now makes it extremely difficult to process the world in a healthy way. How is that my fault? I have no control over that, all I can do is control my actions and learn to reframe my thoughts. Yes, it's to protect others from potentially harmful behaviour on my part, but also it's to protect me from myself, from this overwhelming feeling of despair and shame and frustration and anger, at the world, at others, at myself for being angry in the first place- because my god, that anger, it is exhausting, especially when you know that what you feel, how you see the world, is "wrong" and "bad". After a while it's hard not to conflate "wrong" thoughts with just... being wrong. And on top of all that internal struggle I still need to worry about whether or not I'll receive proper support, both from my friends and also from medical professionals...That is what this "narcissistic abuse" fuckery does and that is why it is disgusting for victims- fellow victims! to go about perpetuating this term. Everyone's a mental health advocate until it comes to us with the "ugly" mental health issues. Then it's dead silence. I get it. OK? I was also an abuse victim. I've had some truly horrible and disgusting things done to me that will probably keep me in therapy for the rest of my life. It's so comforting, isn't it, to be able to draw that line in the sand and say I am Here and you are There, the reason why you hurt me is because you are a monster, there is no way I could ever be you. We are nothing alike.

But guess what? That's not true. There's no line! Tell me now, truly. What is the difference between "narcissistic abuse" and "just regular abuse"? It's not the self-centeredness. Abusers are self-centered, that's what makes them abusers. It's not the lack of compassion. Again, lack of compassion is what makes abusers what they are. What, then? The lying, the gaslighting, the threats? All of it is abuse. There is nothing- no significant, distinguishable factor that warrants the specification of "narcissistic abuse".

To be frank, I am tired- so very tired. of people making excuses for abusers. because that is all that they are- excuses. Abusers are not monsters, nor demons, not the boogeymen that hunt in the night. They are human, same as the rest of us, and they choose to harm when they could have sought help, redirected their pain and anger, done anything else. So hold abusers accountable for their actions, their choices, and leave us struggling with trauma and mental illness out of it. For fuck's sake.

You do not need a special fancy label to highlight how awful your trauma was. You certainly do not need to scapegoat a whole group of mentally ill people in order to achieve the support and healing that you deserve. The only thing that separates Those Who Abuse and Those Who Do Not Abuse is a Choice. Kindness and Cruelty, neither one is inherent. It. is. a. choice. God. I'm tired.

--

[renthony]

i want to chime in as another person- my mind was changed on NPD years ago but it was only because of like, real human people talking about their actual experiences that helped me realize it was not The Evil Disorder (TM) in the same way that I realized ASPD wasn't THe Evil Disorder (TM). I guess I was maybe more likely to realize something was up because i also hit a bunch of the diagnostic criteria for it but like, when literally all you hear is "narcissist just means someone is a self centered asshole" it's hard to realize that that's not actually what it is at all.

and they for real taught us that shit in school. we had a whole discussion about the myth of narcissus and how obviously that hurt ~everyone else~ more than narcissus, even though he literally starved to death and turned into a flower. it took me until i was like 17 and someone else went "hey thats kind of fucked up" before i was like oh yeah. that was probably not something he did for fun huh

idk where i'm going with this but i respect the hell out of you being willing to brave the internet goblins and be like "stop being an asshole about ppl with npd" because its gotta hurt way more when people are being an asshole about something you actually got. i made like one or two posts ages ago about the "narc abuse" ableist bullshit and i remember it being enough of a headache even when it completely and totally was not personal for me bc i do not have it

oh uh idk im sure you know this but for the people in the back sitting around, aspd is antisocial personality disorder and people with aspd are also not evil malicious serial killers in waiting or whatever the ~common interpretation~ is and people with aspd are just as capable of being good friends and normal ass people who don't run around cackling evilly or whatever and kicking puppies, just like anyone else. but buying into ableist mythology about people's diagnoses is absolutely going to cut you off from other regular people who are just living their lives and is also associated with higher rates of violence against other people :,) bigots kill

To be honest, a large chunk of the reason I get so vocal about NPD is because of how bad the ableism has wormed its way into my head. It's pretty much a daily occurrence that my housemates have to remind me that asking for help isn't manipulative and that I'm not being an evil little monster just for needing reassurance. Anti-cluster-B ableism curls up in your head and feeds on all your insecurities and struggles and it's so, so goddamn hard to deal with.

I can't ask for help getting out of bed on high pain days without getting paranoid that I've somehow manipulated my husband into being my reluctant servant. Doesn't matter how many times he reminds me that he's here because he loves me, and how helping me out of bed is an expression of that love. The internalized ableism still makes me so deeply fucking afraid that I'm the shitty one.

I have a daffodil tattooed on my head as part of my big floral scalp piece, and it's for Narcissus. Ovid's version of the story is the one that's always stuck with me the most, where Narcissus is tricked into his downfall by Nemesis. His worst crimes were "rejecting proposals from people who felt entitled to his body" and "being kind of an asshole, which is something that literally everyone is guilty of at times."

In the end, Narcissus didn't waste away because he was too self-absorbed for anything else, it happened because he was treated with trickery instead of compassion.

[masonshmason]

"I support mental health"

People with less controllable, highly visible mental illnesses that are notoriously demonized in media like cluster B disorders: Oh thank you, that means a lot to us

"Ew no not you though, you can't just blame your outbursts on your mental health disorder, you're a horrible person"

CW: BPD Feels and mental health stuff under the cut

Either you support mental health or you don't. Don't pick and choose because someone has a disorder that is defined by its difficulty in controlling emotional outbursts and difficulty relating to other people. When someone tells you they have one of these disorders, they're not "manipulating" or "gaslighting" you. They are trying to explain that they have a disorder that is specifically making it difficult to contain their emotions.

"But your illness isn't an excuse..."

No. Stop. Just fucking stop with that line of thinking. You think I don't know that? You think that I don't try my damnedest every fucking day to contain my fits of rage and random bouts of crying? It's called a DISORDER for a reason. It's tiring. It's difficult. It's full of people you care about make comments like "it's like walking on eggshells around you" like no shit dude that is literally why I have this diagnosis.

