#so they can see the patterns of dean's behavior that are obvious on a binge but less so if you haven't revisited the show since it aired | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

amwritingmeta · 6 years

Note

Hey, I really like your stuff, and I was just wondering whether or not you read Dean as having BPD? (btw i will 100% respect your interpretation either way so don't worry about hurting my feelings or anything. ily)

Hello, my love! You’ve waited for an age and I apologise, but this, as I can tell you were aware when you asked it, is a heavy question, so I wanted to take my time, read up on BPD and mull it over in my head for a bit before replying. I love questions like this, though, so I hope you didn’t think I’d just deleted it (because never). :)

So, with my non-existent psychology degree kept firmly at the back of your mind (meaning I’m in no way qualified to diagnose anyone but I feel like I’ve spent enough time with Dean Winchester to make a fairly educated estimation of his character), I’ll start with a simplified summary of what BPD actually is:

Borderline Personality Disorder is signified by emotional instability, which leads to an unstable self-image and self-destructive behaviour that more often than not wreaks havoc on the sufferer maintaining any type of long term and fulfilling relationship - romantic, platonic and familial alike.

Stolen from the internet–>

Other signs or symptoms may include:

Efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment, such as rapidly initiating intimate (physical or emotional) relationships or cutting off communication with someone in anticipation of being abandoned

A pattern of intense and unstable relationships with family, friends, and loved ones, often swinging from extreme closeness and love (idealization) to extreme dislike or anger (devaluation)

Distorted and unstable self-image or sense of self

Impulsive and often dangerous behaviors, such as spending sprees, unsafe sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, and binge eating. Please note: If these behaviors occur primarily during a period of elevated mood or energy, they may be signs of a mood disorder—not borderline personality disorder

Intense and highly changeable moods, with each episode lasting from a few hours to a few days

Chronic feelings of emptiness

Inappropriate, intense anger or problems controlling anger

Difficulty trusting, which is sometimes accompanied by irrational fear of other people’s intentions

Feelings of dissociation, such as feeling cut off from oneself, seeing oneself from outside one’s body, or feelings of unreality

Now, I cut a few points off this list because there’s a lot here already, but I read through and yes, absolutely, most of this fits with Dean’s characteristics: he has abandonment issues, trust issues, a highly distorted sense of self, he’s impulsive as fuck and engages in dangerous behaviours on a daily basis (though obviously not reckless driving because um no) (unless he’s pissed off at Cas of course), he’s absolutely battled with listlessness and a feeling of emptiness, hopelessness, his whole life (given to us through how he’s been so convinced of going out in a blaze of glory and not believing he has a future) and he’s had a motor in him that’s been fuelled by rage for a very long time (but that’s dissipating now).

All of these traits are a part of him, his character makeup, and they’re what make him human, because they’re what has made him flawed and in need of this journey he’s been on, right? Yes, indeed. It’s been one long awesome hazardous gruelling journey of self-exploration for Dean Winchester.

But do I believe it all chalks up to him suffering from BPD?

No, I don’t. Because look at how extreme this list is and compare it to Dean’s character traits, which seem almost wishy-washy in comparison. Well, they do! I mean, Dean Winchester is one tortured human being who carries with him baggage so heavy it’s probably not carried anymore, it’s on a dozen of those hotel wheel-y cart things that they put the thousand bags on when foreign dignitaries or douchebag millionaires (sorry rich folks I’m putting you in a box right now) arrive with their entire life in suitcases. Dean has earned fucking bellboy help with his luggage is what he’s earned.

But he’s functional. In fact, he believes himself to be so in control of his own emotions that he’s taken the excruciatingly obvious need he’s developed of masking his actual personality and convinced himself he’s actually using a healthy coping mechanism called “sublimation”. He knows what he’s doing, but he refuses to dig deeper than necessary, so he’s masked his unhealthy coping mechanism by calling it by the name of a healthy one. (sorry son but then Cas came in and ripped all of that right up didn’t he?) (yes he did)

Dean has been suppressing his true identity because of his toxic habit of dressing himself in armour he was taught how to put on and convinced he needed to wear in order to serve and protect, and he is such a control freak that of course he was always going to find a way of convincing himself that this mask he wears is completely by choice, because the fear that’s the real reason he’s wearing it - that lack of self-worth breeding his conviction he’s really poison leading to believing that of course he’ll die young - well, that’s all too raw to ever poke at. And believe me when I tell you I could write another fifteen pages on all of this, and most likely I will, but there are others that undoubtedly have already - including myself in other posts on this blog - so I’ll leave it for now.

Thank FUCK for S13, is all I can say. And thank fuck for Cas and his glorious provisions of motivation for Dean to finally begin to learn those valuable fucking lessons and seeing through his own mask this season and the bullshit of why he ever put it on.

