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This is a real article... seriously.
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/darth-vader-had-bpd-13297.html
From CBS News, via WebMD:
Anakin Skywalker, the Star Wars character who became Darth Vader, had borderline personality disorder, psychiatrists report. The news comes not from a galaxy far, far away, but from San Diego, where the American Psychiatric Association (APA) is holding its 160th annual meeting. Experts from the psychiatric department at France's University Hospital of Toulouse told the APA's annual meeting that Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader could "clearly" be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.
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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/bRuz/~3/119038009/2007_05_20_archive.html
That's me going all Anakin Skywalker on the idea of mandatory national service. It's one of those ideas which appealed to me, not coincidentally, around the time when I would've been too old for it to apply to me...
Okay, never mind the content for a moment. That first sentence... how cool! Anakin Skywalker has entered the public lexicon. I love it!!! Even if atrios is big geek, it's still cool. :) |
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Really interesting article on psychopathy.
It's not just about violence and being manipulative (although, it's easy to see how Palpatine fits this mould). It's not just about not feeling. It's about missing peripheral cues that other people catch, and missing them far beyond emotional issues. It's about failing to see the long-term consequences of their actions.
Sound more like Anakin, does it?
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/so-what-is-a-psychopath-really-10918.html
It should be noted, as the article does, that lots of people that display psychopathic tendencies lead perfectly normal, law-abiding lives. And researchers believe that it can be treated with behavioural therapy. One researcher categorizes it as essentially a developemental deficit.
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This doesn't have anything to do with me... I'm just thinking about Anakin's place in the Star Wars universe... predestination aside (possibly).
I guess I see Anakin's place in the Star Wars universe as the Avatar of the Force. Despite what Palpatine may have hinted at about Anakin's origins, I think I disagree (at least today... it's intriguing, but I'm sure George will never tell us if he's as smart as I think he is). I think Anakin was conceived by the Force itself, and that Anakin is the Force embodied, thus it's Avatar. And like any good Avatar, is not really his own being. He is, sadly, merely a pawn of the "great soul of the universe" if you will. I think that the Prophecy itself stems from the fact that the Force decided that the Jedi and the Sith had both destabilized the Force. The Sith because they glorified only the "negative" parts and rejected all the good parts; that they indulged in killing and hating and not living and loving. And the Jedi became lost themselves by rejecting emotion (and specifically love) which is a crucial element of the Force, the Living Force. By rejecting emotion, they became separated from the Force. Their motives were good, but still "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". Qui-Gon notes at one point in the books, when speaking of his love for Tahl and Obi-Wan's for Siri, that perhaps the Jedi could change, but not with this Council... in fact, I think the problem was deeper and older than that, not just that Yodi was on the Council for x-hundred years. I don't think it could have changed even upon his death without some kind of violent transformation. Anakin's inability to conform to the Jedi Code was a sign of how disconnected the Jedi had become to the Force (since Anakin was the Avatar of the Force). His going over the Dark Side was not a matter of a moral judgment, but rather a necessary evil (like the Council's lying to Palpatine) in the service of a greater good. And Anakin's moral ambiguity is, in fact, the moral ambiguity of the Force itself.
This is not particularly a positive thing, being a pawn, but one could argue it absolves him of guilt.
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