I have lost so many friendships, had people I cared about called me an asshole, and had people outright refuse to hear me out because my BPD showed itself. They just decided I was being an evil person just because and cut off contact entirely because I couldn't be "normal" for them. I have had people deliberately provoke an episode in me because it would make me look like the villain and not them, even after withdrawing from the situation so I could get my emotions under control. They fucking followed me to keep provoking my BPD because they knew it would cause me to escalate into instability.

If you only support the easily manageable, low visibility mental health disorders, then you don't really support mental health at all. We aren't evil. We are just people who are too fucking tired from containing our emotions so we wouldn't explode at work or school. And some people go out of their way to instigate us so they have a "bad guy" to point out as "problematic".

I'm so tired of being lonely because of this horrible disorder. I absolutely wish I could be normal. But I'm not. I can take my meds religiously and attend every therapy session and I will still have an episode if my stress is high enough. Don't fucking tell me that I'm not trying because I am.

#cw: mental health #bpd vent #actually bpd #bpd feels

[some-pers0n]

unpopular opinions? Well I got one! I honestly raise an eyebrow at other non-PD havers who headcanon Darkstalker to have a cluster B personality disorder but not Qibli or any of the other non-villain characters. Like... Qibli was supposed to directly parallel Darkstalker's personality, including a lot of cluster B trails. idk it kind of makes me question "are you headcanoning this because Darkstalker does actually show traits of mental illness or because you saw that Darkstalker was a villain so he HAS to have a PD."

(for full clarity, this ask was sent by someone who doesn't have a personality disorder but shows some traits of one)

I recall getting another anon like this last time so I designate you as PwD Anon. Hi PwD Anon!! I love you a lot :)

I think a good chunk comes from ableism and association of cluster B disorders (namely NPD and ASPD) with evil and bad people. How could Qibli have a PwD??? We like him and he's nice!! Darkstalker? Oh. OHHH he's MEANNN and we HATEEE HIM!!! He MUST be a narcissist and all that.

If Darkstalker has NPD then so does Qibli. Sorry, I don't make the rules. I think they're meant to reflect each other and they're very interconnected with how they act and rationalize things.

#ask #anon

[gcu-sovereign]

Posts taken from Alfred Macdonald the Swole

dating advice: I always tell my male friends — specifically male — to use Hinge and filter for women with graduate degrees. This isn't because you're filtering for smart women or whatever. Rather, there is a range of actually-unhinged behavior that women can get away with (in the sense that men will overlook it) but you can NOT do this and finish a master's program. Bachelor's programs are VERY forgiving, graduate programs are not, and women are much more judgmental of men than men are of women. So, things like: "oh I randomly traveled to Spain for a year" NOPE "oh I was in jail for 7 months because of (very muted way of saying "violating DUI probation")" NOPE "oh I moved away with a guy to Maine who I met at an anime convention so he could photograph my cosplay outf—" ABSOLUTELY NOPE When men talk about women being 'loyal' they often mean "reliable". In actuality, cheating (as long as you're honest about it right away) is for many men a forgivable mistake because, realistically, men are more familiar than women will ever be about making mistakes with their genitals. Unreliability however is something men start to develop their own tests for; I knew a guy who had a "McDonald's test" where he'd take women to McDonald's for their first date just to see her reaction. There is an upper ceiling on how unstable you can be and have an MA. EVEN IF a woman has a red flag and master's, it can't be *THAT* bad because if you dip out of an MA program they are not forgiving about letting you back in. Meanwhile, you can graduate with a BA in media studies and still be the type of woman who would impulsively stab someone. There is a MUCH WIDER RANGE of unhinged behavior society tolerates from women than it does from men. If you want to find stable women, use an app that lets you sort by graduate degree. Note what I am saying applies specifically to dating apps, because you can find women who have manicured their profile to look perfectly fine. If you know a woman in real life, that's obviously different. But if you are a guy, unchecking "graduate degree" unleashes a Biblical flood of Cluster B personality disorders in your feed. The ONLY TIME I think this advice does not apply is if you live in a small-medium sized city, like say 100,000 population. Otherwise, I always make graduate degrees a requirement. I will date a literal communist with an MA in education over a bach-only biology grad, and I've done this enough that I swear by it.

I am somewhat inclined to believe Alfred on this, as his bedpost Number is very high by normal standards of sluttiness.

#dating #the struggle

[enneamage]

can you expand more on why you feel like wilbur has npd/a cluster b disorder?

Oh god a direct excuse to talk about it I thought this day would never come

I’ve been an NPD truther to varying degrees of intensity for a while now. I knew it was a possibility, but things were pushed over a line after a while, and that was when I had a little (big) research arc around learning the ins and outs of NPD. It was eerie how much of what I learned lined up with what I was seeing.

I see this essay passed around in the actuallynarcissistic tag on tumblr a lot and I can see why, it’s probably the most comprehensive ‘here are the actual symptoms beyond grandiosity and here’s what they’re connected to’ list I’ve seen. There’s a lot of shoddy info about NPD out there because it’s a sensational topic that’s easy to get imprecise about, so I strongly suggest reading it to get a sense of what the condition can look like. I see a lot of Wilbur’s ‘quirks’ on this list, there’s a reason I keep linking it.

Starting off, Wilbur would fall on the ‘fragile’ or ‘covert’ end of the NPD spectrum, which presents differently than the grandiose end. There’s generally fluidity between these two points, but most of what we’ve seen of Wilbur leans more towards the covert end, having grandiose fantasies while remaining self-deprecating and sensitive in real life.

Internally/Externally Inconsistent

It’s not unusual for people in general to have different parts of their personality come out with different contexts, but NPD can push this into an extreme. The different levels of development across the different parts of himself are… wide. He knows how to handle a controversy like a politician but the closer he gets to his more vulnerable center the more childlike he can get, and time has revealed that the unstable part is the constant.