So, then. There you have my answer, which in short is no to the Dean having BPD, but here with an added bit of an elaboration as to why. Feel free to drop me another line if you still feel the subject remains unclear in any way! I truly hope I didn’t offend! And ily2!!

Thanks for asking! :)

#answered asks #dean winchester #bpd

17 notes · View notes

fourplayergame · 6 years

Text

An Analysis on Jason Dean

Being callous, cynical and disrespectful of othersI’ve wanted to make a post on this ever since I watched the musical + movie a few weeks ago. I want to make a disclaimer before I get into the rest of the post, however: Just because I’m making a point about this obviously horrible person, that does not mean that I believe that people with the disorders that I will be pointing out are bad people.

The case of Jason Dean is simply me throwing headcanons, and using logic to back these headcanons up. If you don’t agree, then that’s your opinion that you are more than welcome to.

This post also does not serve to justify his actions in the movie and musical. Jason Dean is a horrible, horrible person. No mental illness or diagnosis can change or justify his actions.

With that out of the way, I’ll start my analysis under the cut.

From my research of different disorders, Jason Dean shows very obvious signs and symptoms of two Cluster B personality disorders: Borderline Personality Disorder and Anti-Social Personality Disorder. In this post, I’ll be going in-depth with my reasoning as to why I feel that these two disorders fit Jason Dean as a character... Without including the murders that litter the plot of Heathers. They’re self-explanatory, and I feel that including them would be in bad taste, and there’s plenty of other subtextual things that prove my headcanon without the outright implication of “he murdered three people, that’s more than enough proof he has these disorders.”

I’ll start with Borderline Personality Disorder. The list of symptoms that I will be using for this post can be found [here]. I’ll be going down the list and pointing canonical facts to support my claims.

Efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment, such as rapidly initiating intimate (physical or emotional) relationships or cutting off communication with someone in anticipation of being abandoned

This one is fairly obvious, considering how he’s very quick to get upset over the idea of Veronica leaving him. He’ll do whatever it takes to keep her from leaving, because he needs her. See his promise to change in Seventeen, as well as his reaction when she breaks up with him after McNamara’s attempted suicide.

The attempt to bomb the school falls under this, due to his views of the school + student body “taking” her from him, and causing her to abandon him.

Also, see his warning to Veronica in Freeze Your Brain:

But the sky’s gonna hurt when it falls So you’d better start building some walls

A pattern of intense and unstable relationships with family, friends, and loved ones, often swinging from extreme closeness and love (idealization) to extreme dislike or anger (devaluation)

Four words: Meant To Be Yours. He’s so mood-swingy about Veronica in the song, and it’s one of the things that makes it so amazing to me. He goes from sadness to anger in a split second, and then back again.

Not to mention the very beginning of the song!

You chucked me out like I was trash, For that you should be dead-- But! But! But! Then it hit me like a flash! What if high school went away instead?

It’s also important to note his views of the Heathers and the Jocks: they’re all terrible people who deserved to die. There’s no gray area when it comes to people for him. People are either good or bad, with no in between.

Distorted and unstable self-image or sense of self

His entire identity, throughout the musical, revolves around Veronica’s love for him.As long as Veronica loves him, he’s... Okay. Ish.

Impulsive and often dangerous behaviors, such as spending sprees, unsafe sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, and binge eating.

I know that I said that I wouldn’t use the murders to prove my point, but I feel this is a necessary place to: his decision to kill Heather Chandler is impulsive. A spur of the moment thing, and something that he obviously doesn’t think through very well. He’s very aware of how risky the situation is, yet he continues to not tell Veronica that she grabbed the wrong cup.

Also in the movie he rides his motorcycle without a helmet.

Self-harming behavior, such as cutting

The entirety of Freeze Your Brain.

Also, in Meant to Be Yours:

You left me and I fell apart I punched the wall and cried BAM! BAM! BAM!

Recurring thoughts of suicidal behaviors or threats

Once again, look at Freeze Your Brain and the fact that he??? Literally kills himself at the end.

When the voice in your head Says your better off dead Don’t open a vein Just freeze your brain!

Intense and highly changeable moods, with each episode lasting from a few hours to a few days

Again, I would like to point you to the entire end of the musical, where his mood is changing rapidly. Not just in Meant to Be Yours, but also between Dead Girl Walking (Reprise) and Damaged.

Inappropriate, intense anger or problems controlling anger

Once Again, see Meant to Be Yours. Also, in general, how he gets incredibly angry over little things throughout the musical. Especially when he points the gun at Veronica, even if it is an accident.

Difficulty trusting, which is sometimes accompanied by irrational fear of other people’s intentions

Freeze Your Brain’s beginning:

Don’t learn the names Don’t bother with faces

Now, for ASPD, or Antisocial Personality Disorder, I will be using the symptoms listed [here].

