Recommendations for Using Psychoanalysis When Analyzing Characters

Academic Paper- Fall 2025

Imagine you are watching a TV show or reading a book. Now imagine that the main character is acting in an unusual way. Maybe they have a short fuse, or they mutter to themselves a lot. You might be tempted to say those characters are afflicted with a specific mental disorder like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. You might even be tempted to say the creator of that character is using their own experience to write that character. There is no harm in that right? Now imagine you’re an influencer, you have a sizable following of a few million followers. One day you post your opinion on the internet telling your audience you believe this character is schizophrenic. Your audience loves this theory and latches onto it. They begin making their own posts and theories about this character. Now everyone believes that character is schizophrenic and as a consequence they believe almost everything that character does is a trait of schizophrenia. This is good representation for people with schizophrenia; but what if you got it wrong? What if you were not knowledgeable enough to accurately diagnose that character? Now everyone who believes you believes schizophrenia is exactly like what that character experienced. This is one way stereotypes of mental disorders can spread. 

When I first met my partner and I learned he had bipolar disorder I had some negative stereotypes attached to the disorder. Every “depiction” I had seen of someone with bipolar depicted them with a short fuse. One moment they are happy as can be and the next they are screaming. Now my partner can have a short fuse at times but everyone has those moments. As I got to know him, I realized that pretty much everything I knew about the disorder was wrong. There were so many times I asked him why he did something and he would reply, “I have bipolar disorder.” He has expressed to me many times his frustration with how people represent bipolar disorder. I have heard that the representation he sees for the disorder is inaccurate, stereotypical, and disappointing. However, he said he found really good representation in an online indie animation called, The Amazing Digital Circus. None of the characters in the show are explicitly labeled with a mental disorder and he prefers it to be that way. Despite heavily relating to Gangle, one of the characters from the show, he is glad she is not labeled as bipolar. He believes this prevents all of her character traits from being connected to bipolar disorder and allows people with other mental disorders to relate to her in a more meaningful way. Psychoanalytic analysis is a useful tool to use when analyzing literature because it allows audience members to connect with literature in a unique way but diagnosing characters or authors with specific mental disorders can be detrimental. 

Narratio

Literature informs the way we see and view the world (Hrastic et al., 2023). Sigmund Freud understood this and he changed the way scholars look at literature when he began analyzing texts through a psychoanalytical lens (Hossain, 2017). His readings of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Dostoevsky’s works, and the story of Moses started a form of literature analysis that scholars have been using since to gain a deeper understanding of literature. Psychoanalysis has been argued to not just have merit in the psychology field but that it helps us understand literature, history, philosophy, culture, and religion (Hossain, 2017). The early foundation of this connection between literature and psychology can be found in texts written by ancient philosophers like Socrates and Plato (Kohlar & Kohlar, 2023). This connection between ancient Greek philosophers and psychoanalysis can be clearly seen by Freud basing the Oedipus complex off of Sophocleus' drama Oedipus the King. Freud’s analysis of Oedipus the King and Shakespeare’s Hamlet revealed he believed literary works are much like daydreams; coming to the conclusion that literature contains unseen desires that improve upon an unsatisfactory reality (Hossain, 2017). Psychoanalytic readings of Shakespeare are still common to this day (Kohlar & Kohlar, 2023). Later philosophical works by philosophers like Kant, Nietzsche, and many others also impacted psychoanalytical ideas (Kohlar & Kohlar, 2023). However this connection to literature is not one sided, because authors like Camus, Kafka, Proust, and Sartre blend philosophy, psychoanalysis, and literature. Analyzing literature through a psychoanalytical lens has been common practice for nearly a century. One of the most famous psychoanalytical readings is Ernest Jones’s where he, “concludes that Hamlet is unable to fulfill his duty to kill his uncle because that murder is too closely linked in his repressed unconscious to his forbidden oedipal wishes to murder his father and marry his mother…” (Ogden & Ogden, 2013, p. 8). A later psychoanalytic reading of a text written by Frederick Crews asserts that an author named Nathaniel Hawthorn was plagued by the same “forbidden desires” that he had written his characters to have. He later renounced this claim but his claim still had an impact on psychoanalytical readings of literature. 