Wilbur has a lot of need, emotionally and practically. Narcissistic Personality Disorder is based on being self-preoccupied, concerned with combatting feelings of helplessness, despair, and irrelevance through their ego and external environment. Those with Vulnerable NPD tend to lean more openly anxious and depressive, playing down their grandiose fantasies but remaining passive aggressive and sensitive to criticism. They turn to their environment for praise, care, and validation, trying to balance out a feeling that can range from profound existential anxiety to internal deadness.

I’ve talked about how Wilbur used to threaten to cry as a power move, which is a layered thing to do. His despair is real, and he feels as vulnerable as he acts, but he has a way of throwing himself on the ground as a defensive move and playing dead to try and ward off arguments that he knows he can’t win. He will still occasionally pout to try and diffuse situations, leveraging pity as a tactic to try and make other people ‘the bad guy’ by engaging further. He will try to guilt people into caring for or catering to him by projecting his helpless self-image when he feels burnt out or cornered, to varying results; this is fairly pronounced Vulnerable NPD behavior.

At the same time, people with NPD tend to have an over-developed capacity to create temporary social masks in order to get what they want. Wilbur is good at making promises, short speeches and temporary impressions that make him look very promising and reasonable as a person. He may even believe what he says in the moment, as NPD has a kind of dissociative quality when it comes to being inconsistent, but most of these behaviors are geared towards short-term satisfaction over long-term payoff; praise for being impressive now is better than having to work to keep a promise later. Wilbur has a lot of unfulfilled promises in his life, and he's even sung about his ‘short sighted’ impulse control.

Obsessively Oppositional

Wilbur has very pronounced authority and control issues that show up in big and small ways.

He’s has said before that he ‘cannot’ work for someone else, and he’s even aware of that fact that it’s because he’s disagreeable. While I don’t know the exact extent that this has gotten him into trouble before, the fact that it’s affected his ability to make money and live is pretty telling. I’ve talked in less sensational terms about how Wilbur is very sensitive and defiant to feeling undermined, but it’s a really big part of what makes him self sabotage in certain situations. Wilbur can get resentful of prolonged social cooperation and may begin to rebel against it consciously or unconsciously by dragging his feet.

Wilbur also gets stubborn about weird little things a lot. The MCC skin thing is a perfect example of a petty ongoing thing, where he wants to push back against control by not participating in team skins for vanity and control reasons. In life he pushes against the petty things that he can get away with as acts of rebellion to feel more in control.

I feel like it’s not controversial to say that he’s got weird politics and his fixation on freedom shows up in them a lot, both in being a hopeless ameriboo and being connected to libertarianism. His whole dirty crime boy bit was kind of suspicious as well, being basically resentful of laws. He seems to hate having rules placed on him, especially by authority figures.

Emotional Dysregulation

Wilbur’s emotional control is not where it should be for a man his age. Even for someone socialised male, his raw anger at things some days suggests a very sensitive set of nerves, and the things that set him off are very telling. People with NPD, particularly the covert variety, are very sensitive and reactive to shame, criticism, and feelings of inadequacy, and will notice them everywhere. This is muddy because it overlaps with the depressive and anxious symptoms, so his sensitivity can be passed off as stemming from them instead of all being connected to something larger.

This is a death by a thousand papercuts thing. It’s generally simmering in the background, reacting with a bit more anger and intensity than he should to things in his environment, particularly if they set off his shame response. Wilbur fires back at chat defensively, getting into his condescending voice at things that range from mildly irritating to innocuous. He knows to not pick an outright fight with his own chat most of the time, since thousands on one is a stupid fight to pick, but he once made a comment along the lines of “Five minutes in and insulting chat, that’s not good” which suggested that it’s a thing he has to actively stop himself from doing. He tends to play off his need to cut people down as an English personality/humor thing, but the genuine anger underneath it makes me think twice.

The Love Life Problem

His history comes into this because he’s indirectly stated that he experiences the idealise, devalue, discard cycle that people with unaware NPD tend to experience with romantic relationships. This is the process where the internal sense of lack and instability in someone with NPD crosses with their emotional impulses and they find someone in their environment to project their hope of stabilising/fulfilling themselves onto.

They tend to use whatever people skills they have to woo and appeal to the person of their choice, hoping that this person is basically going to be the one. They can have a very complimentary view of them in this phase, idealising them and putting their hope towards a perfect future with them. After a while a sort of disgust builds towards the person for not serving the purpose that they had initially reached out to them for, as well as being ‘fooled’ by the social mask. An agitation builds up from feeling dead and isolated despite being around the other person, turning to resentment. They then start to devalue their partner, acting out and being dismissive. (Your Sister Was Right is him outing himself.)

This is why I find it so eerie when Wilbur goes into romance mode with somebody, there’s a good chance that he’s setting himself up to resent them as a consequence of his own actions. The part inside of him that ‘needs’ the most will never reach the person that he’s wooing if he dips into a false self, but his inner self has a bitter disposition and a deeply vulnerable amount of need, so it makes sense why he doesn’t lead with it.

(This is a weird little thing that happened with ghostbur actually, he began to resent that people liked the mask better than him and were so easily ‘fooled.’)

C!Wilbur

You know how Wilbur is a critblr gateway drug because he compulsively tells on himself in bizarre ways and you’re left holding the puzzle pieces whether you wanted them or not? I’ve really got to emphasise that c!Wilbur fits the profile of someone who has NPD having a meltdown to an uncanny degree. It’s fiction so it’s larger than life, but It’s like Wilbur stored the symptoms of NPD inside him like a fridge. Everyone knows that pogtopia was meant to be c!wilbur’s mental health spiral, but they never go as far as naming what all those symptoms were connected to. The fact that he hit every branch on the way down is way too much to call a coincidence, even though I’m sure it was unconscious on Wilbur’s part.