Antisocial personality disorder, sometimes called sociopathy, is a mental condition in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others. People with antisocial personality disorder tend to antagonize, manipulate or treat others harshly or with callous indifference. They show no guilt or remorse for their behavior.

Individuals with antisocial personality disorder often violate the law, becoming criminals. They may lie, behave violently or impulsively, and have problems with drug and alcohol use. Because of these characteristics, people with this disorder typically can't fulfill responsibilities related to family, work or school.

Disregard for right and wrong.

I feel that this one is fairly obvious. JD doesn’t really care if what he’s doing fits into society’s definition of “right” and “wrong.” He’s doing his own thing, and that’s all that really matters to him.

Persistent lying or deceit to exploit others.

Did you meant: The Entire Musical and Movie? JD consistently lies to Veronica to get her to go along with what he wants to do. He purposefully doesn’t tell her that she grabbed the wrong cup, and also the whole “Ich Luge Bullets” lie. Both to exploit Veronica into helping him achieve his less-than-morally-sound goals.

Being callous, cynical and disrespectful of others.

He has no respect for most other people, especially not the authority figures in his life. Veronica is an exception, in some ways. But even then?

He’s a very callous and cynical person, and for fuck’s sake. He shoots a gun in the house just to piss his dad off.

Using charm or wit to manipulate others for personal gain or personal pleasure.

Again, please see literally the entire musical. The Ich Luge Bullets scene comes to mind again, as well as his manipulation of Heather Duke to get those signatures for the note. He’s a manipulative person who’ll go to the extreme to accomplish what he wants.

Arrogance, a sense of superiority and being extremely opinionated.

“Our Love is God.” JD has a severe God Complex, labeling himself as the Judge, Jury, and Executioner of all those who had done terrible things at Westerburg.

His opinions are really all that matters to him, and let’s take a look at the movie for a lovely example. In the scene where he takes Veronica away from the pasture? When he’s pissed about her spending time with another Heather?

“Sorry, I’m feeling a little superior tonight.” Followed by the iconic: “Our love is God, let’s go get a Slushie.” quote.

Recurring problems with the law, including criminal behavior.

Ignoring the murders? There’s still the fights that he gets into.

Repeatedly violating the rights of others through intimidation and dishonesty.

Meant to Be Yours. Just, the entirety of Meant to Be Yours. He’s intimidating Veronica because he wants her back, not caring about how she feels about the situation. He’ll do anything to get her back, because she makes him feel loved. It’s not really about how much he loves her-- He loves the fact that she loved him. And he wants that back.

Impulsiveness or failure to plan ahead.

Admittedly, this entirely describes Musical JD. Movie JD is quite the opposite, however.

Hostility, significant irritability, agitation, aggression or violence.

JD is snappy and violent throughout the entire musical. The scene where he pulls out the gun to shoot the TV? And then points it at Veronica by “accident” when she breaks up with him?

He’s a very irritable and aggressive person, especially if he doesn’t get what he wants. Not to mention, again, violence.

Lack of empathy for others and lack of remorse about harming others.

He doesn’t show any remorse after the murders. At all. He doesn’t show any legitimate remorse throughout the musical. Not even in “I am Damaged.” He’s simply parroting the things that Veronica had said during Seventeen, proving his feeling that he deserves to die over her.

Though I suppose the entirety of “I Am Damaged” proves BPD, more than anything.

Unnecessary risk-taking or dangerous behavior with no regard for the safety of self or others.

I don’t think that there’s any canon evidence for this, but I can still see it.

Poor or abusive relationships.

His relationship with his dad! His relationship with Veronica!

How can anyone look at JDRonica and say that it isn’t toxic as shit? Because it is. Sorry guys, I love the ship? But it’s toxic as fuck, and I really wish that people would portray it as such.

JD isn’t good for Veronica. Their relationship is toxic and unhealthy.

Failure to consider the negative consequences of behavior or learn from them.

Seventeen happens, and then what does JD do after the Shine a Light incident? He suggests killed Heather Duke. He learned nothing from what he and Veronica talked about during the song.

He thinks that Veronica will still love him, even though she made it clear that he needs to stop. Thus she breaks up with him, because he doesn’t know right from wrong. He doesn’t consider that his actions have consequences, and he oversteps the very clear boundary that was set in Seventeen.

To conclude? JD is mentally ill and unstable as fuck, and needed serious help that he didn’t get. Things could have ended better if he had gotten the help that he needed, but he didn’t. And so everything went to shit.

Please stop ignoring how unstable he is just for your “Cute” and “pure” ship. Learn to actually look at a character, instead of turning them into something that they’re not.

#jason dean #jd #heathers #heathers the musical #meta #headcanons #heathers headcanons

19 notes · View notes