Hi, I had to do this being the daughter of an abnormal psychologist. s I'm certain that this will offend terribly and that I'll be flamed for it, but nyah, nyah, nyah...no, wait, that's the wrong attitude...I am very sorry now if I offend anyone, I am actually a member of NAMI, I have a tremendous respect for mental illnesses, and I really just couldn't resist trying to diagnose all of the characters.
Lina
Diagnosis: Oppositional defiant disorder
Symptoms: person often loses temper, often argues with adults, often
actively defies or refuses to comply with adults' requests or rules, often
blames others for his/her mistakes or misbehaviors, is often touchy or
easily annoyed by others, is often angry and resentful, is often spiteful
and vindictive.
Symptoms of Character: Obviously Lina loses her temper all of the time,
often over things that others would barely be angry about. Lina argues with
everyone and quite often refuses to do what she's told by her elders. She
periodically does blame others for her mistakes (although not overly often,
which is good) and is certainly easily annoyed by others. She is often
angry and resentful (especially towards the far bustier Nagha and Amelia)
and can be quite spiteful and vindictive, particularly as seen in the
episode where Martina places the curse on her and she continues to beat up
Martina even though it is hurting her. ODD is typically given rather than
just average teenaged rebellion when the potential person with ODD is
willing to do things just to spite the other person even though the action
will hurt himself/herself, which Lina clearly proves to be willing to do.
Treatment: Counseling.
Gourry
Diagnosis: None. Gourry seems to be fairly well grounded, although, after watching him hang around with this crowd, I might say "masochist" except that he derives no sexual pleasure from it.
Zelgadis
Diagnosis: bipolar disorder (probably II or the "potential" VII)
Symptoms: bipolar disorder (also known as manic-depression, for bipolar I)
is marked by drastic mood swings. Although someone with bipolar disorder
usually behaves normally, they will have depressed, manic, and mixed cycles
which are very disruptive to life. Depression is marked by two weeks or
longer of a greatly lowered mood usually accompanied by a change in
appetite, lack of sleep or too much sleep, crying, becoming upset over very
little, lack of energy, lethargy, looking at things in a very negative
sense, etc. Mania is characterized by at least a few days of a greatly
accelerated mood, particularly a lack of sleep, too much energy, flight of
thought, aggression, a williness to take stupid risks, tremendous happiness
or unhappiness, etc. A mixed mood combines aspects of both mania and
depression.
Symptoms of Character: Zelgadis certainly appears to be depressed at times
with his "why do I even bother living" speeches and "why I hate everything"
sorts of behaviors. Although he does not seem to be overly edgy or sleep
deprived, his apparent taste for caffinated beverages and alcohol, not to
mention his barely controlled rage at Xellos may show signs of mania,
especially as mania must only occur once for a diagnosis of bipolar. More
so, Zelgadis' obsessive quest for something (gaining strength, killing Rezo,
finding a cure) may be indicative of manic-depression as obsessive
personalities are often linked to the disease for unknown reasons.
(Particularly creative, driven obsessive people, such as Lord Byron,
Virginia Wolf, Patty Duke, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, etc.) Zelgadis is also
the grandson/great-grandson of Rezo who also seems to show signs of bipolar
disorder, which is highly genetic. (In fact, a fairly large number of
psychiatrists are hesitant about claiming that someone has bipolar disorder
unless there has been a diagnosis of a family member.) Zelgadis is also
referred to as a "berserker" or someone who will become manic in battle.
This has been accomplished throughout history either by drugs or mania.
Even if Zelgadis never does go through a manic stage (necessary for bipolar
one) or a hypomanic stage (a period of mild mania, which defines bipolar
II), in his family he might well be treated with lithium for his depression
regardless (which has proven to be effective on people who are depressed and
come from a family with manic-depression) which would probably mark him as
"bipolar VII". (Not a DSM IV disease, but it has been proposed for those
who suffer from depression but not mania but do have bipolar disorder in
their families.)
Treatment: Lithium or Depakote. (both mood stabilizing drugs) If these
are unavailable, reduce Zel's stress, and make certain that he gets plenty
of sleep each night as sleep cycles are tied closely to this illness.