His character starts out making what NPD literature would call a shared fantasy, a kind of conceptual space where his vision spreads to others and they buy into a story that he makes about the world, as well as his role in it. He sells people on the value of this vision, and by extension the value of himself. Wilbur has an ongoing fascination with both politicians and cult leaders, and they feel very relevant here.

L’manburg is based on dismissing Dream’s authority as admin and substituting his own, disavowing Dream as a tyrant and declaring liberty and freedom and fuck-you-I-do-what-I-want. He invites people to the secret clubhouse and they elevate the legitimacy of the whole thing, but things quickly begin to unravel as they don’t feed the power fantasy in the way that he wanted.

While he publicly tries to play the charming social role, behind the scenes he is breaking down. His emotions are unstable in public and explosive in private, intense crying episodes and rage for feeling useless and ineffective in spite of his position. He can’t tolerate not being the ultimate power so he tries to force legitimacy through cheating (implicitly believing that he would not win legitimately), which backfires on him permanently.

He spirals, giving in to the part of himself that is terrified of his own insignificance and desperate to prove importance and agency, even if it means self-destruction. He declares himself ‘the bad guy.’ He makes constant grabs for power, trying desperately to remain in control, resorting to threats of violence against himself and others (the tnt). He obsessively cuts down his most devoted ally, Tommy, trying to compensate for his inferiority and jealousy. He experiences persecutory delusions, which are a lesser known symptom of NPD under stress, breaking with reality and falling into a state where his mind invents information independent of the world around him. While all of this is going on, he keeps lying to his father about how his life is going, trying to maintain the illusion of success.

While most people with NPD wouldn’t necessarily use violence, the extremes of behavior resorted to because of an internal crisis can be a serious issue, outward or inward. NPD has cluster B status for a reason, and it’s still a disorder, which means that it is still associated with dysfunction. People with NPD have something of an infamous cycle where they can create concepts and plans with the new people they meet, time passes and the fantasy decays, and then something comes crashing down that makes them leave or gets them cut out of other peoples lives. They then move on to somewhere new to start the cycle over again, hoping that this time they’ll be able to step into their fantasy for real.

The Rust roleplay never got that far but Wilbur immediately created another leader with imposter syndrome who needed to manipulate people in order to keep his position, and what an interesting thing for a successful streamer who dislikes streaming to do.

I can’t know exactly what role delusion plays in Wilbur’s life, but we do know that he is a hypochondriac. Certain manifestations of hypochondria are a mix of anxiety and delusion, becoming obsessively and unshakably convinced that you’re going to die because of a given illness. Feelings of persecution and impending doom are a feature of NPD, an episodic or baseline anxiety about feeling like something is either approaching or about to break.

How do you know it’s not something else?

On their own these things might not be that convincing, but taken all together as the dynamics of one dude it becomes the simplest answer. While he might have a number of issues as symptoms, most of his behavior can be traced back to the unique way that NPD would be affecting him.

I understand why Borderline and NPD are neighbours in the DSM, because they share a lot of common ground, but they come from different structures and dynamics. BPD splitting shows up abruptly in the moment, while NPD relationship devaluing can be a more subtle ongoing process with more shades of grey.

Fin

Overall this is why I’m convinced that he’s got a foot over the line into NPD territory. If you’re left with the feeling of “but he’s just a guy” when you think of him or see him next—he is, at the end of the day. People with personality disorders are still people, and individuals before all that as well. He won’t be a walking bag of symptoms all the time, but he’s prone to behaving and processing things differently from someone who doesn’t have his personality adaptations. He’s still capable of being reasonable and right and relatively functional, he just has a bunch of other stuff going on as well.

#anon you came to the right place #there's a lot more but these are the easiest bits to talk about #it makes sense to be sceptical because there's a lot of plausible deniability #but NPD doesn't always have to escalate to criminal or abusive extremes to be there #Also I know that the phone video lady may seem odd but she describes the cycle well so just tab out and give it a chance while you scroll #if you want #wlbr 3w4 #featuring some #loreposting #NPDbur tag #gen wlbr tag

[violentviolette]

is it normal when trying to research pds you might have to feel a kinda vehement denial about it? ive been researching aspd for years (finally got comfortable saying i have it) but just recently started looking into npd and it feels like every time i see a person talking about their experiences with it my brain gets really cagey about it. i'll go from "oh yeah i totally get x thing" to "i am absolutely NOT someone with npd" to trying to justify that thought to myself??? tbf i've gone through this before with aspd and having to slowly break down my hang ups about it but i'm just curious if this is normal or has some underlying meaning to it and isn't some crazy bought of internalized ableism that won't go away lol. i realize you might not be the best person to ask about this since you're professionally diagnosed iirc but i digress

oh yea i think thats absolutely a very common thing that happens and i think its kind of an expected part of the process, especially in the early stages. i think there's multiple factors and things that go into what builds those kinds of responses but i think its just kind of natural given the nature of all this stuff i never had that issue with my aspd diagnosis, because id been diagnosed with CD so early on i always knew i didnt have empathy and so i just didnt reject it like that. but the first time a therapist suggested i might have npd i flipped out about it internally lol i was like "oh absolutely not i definitly dont have that" and struggled and fought with it for a while. even once id accepted i probably did have it, i was still really mad about it i think it's kind of natural when uve thought about urself one way for a chunk of ur life, to at first reject anything that challenges that or says that u might be someone different and ur motives might not be what u thought they were. and i think this is exacerbated when u have a cluster b disorder because of all the stigma surrounding them and how much shame and negativity is just unavoidable

sometimes there's also the "uniqueness" factor. a lot of us experienced heavy rejection as kids and learned very quickly that we were not like others and our experiences were very different. this can create a kind of defensive bubble where we reject identifying with others in order to preserve that feeling of otherness/uniqueness/specialness because we have learned to find comfort in it and challenging that can break a lot of other maladaptive coping mechanisms we've built so we shy away from it. this can also go in the negative direction where we second guess ourselves by downplaying our own experiences and invalidating our symptoms. things like "oh well im not that bad they have it way worse i dont qualify cause its only a little" type of mindsets i also think for npd especially, there can be a kind of uncomfortableness with seeing our own symptoms reflected back at us at first. i have a hard time being close friends with other ppl with npd because when i recognize behaviors in them that i also do, i get really uncomfortable and embarrassed. it triggers a lot of my own insecurities and anxieties and so there's that initial knee jerk reaction to be like "im Not like that" even when deep down we know we are. i think thats understandable given our disorders and struggles and is just something that u have to work to slowly break down. npd comes with a lot of feelings of shame and rejection and so it just takes time to unwrite that instinct, but i do think it eventually goes away for most people especially if ur actively acknowledging it and working on it

#jack.speaks #anon #npd #cluster b pd #aspd #cluster b

[erigold13261]

Do you have neurodivergency HCs for the NSR cast?

