I was watching the Dexter’s Laboratory episode “Dream Machine” and for those unfamiliar with how the episode opens, here is a summary: Dexter is taking a test with the time running out. There is only one question: 2 + 2=____. Even though the question is easy for a ‘genius’ like Dexter, he can’t answer it. He hears a sound like a ink-jet printer running and looks over to see his sister Deedee also taking a test but the only question on her test is “What is the purpose of meaning?”, which she answers easily with a streaming of mathmatical equations. Sure, it is played for comedic effect that Dexter, a boy who actually looks forward to things like tests and quizzes to show off his intelligence like the big nerd he is, unable to answer an easy question and feeling inadequate compared with his ‘stupid’ sister but that made me think: Does Dexter actually fear that Deedee might be smarter than him and fear losing his only defining characteristic; his intelligence? According to Dream Moods.com, the dream (or nightmare, in this case) of taking a test, the circumstances (in this case, Deedee taking a test right beside Dexter and breezing through a complicated and somewhat philosophical question) of the dream highlight fears in the waking life, of competition and a percieved feeling of inadequacy. Because the logic of science is Dexter’s only comfort, he feels possessive of that quality and cannot accept the thought that Deedee could be as smart as or even smarter than him. In the episode “Come Back Sassy” when Dexter and his family go camping, he complains that there is nothing scientific about being outside and among nature, which makes Deedee bring up Gregor Mendel, the scientist who was considered the Grandfather of Genetics. Dexter yells at Deedee that he knows this, muttering to himself on how Deedee could know something like that. In “Old McDexter”, Deedee says Dexter “would know ‘cool’ if it was tattooed on your retina’, which causes a similar reaction: a hostile and annoyed “I KNEW THAT!”, while questioning why and/or how Deedee could know something like that. I was trying to categorize Deedee intelligence in its own way and I think she might be closer to an idiot savant than an actual idiot. In the cartoon, she shows a tremendous imagination (not getting into the separate topic of whether her imaginary friend, Koosalagoopagoop is real or not) and a gift for storytelling, so much so that when Dexter shrinks down and sneaks into Deedee’s room to spy on her in “Doll House Drama”, he gets sucked into Deedee’s soap-opera style story she concocts with him and her Darby doll. In his mind, he has already defined Deedee as stupid and cannot see it another way that maybe she doesn’t invent things like Dexter but may still be smart. Back to the episode, Dexter brings Deedee to man the Dream Machine to make sure he says in the Dream state and doesn’t cross over into another Nightmare. (why he brings a sleepy Deedee and doesn’t give the job to his computer is a bit confusing but for my theory, it works) His dream goes swimmingly, dreaming of achieving a state of accumulating all knowledge until Deedee invades his dream and calls into question his intelligence. She brandishes her test on the purpose of meaning, representing the one thing Dexter doesn’t know and he seeks out the Grandfather of All Knowledge who is: Dee. Deedee’s intrusion into Dexter’s fantasy of being smart and successful mirrors his waking life: Deedee invading his ‘mind’ (his laboratory) and causing discord.

All right, after watching the latest episode and not having overthought anything in a while, I felt like writing something. So why not write about ponies? Here’s my hypothesis: every pony of the mane cast represents a personality disorder according to the DSM-IV. To be diagnosed with a particular disorder, you have to fulfill at least four and in some cases five criteria that are typical for that disorder. All statements listed with a bullet point are taken directly from the DSM-IV’s definition. So, let’s get diagnosing.

Histrionic Personality Disorder: Pinkie Pie

Ponies suffering from histrionic personality disorder have one and only goal in life: being the center of attention. As the most recent episode has shown, behind everypony’s favorite fun-loving, good-natured, party pony lurks a deeply troubled and disturbed soul that can only be herself when she’s the focus of everybody’s attention.

• is uncomfortable in situations in which he or she is not the center of attention

That’s Pinkie Pie all right. She has a tendency to burst into the scene and disregard anything else that might be going on. In Applebuck Season she took center stage during the award ceremony for Applejack and had to be reminded that she wasn’t, in fact, the reason everyone gathered in the town’s square.

• displays rapidly shifting and shallow expression of emotions

Remember how during the finale of the second episode she burst into tears and IMMEDIATELY went to announcing a party? Remember how she went from being scared to being excited to being indifferent in Bridle Gossip?

• consistently uses physical appearance to draw attention to self

Her costumes, her uncanny ability to appear anywhere at any time, take your pick. This is Pinkie in a nutshell.

• shows self-dramatization, theatricality, and exaggerated expression of emotion

See above; also, everything about her is theatrical. Remember her song that started a war?

• considers relationships to be more intimate than they actually are.