Confirmatio 

Throughout all of my literature courses, I've noticed a trend of people talking about mental illness in a way that isn't truly accurate to how it is depicted in the DSM five, the main diagnostic criteria for mental health disorders. However, many people do not have experience with the DSM 5 or mental disorders outside of their own personal experience. So, the way we understand mental illness comes from our own personal experiences and the media we have interacted with. However, the media isn’t always accurate with their depiction.  One of the greatest examples of this is Rhett, and Link's (2014) “My OCD (song)” music video, which portrays OCD as extreme perfectionism. While the experience of Link Neal’s character in this music video is not entirely inaccurate, it is still a stereotypical depiction of OCD. In contrast, John Green's (2017) Turtles All the Way Down portrays OCD in a much more accurate and descriptive way because the author applied his prior knowledge and experience with the disorder to the main character. Asa’s experience with OCD explicitly shows both the obsessive side of the disorder as well as the compulsive. Throughout the novel, Asa is shown obsessing over germs and this obsession is directly tied to her compulsions (Green, 2017). She is shown looking up specific types of bacteria and obsessive over them to the point she drinks hand sanitizer. This depiction is much different that Rhett and Link’s (2014) depiction of OCD where they mostly show the compulsive side. These two examples of media show that when mental illness is depicted in media, without acknowledging the reality of the disorder, it often falls into stereotypical depictions. Split, a movie from 2016 that features someone with dissociative identity disorder who kidnaps three girls. It's a very negative portrayal of someone with dissociative identity disorder. Like the “My OCD (song)” music video this movie further informs the audience's opinion about what the depicted mental disorder is like. In turn, it could lead audience members to depict this disorder in a similar manner in their creative works. Depictions like this can further stigmatize disorders that already have a negative or incorrect view attached (Signorelli & Neer, 2020). Someone who was exposed to these disorders through a depiction that is not accurate could forever associate that specific disorder with that depiction. 

In the past, when scholars looked at literature through a psychoanalytical lens, they have claimed authors were secretly plagued by their characters’ mental disturbances (Ogden & Ogden, 2013). This can quickly become problematic, specifically if this analysis includes a mentioned mental disorder. In Benjamin Ogden and Thomas Ogden’s (2013) article, “What is Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism", they said: 

Contemporary psychoanalytic literary critics continue to produce readings of literature based on the supposition that literary characters behave and think like real human beings; that fictional characters have unconscious psychological problems that the reader may identify and diagnose; and that the author and his characters share the same unconscious dilemmas. (p. 9)

So according to these experts modern day readings of texts fall into the same patterns Crews fell into. Critics apply real world disorders to characters that are often metaphorical or unrealistic. They then move beyond diagnosing characters to claiming authors have the same unconscious problems their characters do. In a discussion with Dr. Jeanette Goddard (personal communication, October 28, 2025), she said there are many times where an author is unimportant towards a person’s understanding of a text. She said there is some scholarly debate about whether or not Henry V was written by Shakerspeare but questioned if this debate truly impacted the way someone would read that text. Jeff Koons has a studio where interns do a significant portion of the work (Coates, 2024). Does knowing that  change the way his balloon dog sculptures look? It might change the way someone feels about those sculptures but it does not change the sculptures themselves. It is much more important to look at the content found within a text than the author themself. 

   Diagnosing characters and authors with mental disorders leads to more stereotypical depictions in media. For example, If someone were to claim a character had OCD and chose three accurate symptoms and three stereotypical aspects how would an uninformed audience member be able to tell the difference? This analysis of the character would then stick with the audience for years. It is important to recognize that psychoanalytical theory is exceedingly important to literature theory and the way that we discuss and analyze literature (Tyson, 2015). It will never go away or not be used by scholars because it is foundational to understanding literature. When someone is using psychoanalysis to analyze literature it’s more important to answer the “why” behind a character's actions through understanding unconscious desires and influences (Tyson, 2015). Analyzing a character and finding out that they push other characters away because they were abandoned by their father is much more interesting than boiling down their behavior to a diagnosis. Diagnosing characters and authors with specific mental disorders should be avoided because much more nuanced conversations can happen. Labeling also leads us into falling more into stereotypical depictions of mental disorders, as opposed to just real life depictions of mental disorders. 