Not extensively. Only a few vague ones really. This is gonna be a more messy post with not a lot of organization, so sorry bout that.

I definitely headcanon Papa, Mama, Yinu, 1010, Mayday, and Dodo as some kind of autistic. Though that could go to a lot of the cast actually.

Papa, Eloni, and Dodo are (was in Papa's case) non-verbal. Dodo being fully non-verbal, with Papa and Eloni being selectively mute (Papa being even less verbal than Eloni).

Neon J and Mama have PTSD, Neon from war and Mama from the death of Papa (also a grief disorder, but I see his death being so traumatic that she has similar symptoms to PTSD, especially if she needs to go to a hospital).

I saw a headcanon, or analysis, of Eve once that said she either had Bipolar disorder or BPD (I think it was BPD) so I kinda see her as having that. Maybe autism and trauma as well. She might also have an Avoidant Personality Disorder. So either way I do think she has a personality disorder.

Tila has schizophrenia. Another headcanon I saw someone else had around the start of NSR coming out, which I really liked but just haven't explored more. (Though it is less common for a teenager to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, it is still something that happens. I don't think Tila is fully diagnosed yet, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have it).

Purl is definitely something. Autistic is definitely one of them, but I see them as also having some kind of anger issues or personality disorder, I think some of the Cluster B and C personality disorders fit Purl a lot (like the Antisocial and Dependent Personality Disorders).

Oh yeah, Eloni, Purl, Eve, Remi, and Sofa also have sever anxiety. Honestly the whole Sayu Crew has anxiety. (Just figured out that phobias are a type of anxiety disorder so next paragraph will be that).

Zimelu has claustrophobia (small spaces), Haym has acrophobia (heights), and Rin has a pretty strong fear of bugs (not sure if it is on the same level to say it has entomophobia, but it is really bad at times which only gets worse with Eloni's pinned bug collection). Oh yea, Purl has thalassophobia (fear of the sea, which they hate given they are a navy bot, but the war fucked them up with the sea).

For DJ... I don't know, he does have some sort of superiority complex, but I've seen people analyze them and talk about how selfless they actually are in wanting to make sure humanity is remembered (he was just going to be the avatar for Earth). So like, I don't really know. There is the fandom headcanon that he has Narcissism, which I do think about some times. And honestly I remember someone with Narcissism saying the difference between someone with Narcissism and not is that a Narcissist can't be content, they always need that new fix to make them happy because they literally can't be content with life (at least that is how I am remembering it, I really hope I'm not misremembering and thinking of a different mental disorder), and with that i can see DJ as having Narcissism with the way he also acts in game (though it could literally just be a big ego).

He probably also has autism/sensory issues and depression. Actually, speaking of depression, I can see Mama, Zuke, Neon, Purl and Eloni as having depression. Also Dew to an extent.

Rin also has a really terrible memory. Whether that is because of a mental problem or mechanical one is up for debate, but it really doesn't remember things and sometimes that is a huge stressor for it, especially in relationships. Maybe it's ADHD, specifically the Predominantly Inattentive Presentation one/version (is version the right word to use here? idk).

And speaking of ADHD, I think Mayday, West, Remi, and Haym definitely have some form of ADHD. I can also see Zuke, Sofa, Papa, and Maragold as having some ADHD as well.

Carna is a kleptomaniac, or is at least showing early signs of kleptomania. Thankfully fae hasn't stolen anything outside of the mansion right now because fae hasn't been out much, but 1010 and Neon would have to keep a close eye on faer to make sure they either stop faer or pay for whatever is stolen.

Going back a bit, I think Sofa has an eating disorder, so does Purl (which isn't as impactful as they are a robot, but in human AUs Purl still has an eating disorder which gets really bad in their teens).

Kliff might also have some narcissism going on. Maybe some autism as well. I feel like he has something else going on, but I can't think of anything at the moment.

Oh Neon also had/has an addiction problem or a substance use disorder (he had it and have been sober, but it is still something he struggles with daily). Purl also has a drug problem, and I can see Zuke, West, Mayday, and Eve also having mild substance abuse problems. They would not be seen as fully addicted by societal standards (except maybe Purl, they are an addict definitely).

Tatiana, hmmm... I think she has an attachment disorder, or like a fear of abandonment that she copes with by pushing people away. Maybe a bit of depression too.

Also, though it is less a mental disorder and more signs/symptoms of other disorders, I think Mama, Neon, and Tatiana all have anger issues. Whatever it stems from, i don't know, but they have them.

There's probably more, or these will change at some point. But that's what I have for now. Sorry again for it being messy.