Remember how she “frisked” Hairity during Bridle Gossip? Yeah, she has no sense of “personal space”, which is why’s she always in everybody’s face. Also, she tried to befriend a dragon in Dragonshy by simply being… Pinkie. She believes her personality is enough to warrant trust and intimacy.

• has a style of speech that is excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail

Her silly willy dilly filler words just serve as packaging for her outbursts.

Also, the story of her childhood she told in Cutie Mark Chronicles was, apparently, horse apples. Yet her transformation into her old Pinkamena persona hints at this part being true: she used to be someone else. This could potentially hint at dissociative personality disorder: delusions, false memory, paranoia etc. are all signs of what is colloquially known as a “split personality”. Maybe she constructed her Pinkie identity as a kind of defense mechanism, to distance herself from a truly traumatic event in her childhood and the attention she receives helps her maintain that defense by legitimizing it. So there may still be some truth in that tall tale she related to the CMC.

Her tendency to mess with the fourth wall could also be considered a sign that she’s not who we think she is. Pinkie remains a mystery.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Rarity

Named after Narcissus, some dude who pops up in Greek mythology who was so obsessed with himself that he fell in love with his own reflection. This can be considered the more “introvert” version of histrionic personality disorder; narcissists don’t compete for other people’s attention because they know how godlike they are.

• Has a grandiose sense of self-importance

Welp, that’s a freebie.

• Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

This is too easy.

• Believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

Rarity does not associate with the riffraff as evidenced by her problems with Applejack’s conduct during Look Before you Sleep and glorifies Equestria’s high society in The Ticket Master.

• Requires excessive admiration

c.f. her Icarus-like story in Sonic Rainboom

• Has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations

The dogs in A Dog and Pony Show even enabled her sense of entitlement by conforming to it.

• Is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her

They devoted an entire episode to this.

• Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

I really oughta stop here. Seriously Rarity, go see a shrink.

• Predominant “name dropper” boasting or suggestion association with people or affiliations of importance.

Just because I’m not a big fan of Rarity, this one’s just for fun. Or petty vengeance: Photo Finish? Hoity Toity? Sapphire Shores? You name it, she’s named it. And associated with it.

Not much to say here. Rarity is what the scientific community refers to as “totally fucking nuts”. Of course, her calling being something entirely superficial only makes it worse. I don’t have much hope for this one.

Paranoid Personality Disorder: Rainbow Dash

Pegasus society is, apparently, much more competitive than any other pony society. We get to see how boastful and brash flying ponies are so Dashie took this competitiveness to its logical extreme: everyone’s your enemy. Trust nopony.

• suspects, without sufficient basis, that others are exploiting, harming, or deceiving him or her
• is preoccupied with unjustified doubts about the loyalty or trustworthiness of friends or associates

Those are both pretty similar and both of course apply to Dashie. “Are you a spy?” is probably the most obvious hint; Dashie is quick to doubt the loyalty of others. This may have something to do with her representing loyalty: unless another pony conforms to her idea of loyalty, that pony has to be disloyal.

• is reluctant to confide in others because of unwarranted fear that the information will be used maliciously against him or her

Dashie tends to get uncomfortable when the situation gets emotional. And of course she refused to tell anyone about her being nervous (if not outright scared to death) during Sonic Rainboom. She also denies being scared of dragons after almost having her rump kicked by one. She must maintain her tough pony persona.

• persistently bears grudges, i.e. is unforgiving of insults, injuries, or slights

Applejack beating her almost made her obsess about defeating AJ (to be fair, the obsession was mutual). And she didn’t intend to rest until she’s beaten AJ; losing is an insult to her.

• perceives attacks on his or her character or reputation that are not apparent to others and is quick to react angrily or to counterattack

She’s quick to consider any offhand remark a challenge. Not to mention that she’s quick to become defensive in general but to her credit, this extends to other ponies.

Despite her initial reluctance, she gladly and warmly accepted her friends’ group hug at the end of Cutie Mark Chronicles. So the treatment regimen is quite simple: more group hugs.

Psychology of Cartoons Part 1: Scooby-Doo
> Catena Ex Situ

I can’t really say much more about this Metaphilm article than is already expressed in the following excerpt:

In the film Fight Club, the real name of the protagonist (Ed Norton’s character) is never revealed. Many believe the reason behind this anonymity is to give “Jack” more of an everyman quality. Do not be deceived. “Jack” is really Calvin from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. It’s true. Norton portrays the grown-up version of Calvin, while Brad Pitt plays his imaginary pal, Hobbes, reincarnated as Tyler Durden.

Click below to read about the other eerie parallels between Calvin & Hobbes and Fight Club, including Susie Derkins, Moe, and G.R.O.S.S.