Refutio  

Fictional characters reflect reality. Fictional characters may not think and behave like real humans do (Ogden & Ogden, 2013) but they are written by humans and often do reflect something realistic. An author might not be knowledgeable about depression and the symptoms of the disorder. However, they likely know someone who struggles with depression. Authors can observe people with those disorders and write those characters based on those observations. Characters reflect people who are real and observable. Some might claim that the idea that we cannot label a character with a mental disorder misunderstands the very foundation of psychoanalysis in literature. Sigmund Freud even based some of his psychological theories on literature (Hossain, 2017). If we were to completely ignore the idea of someone having a mental disorder how do we truly depict them in the media? How can we even be sure that the mental disorder is being depicted correctly if we don’t know what it is? If we take a look at John Green’s Turtle’s all the Way Down we can see the benefit of explicitly labeling a character with OCD. The audience is able to learn about OCD and people with OCD may be able to connect with the character in a meaningful way. Another example of a character in media with an explicit diagnosis is Dr. Miranda Bailey from Grey’s anatomy. Throughout the course of a few episodes the audience gets to see a competent medical professional struggle immensely with a form of contamination OCD (Orem, 2017). This depiction explicitly shows both the obsessive and compulsive side of the disorder through her repeatedly testing herself for staph in her lab. This depiction shows the reality of someone living with this disorder and gives people afflicted with the disorder representation. Not only does this character provide representation but she provides positive representation. This character is characterized as being a highly competent professional and one of the best surgeons in the hospital. Explicitly diagnosing her also allows scholars to discuss larger themes found within this depiction. In her article, “(Un)necessary Procedures: Black Women, Disability, and Work in ‘Grey's Anatomy’", Sarah Orem (2017) discusses the unique relationship between capitalism and mental illness. Without an explicit diagnosis attached to this character, discussions about topics like this would be less common. However, during my discussions with Dr. Goddard (personal communication, October 28, 2025) pointed out that oftentimes the diagnosis is not the important part of analyzing a character within a text. Goddard (personal communication, October 28, 2025) has seen a lot of students claim a character within a text has a mental illness and then they do not want to talk about the text anymore. Oftentimes her students think a diagnosis or just pointing out a character is mentally ill is enough. However, diagnosing a character should not be the end of the discussion. It is much more interesting to analyze their motivations, desires, and faults. An audience member should ask themselves “Why does it matter?” when they choose to diagnose a character. Orem (2017) succeeds in answering that question in her analysis of Dr. Bailey. It is also important to recognize the value of depicting mental illness in the media because it can lead to people reaching out for help (Medaris, 2025). Mental illness should be depicted in the media but we should remember that a thoughtful, purposeful depiction should be the goal. If we are depicting someone with a mental illness we should ask ourselves why it matters? Why does this character need to be labeled? What can we learn from this character? 

Peroratio 

Freud started a trend that has stuck with us for years. Using psychoanalytical literature theory when discussing books, TV shows, songs, and movies has impacted the way we look at mental illnesses. It has, in some cases, caused us to view mental illnesses in a more stereotypical, inaccurate, and negative way. We have even moved beyond that and assumed the creators of these books, TV shows, songs, and movies experience the same unconscious problems their characters face. In future readings of these works it would be beneficial to critically think about how we are talking about these characters and the creators of those characters. Not only does it lead to more mindful representation but it leads to more interesting, thoughtful conversations about characters' unconscious influences and desires. It would also be beneficial for creators to analyze why they are depicting a character a certain way. Doing some research into these disorders and critically analyzing their own work would help prevent stereotypical depictions from occurring in the future.

References

Coates, G. (2024, September 24). The ghost artists: famous works created by assistants and interns. Naturalists Gallery of Contemporary Art. https://naturalist.gallery/blogs/journal/the-ghost-artists-famous-works-created-by-assistants-and-interns

Green, J. (2017). Turtles All the Way Down. Dutton Books. 

Hossain, M. (2017). Psychoanalytic Theory used in English Literature: A Descriptive Study. Global Journal of Human-Social Science, 17(1), 41-46. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353246513_Psychoanalytic_Theory_Used_in_English_Literature_A_Descriptive_Study

Hrastic, L., Osher, B., & Skidar, Z. (2023). Beyond aesthetics: The unique value of literature as a tool for political, social, personal, and communal change. OxJournal. https://www.oxjournal.org/beyond-aesthetics-value-literature-political-social-personal-communal-change/ 

Kolar, D., & Kolar, M. (2023). Psychoanalysis, Philosophy and Literature- Intersection of Science and Art. European Psychiatry, 66, S973. https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2023.2069

Medaris, A (2025, April 24). Is mental health still misconstrued on screen? psychology goes to Hollywood to dispel stigma. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2024/03/psychology-hollywood-mental-health 

Neer, E., & Signorelli, J. (2020). Addressing the portrayal of mental illness in film and television. Psychology in Action. https://www.psychologyinaction.org/2020-3-25-addressing-the-portrayal-of-mental-illness-in-film-and-television/ 

Ogden, B., & Ogden, T. (2013). What is Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism? (39) What is Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism? (Co-author Thomas H. Ogden)

Orem, S. (2017). (Un)necessary Procedures: Black Women, Disability, and Work in "Grey's Anatomy". African American Review, 50(2), 169-183. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26444067 \

Rhett and Link’s Wonderhole. (2014, June 17). My OCD (song) [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnzz-eFmKaw 

Shyamalan, N. M. (Director). (2016). Split [Film]. Universal Pictures; Blinding Edge Pictures; Blumhouse Productions; Dentsu; Fuji Television Network; Fuji Eight Company. 

Tyson, L. (eds.). (2015). Critical Theory Today: A User Friendly Guide (3rd ed.). Routledge.