#nsr #no straight roads #eritalks #noart #asks #i like how i said i was gonna be vague #and then give this long of an answer #i do it all the time #lol

[platonic-prompts]

God you got to love the people who are like 'well actully its a 100% still ableist" and then proceed to tell you the word you're using isn't applicable to the diagnosis at all because its a 'forensic term'

No, its fucking not, it is also a diagnosis, just not one out of the DMS-V. And to be fair, there's debate over whether or not psychopathy is part of ASPD or is a separate diagnosis. But because i doubt the person has any reading comprehension (Because the last part of the post literally talked about how we shouldnt judge people based on a diagnosis) im going to spell this out

ASPD symptoms

disregarding the law

being deceitful

acting impulsively or being incapable of planning

being irritable and aggressive

disregarding safety

being consistently irresponsible

having a lack of remorse

Psychopathy has overlap with this, yes, but autism and ADHD have overlap and they're not the same thing. Additionally ones for psychopathy

lack of empathy

arrogance

charisma

excessive vanity

lack of guilt

difficulty processing other people’s facial expressions

goal-oriented behavior

insensitivity to punishment

Also, in case you haven't noticed, a lot of these things kinda line up to hm...make them more likely to be abusive to people? Huh, its almost like thats a key feature in cluster b personality disorders. and its almost like sociopathy and psychopathy are disorders that make people outside of the person suffer. It's not like autism or ADHD or OCD or OCPD (OCPD is Obsessive-Compulsive Personality disorder and its the whole 'i need everything to be perfectly lined up' thing) where the person who has it is the one who has to deal with everything from it. There's a reason people use Eric Cartman as an example when they talk about sociopaths/psychopaths in media, because he is one. You can't just pretend that everyone who has the disorder is all sunshine and rainbows, because to even get the diagnosis in the first place you have to have a history of doing shitty things. (i believe back to age fifteen if you get it when you hit eighteen) So by nature of the diagnosis in and of itself, the person can't be the next coming of christ. (And yes, there was a post about how saying all people with ASPD have done bad things is ableist, no its a characteristic of the diagnosis.)

ALSO, the DSM is not the 'oh you need to read it' that you think it is. the DSM-V pretty much didn't change anything in its inclusion of Personality disorders, and I would know that because I just freaking read the highlights of changes document. Now, this is important for one major reason

Hare, Hart, and Harpur back in 1991 said that psychopathy is not the same as ASPD. Hare developed a separate way to diagnose someone due to this (in 2003), which is still in use. But anyway, psychopathy is a square and rectangle situation. Psychopaths have ASPD, but not all people with ASPD are psychopaths.

Now, since my father was labelled as a PSYCHOPATH, calls himself a PSYCHOPATH, and doesn't care when I call him a PSYCHOPATH, im going to continue calling him a psychopath, and a narcassist because for fucks sake people guess what, not everything is a call back to a disorder i wouldnt even know that you have unless you tell me.

No, its referring back to Narcissus, the guy that fell in love with his own reflection, because guess where the word originated from and what it means? Someone obsessed with themselves, which my dad is

#we live in 2022 and somehow people dont understand that there are multiple meanings to words #or how to understand basic psychology principles and diagnoses #i have enough psych credits that i could switch my major to that if i wanted to #not a prompt #again: DONT JUDGE PEOPLE BASED ON A PIECE OF PAPER USE THEIR ACTIONS INSTEAD #do i want people to judge me for my empathy score of 4? no so i dont fucking tell them about it #i did not want to wake up to someone yelling at me so you get this

[buntress]

HEHEHEHHEE YES OKAY OKAY SO

danny canonically (well, canon enough, it was a remark from the developers) has npd right. and I have hpd and bpd and they share a lot of symptoms, being cluster b personality disorders and all. so I can proudly say

that man has awful identity issues. he spent so long pretending to be other people for praise, attention and safety that he has no idea who "Danny Johnson" is at all. sometimes he isn't even sure he's actually human. he likely dissociates a lot. he only really thought about it a while after he got taken by the entity, seeing there isnt anything to do outside of trials hes likely been in his own mind most of the time.

he may act buddy-buddy with them as a sort of second nature but he's really insecure with himself and so manifests it as hatred for other killers. (it may also be the 'canon' reason ghostface players tend to be very chill with survivors, despite him being a misanthrope. he feels safer with them because he has the cloak of superiority and being a threat with them which he doesnt have with the killers ykyk) after all he's just an average guy with a knife and knowledge on stalking, hes not overly strong without the entity's help, or tall, or supernatural in any way. to him his "backstory" isnt even bad as any of the other killers, to him at least. (it definitely was, man was literally groomed to be a murderer by his dad. but your trauma never looks as bad as the other people's you know)

also hes FTM and was 3 years on T up until he got taken by the entity (his body time kinda paused after that so he didnt revert to being feminine dw). he still has a set of tits and a coochie because in his words "surgery recovery is a waste of time, it will get suspicious if ghostface goes silent for 6 whole months" :3 he's happy with his body though... mostly. anyway thats the reason he's always hunching during trials. cant wear a binder during a chase thatd be inconvenient (please imagine a ghostface coughing and wheezing and begging the survivors to wait for him now. thank you)

he's still silly, a little clumsy but its one of the things he's less insecure about tbh. an all serious ghostface is not fun and not what wes craven would want.

anyway I need him to get a therapist so bad. bbygirl dw you wont lose your spark the spark in question is you dissociating for hours at a time on your apartment bed having a barbie movie moment like "what was I made for..." therapy will help you babygirl I promi-

THESE ARE ALL SUCH FUCKING GOOD HEADCANONS OKOKOK SO

to share my own while i am at it Teehee (i love him so much)

I def agree on the dissociation and fucked up sense of identity, mans is a messed up lil fuck and def needs to go see an entity ordered therapist. I personally def put Danny on the aro spectrum (i dont think ace personally, aroallo moment imo) though i think more on the demi or greyaro side, and if any of the survivors are ever like, flirty he just stares at them and slowly shakes his head because oh no babygirl one thats a bad idea to try and do and two you are not the person my brain has made an exception for thats for fucking sure

(I'm demiromantic myself so I describe it like that bc im basically aromantic until my brain makes an Exception(tm))

Alsoalsoalso very down for him not being friends with the other killers bc hatred and lowkey jealousy but I think he looks at the legion kids and is like "Cool, I'm your uncle now." because they're the only ones like him at all, just normal dudes even smaller than he is because theyre basically just fucked up teenagers so he feels a slight kinship and he definitely doesn't play favorites at all (this is a lie Suzy is his perfect little baby and he goes full cool uncle mode with her 100% all the time)