Amelia
Diagnosis: Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Symptoms: excessively fidgety or squirmy, easily distracted, has difficulty
awaiting his/her turn, blurts out answers to questions, has difficulty
following instructions and sustaining attention, shifts from one activity to
another, has difficulty playing quietly, talks obsessively, interrupts,
doesn't listen to what's being said, often loses things, engages in
dangerous activities
Symptoms of Character: Amelia is certain a bit overactive at times. She's
easily distracted and seems to have trouble doing quite what she's supposed
to even if she fully understands what it is that she's supposed to do and
wants to do it. She talks a lot, interrupts, and certainly doesn't bother
listening to all of what's being said. Although a case could probably be
made that practically all of the characters in Slayers have ADHD, Amelia
comes to mind the most after reading the symptoms.
Treatment: Ritalin
Sylphiel
Diagnosis: Dependent Personality Disorder
Symptoms: Person is submissive and clingy
Symptoms of Character: Uh, yeah. See above.
Treatment: Therapy.
Martina
Diagnosis: Borderline Personality Disorder
Symptoms: absence of psychosis, impaired ego integration, contradictory view
of self, unstable relationships, repetitive self destructive behavior,
hypersensitivity, impulsive behaviors, chronic/major depression,
helplessness, hopelessness, worthlessness, guilt, anger, anxiety,
loneliness, boredom, nondelusional paranoia, manipulative self-mutilation or
suicide gestures, intolerance of aloneness, conterdependance,
manipulativeness, dependancy, masochism/sadism, demandingness, entitlement,
shift in mood lasting only a few hours, uncontrollable, inappropriate
laughter, etc., etc. (you can tell I found a good source)
Symptoms of Character: Martina certainly seems a little confused as to who
she is, particularly after the fall of her kingdom. She's certainly
manipulative and very sensitive and her behavior after she is cursed herself
would show that she is self destructive as well, not to mention her diving
off of roofs, etc. She's very lonely and is constantly looking for men to
fill that void (which is very common in female BPD people) She is very
demanding and believes that she deserves to get things. Martina is
tremendously moody, although her moods never seem to last long. She is
certainly has a large number of problems, but she never seems to become
delusional. (Even in her conversations back and forth with herself while
pretending to be Zolmalgustar, she seems to still be situated more or less
in the real world.)
Treatment: As with all personality disorders, intensive counseling.
Xellos
Diagnosis: Antisocial Personality Disorder
Symptoms: failure to conform to social norms, deceitfulness, irritability
and agressiveness, reckless disregard for the safety of self or others, lack
of remorse
Symptoms of Character: Between remorselessly killing thousands of gold
dragons, lying, concealing information, betraying friends, etc. Xellos fits
this description perfectly. Of course, with his plethora of weird
behaviors, he could probably be found to have quite a number of other
personality disorders, sex disorders, etc. including sadio-masochism,
schizotypial, etc.
Treatment: Psychoanalysis, therapy, possibly even drugs.
Filia
Diagnosis: Intermittent Explosive Disorder
Symptoms: failure to resist agressive impulses that result in serious
assault attacks or in the destruction of property
Symptoms of Character: How nice...an easy one. I'll just give examples:
Filia attacking Gourry with her mace after he looks up her skirt, Filia
ravaging the town as a dragon after Xellos taunts her, Filia...well, most of
what Filia does, actually.
Treatment: Anger management sessions and drug therapy.
Valgarv
Diagnosis: Paranoid Schizophrenia
Symptoms: delusions or frequent auditory hallucinations relating to a single
theme, including delusions of grandeur, persecution, or jealousy. Tend to
be agitated, confused, or afraid.
Symptoms of Character: This is the form of schizophrenia that tends to
manifest itself in the most "normal" way. Valgarv, with his desire to
destroy the world (come on, how many sane people desperately want that?) to
his paranoid belief that everyone is trying to kill him (which, I guess,
does have some basis in reality) to possibly even delusions of grandeur.
Valgarv certainly seems agitated and has periods of being afraid. Although
some of his symptoms would seem manic, the long duration for which he seems
to be plotting the destruction of the world quite seriously leads me to
believe that this paranoia is caused by the cancer of the mind.
Treatment: Drugs (thorazine, haldol, possibly lithium or other mood
stabilizers as well as the anti-psychotics), individual therapy, family
therapy. (Yeah, I could just see Filia, the high elder, Xellos, Garv,
Valgarv, etc. all before a therapist trying to work out their difficulties
with each other. Maybe Filia could tell Xellos "I am sorry that I was so
hostile towards you")
Nagha
Diagnosis: Narcissism
Symptoms: grandiosity, need for admiration, lack of empathy
Symptoms of Character: See above. Didn't I just describe Nagha? Nagha also
seems to have a phobia relating to blood, and perhaps a few other social
disorders considering her lack of modesty and bizarre laugh.
Treatment: Counseling