Also Also because self shipping noises when/if a survivor or killer (im using survivor mostly bc that's where I see myself self insert wise) does catch his interest in a romantic he genuinely just fucking panics and doesn't know what the fuck to do about it. He fumbles with them a lot and suddenly most of his smooth and cool dude exterior? Gone. Vanished. Fumbling even more than usual and it makes him SO MAD so he just.......threatens them a lot and hooks them a lot because fuck you stop making me feel things i hate you but also please just like hold my hand or something what the fuck

When finally the survivor is like DUDE WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR DAMAGE and blows up on his ass he's like IDK MAN YOU GIVE ME BIG FEELINGS AND I DON'T LIKE IT COULD YOU STOP MAYBE????

anyways when that shits sorted I imagine it being a mutual (healthy) obsession thing where Danny treats his partner like they're the entity incarnate and partner does similar for him and everyone is disgusted by it but at least everytime partner is around in trials he's nice to them so like they can't complain.

If it was a killer though they would become absolute terrors and no one would be safe ever. Skip through the moldy corn fields holding hands kinda shit. Absolute fucking idiots.

(Also at one point he tries to give partner a bouquet of flowers except it was like 4 dandelions and a leaf and he ate one of the dandelions)

Anyways I love Danny Johnson I am kissing him on the mouth

#gif warning #🗡️ :: personal #🗡️ :: asks #sorz for the infodump and answering 6 hours late i was talking to my qpp and being butch4twink

[stephaniedola]

Top 5 films?

[rubs hands together]

ok im not gonna count my like all time fav memey comfort movies (see: the lorax, popstar: never stop never stopping) im gonna try and go with like real films. also my taste changes all the time so this is not a hard and fast list

Love & Mercy - biopic about Brian Wilson from the beach boys, portrayed in a really unique way bouncing between his 20ish year-old self at the height of his career and developing drug-induced psychosis, and his 50+ self meeting the woman who would someday be his wife while still in the clutches of an abusive conservatorship. i've never seen a movie depict either a famous persons life OR a cluster B disorder so well and with such love, mercy, and respect. if you long for better biopics, just watch love and mercy. i wasnt even a beach boys fan and i still watched it. the movie converted me and now pet sounds is like my fav album. oh and paul dano plays young brian

Fight Club - yeah yeah i know this seems like a weird choice but im just obsessed with the lore of fight club, both the book and the film. i think it was really well done and if you actually read it the way its meant to be read its just such a good time. fuck capitalism, fuck consumerism, DID is a bitch. also my main man Eddy Nortz is there so need i say more

A Clockwork Orange - this is another one of those "the book is better but the film still killed it" kind of situations. i just really like the themes and cinematography. sometimes you just want to sit down and watch some good old fashioned ultraviolence with a side of fascist overthrow and government brainwashing. ive yet to find another novel/film to truly dig into what "bad" and "good" really mean and whether forced reform is possible if the persons mind never truly changes. also i stan malcolm macdowell

RRR - right now im really just vibing with it. it ticked all the boxes i love in an action movie and in a drama. not the mention the absolute banger of a soundtrack. the friendship/romance between rambheem is so iconic and i can tell its gonna be one of those films i return to time and time again. if anyone has a link to the telugu dub pls lmk i cry that i can only find it in hindi (the songs r so much better in telugu)

The Princess Bride - arguably just my #1 never-changing favorite movie, but honestly its so ubiquitous it feels weird to give it that title. how can the princess bride be my favorite movie when its just a part of who i am? i know almost every line verbatim. i've seen it more times than i can even count. its a classic. i adore it. but, at the end of the day its not the kind of movie that can move me because it barely even feels like a movie at all. its more like just, a way of life

#thots et al #movies

[void-star]

something else that immediately registered as Autistic to me but also has overlap with mentally ill experiences including (and likely often) cluster B experiences is the way Damien doesn't see himself as human, something which is common in autistic people even during childhood due primarily to social othering that comes with being autistic around allistic peers and caregivers, but is another thing that can be compounded by cluster B disorders due to both additional social othering and the internal struggle with identity and lack of security that tends to come with them

Oh yeah, absolutely. There isn't much in canon about his childhood, really, but it stuck out to me that he's never really had friends? Like, not ever. That's a very autistic situation to me.

Also his power compounds this dissociation from humanity as well. He's really fucked up about himself.

I've always likened that more with cluster b, because in my experience, even if people don't know you have what you have, they will still be absolutely willing to call you a monster. You will be reminded that you are not a person because of the things that come out of your suffering. And when you internalize that, you can enter a kind of feedback loop where you seek out people who are also eager to confirm for you that every bad and terrible thing you think about yourself is completely true.

In fact, I feel like that happens right in the series itself.

Damien's journey forward has to include him realizing that he can find people who don't see others or the world like that.

#damien gorham #answered

[yugioh-isz]

Content warning: Suicidal ideation, child abuse, emotional abuse

I hc Seto Kaiba to have NPD comorbid BPD traits. He’s actually a pretty good example of someone who experienced C-PTSD in childhood and adjusted those traits of trauma and coping throughout the series in alignment with these cluster B personality disorders, and grew from it (considering that earlier in the series he has a mind crush that means that the Seto Kaiba he have now throughout the series is actually the best version of him we have).

This man has such a strong sense of seeing things 'good' or 'bad' (especially concerning dual monsters, a title and area of his identity that he holds very dearly) that he decides to blow up an entire island he made just because he lost a tournament to Yami Yugi. Each time he wins he feels on top of the world, each time he loses he has to do something (anything) to control his environment in an effort to reestablish his ego. For me, I interpret this as a sign of splitting.

Heck, I saw a comment that jokingly stated that he doesn't make efforts to socialize, he sets up tournaments to do that. The more I think about it, the more I feel that actually rings pretty true. His supply he seeks out from recognition, attention and respect from others in a large scale in general, so I think that is rather appropriate.

This ties into the complex but nuanced way he gradually establishes a complicated but closer connection to Yugi and his friends.

When Jonouchi (Joey) was in very critical condition and in a temporary coma due to a bunch of the participants (Yami Marik) rigging the card game tournament with dark magic to be capable of killing people, he refused to park the zeppelin for medical aid and was more annoyed that the Istars interfered with his tournament. He didn't even care that Jonouchi could have died.

He does not spare any remorse or sympathy for Noah, (his adopted step sibling from Gambino in season 4) in the anime when he knows he was used and abandoned by the same father figure they shared and just tries to push him aside to secure Mokuba and escape the virtual world. He literally has the perspective (especially post mind crush) that he is a very important person that takes himself seriously and that people who get hurt (and are not in a few particular range of people he knows and respects) are just not worth caring all that much.

This, and not ignoring the fact that he didn't really hesitate to show any remorse (pre-mind crush) about Yugi's grandpa getting to be hospitalized or that he literally made an entire amusement park to kill Yugi and his friends or even put a lowkey torture device on his brother (literally the only person he likes and enjoys being around) in the manga before the events in the anime series just tells me he has low empathy. He doesn't try to do this to be a sadistic person or a general asshole (the only instance where he is is comedical with Jonouchi concerning the dog jokes he jabs at him with or making snide comments to Zigfried or other things of that nature) but it mostly treating others in the cost by cost basis concerning his goals regardless of the stakes at hand until it is extremely personal to him.

When he is presented situations that where he would be unable to secure his brother due to Pegasus keeping him hostage if he doesn't succeed to the finals of the season 1 tournament, he doesn't even hesitate to goad and attempt to guilt trip Yami with suicidal ideation when he knows he will lose the duel otherwise. He stands on top of the edge of the castle they are dueling on states "Oh I might stumble from the tremble of your attack and die of the ledge of this area and die :(" to goad him to give up, regardless of what extreme it will take to secure his goal... He isn't even threating to end himself because he is suffering or that he generally is interested in doing so by any measure, it's a manipulation tactic that would ensure he could save his brother while not having to compromise and beg or even explain his situation to the others and not seem desperate to bother and ask for help.

Now, is this okay and justified? Obviously not. But it explains why he acts the way he does, especially the hyper-independence he displays from his childhood trauma and abuse he suffered from Gambino. Which, yes, that also explains a parallel in which he didn't feel remorse for Gambino (as horrible of a father figure as he was) ending himself by jumping out of a window due to Seto basically stealing his company from him as literal child to later mirror him as well. Treating his brother Mokuba badly (temporarily in the beginning) for failing him earlier in the manga with the electric zapping device, pushing others hard to the extremes to could kill them to the extent that he does (notably when his ego and reputation have been compromised) especially earlier in the series are just things he picked up and replicated from his childhood and the efforts he had to endure to survive in a environment that operated only with cold hard respect.

I don't believe he actually has no empathy though, he has strong cognitive empathy and the possible small amount of emotional empathy/sympathy for the situations he find himself in he fosters and gets better at as he exposes himself to Yugi's friends that (thankfully!!) do not foster extreme resentment for what he did to them and offers a relatively good amount of unconditional support to him regardless of his status of the king of games or his wealth.

He saves Anzu (Tea) from a life or death card duel where she was held hostage later in the series when this would have been unheard of for him earlier in the series. He provides a extensive amusement park for the younger children to experience duel monsters ( in modern graphics) in a healthier and safer environment than his generation had and enriched their childhoods alongside extending his brand and company. (Aka, things he never experience as a child concerning his love of games.) Yes, it is for profit and a part of his plan to establish his range of influence for his company, but I do believe he really does want to give others a better experience of things he wasn't afforded to as a kid, and did that through the very same Duel monsters he took over and improved over time.

He balances out his behavioral traits to be less self focused over time to help out Yugi, his friend, and by in large society with the technology the literal advancements technology that is unprecedented and advanced humankind in a large scale degree. I'm not kidding, check out the video below concerning his large scale breakthrough contributions he did to the field of physics and by extension the entirety of civilization in the process of fulfilling his personal and sometime absurd/petty goals.

And, he comes around to actually befriending and confiding in Yugi (and somewhat his group of friends) as his own person and especially as a duelist at the end of the Dark Dimensions movie with not only respect, but general companionship concerning the entire ordeal they went through concerning their mourning over Yami.

Also, I think it's appropriate to assume that Yami wasn't only Seto's rival at a certain point, but as his FP. The fact that in season 5 of the anime and by extension the Dark side dimension movie of how he was willing to witness the ceremonial duel and try to obsessively resurrect Yami tells me (other than the strong platonic or romantic infatuation he could harbor for him, take your pick) that he was the only person he could place his "favorite person" designation to out of anyone he has known before. He is the only person that Seto respects probably more than himself (than he would publicly care to admit), likely fell into somewhat of a depression when he was brought back into the afterlife and focuses his mourning by building stuff to meet him again, and in every instance Yami Yugi does not meet those expectations or is close to giving up in his duels due to terribly high stakes in the series Seto sets himself straight very crudely (in his own Seto way of expressing disappointment to encourage him ironically enough) in a way that seems like extremely strong personal inclination to do compared to the other characters.

I would hazard a guess that Seto Kaiba secretly finds his personal time with Yami in life or death ordeals as a somewhat of a strong bonding experience platonically that he wouldn't really be able to share that comradery with anyone else and seems to enjoy.

Again, this is not a shipping sort of post. I simply think that these examples signify toward those traits that would make sense to justify why he utilizes a FP (in this case Yami Yugi) in my hc of BPD along side the narcissistic traits he displays as well.

I think he a better example of someone how has these personality disorder(s) and how they gradually grew into a more mature person with it. I don't think there is as much healthy and respectful representations of cluster B personality disorders in media that immediately doesn't somewhat demonize and extend stigma to those who carry them, and I hope there continues to more examples of those have these mental disorder in years to come.

#seto kaiba #this post took me ages to complete my word #yugioh #bpd represention #npd representation