The Return of Hobbes
> Catena Ex Situ

Contributed by Krissy N.

Many people like to hypothesize that perhaps Peppermint Patty and Marcy are lesbians, despite a blatant lack of evidence. Peppermint Patty is not gay. This much is obvious from her treatment of Charlie Brown. She likes him. She expresses her crush through her aggressiveness, by being overly chummy and encouraging him to do things he would normally avoid. She is forcing a relationship between them. Notice that Charlie Brown never contacts her intentionally; they run into each other at school or afterward, on the baseball team, or while shopping. Their relationship is based on knowing the same people and attending the same school.

Why Patty chooses to be aggressive toward Charlie is a matter of observation. Aside from Patty, the other girls include Sally and Lucy. Sally is Charlie’s sister, he has no choice about his relationship with her, they live in the same house. Lucy is the only girl Charlie approaches willingly, seeking her “advice” often. In these sessions she abuses and ridicules him. From observing this type of behavior, one may conclude that Charlie Brown is a masochist. Patty figures that the only way to have any sort of relationship is to abuse the poor boy. But she can’t be like Lucy because of her love for Charlie; she wouldn’t intentionally hurt him.

Marcy has no strong evidence to prove that she is not gay, but there are some interesting things I can say in support. Marcy is very passive. We have never seen her take great action, or even say much beyond offering a few helpful points to Patty or covering for her in class. Marcy reminds me a bit of Charlie Brown in her passiveness. She never places herself into any given situation, more that she is flung into it. Her actions are often dictated by others. She doesn’t have any strong ambitions or goals, neither does Charlie outside of his desire to succeed at least once. Both of them are very polite, honest, and nice to other people (especially adults). The two don’t force their opinions onto anyone, neither of them have an outgoing or aggressive “will” to speak of (Even Linus has a strong will, though no actual personality flaws. Instead, he is a dynamic personality, with an old and knowledgeable soul). Because of these similar traits I always wished to see the pair together.

Their similarities make one think about their relationship to Patty. Charlie Brown is the object of Patty’s affections, so what does that make Marcy? The Peanuts gang is partly defined by its relationships: Patty likes Charlie, Lucy likes Schroeder, Sally likes Linus, Charlie Brown likes the cute little redhead girl. Marcy is an anomaly in this social circle as a figure not involved in any type of crush as the other characters are. So it is not entirely unlikely that Marcy likes Patty. Having some of the same personality traits as Charlie Brown makes her a likely candidate as a significant other for Patty. In contrast to Charlie, Marcy chooses to be near Patty, showing more control over her circumstances than he ever could. Seeing what kind of person Patty chooses to adore, Marcy emulates that behavior, trying to draw the attention toward herself. Of course that is merely not enough. Marcy makes herself helpful so that Patty acknowledges her existence, depending on Marcy to help her out of tough situations. She wedges herself into Patty’s life the way Patty attempts to place herself into Charlie Brown’s day. Marcy uses Patty’s actions as the basis for her own.

Though Marcy might act passive to gain Patty’s favor, I do not believe that it is merely a facade. Part of the behavior is native to her personality. She spends a lot of time with Patty, it is nearly impossible for any person to maintain a passive facade that long. Patty is very overbearing and egotistical, if there existed anything with Marcy’s personality to disagree, the two egos would have clashed and the pair of girls would always be fighting. Marcy’s lack of a personality saves her persona from being crushed by the monster that is Peppermint Patty. Marcy’s innate passiveness ultimately prevents her from revealing her true feelings. Admitting now one feels about someone else takes courage, especially for introverts such a Marcy, who must live in the perfect and most likely repressed society that is the world of Peanuts.

Here’s a great 10-minute mini-documentary on the artistry and influence of Bill Melendez, the animator who created most of the Peanuts specials we all know and love. Very interesting, especially how it ties in the Peanuts specials with Hitchcock, Kubrick, and Wes Anderson. It’s worth short time it takes to watch. (via Cartoon Brew)

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It seems to me rather easy to claim one’s writing to be Freudian by simply peppering with “id,” “ego,” and “superego,” and perhaps throwing in “cigar” or two. This is much in the same way that episodes of BraveStarr can be repurposed into Law & Order scripts by replacing all musical cues with “chung-chung” and/or Jerry Orbach.

So I am unqualified to testify as to the verisimilitude of the following Ex Situ, which is a review of The Cat in the Hat that appeared in The Koala, the student humor magazine of UCSD.

After pooh-poohing the righteous rantings of the waterlogged Christ figure, the Cat begins to juggle several icons of Western culture, most notably two books, representing the Old and New Testaments, and a saucer of lactal fluid, an ironic reference to maternal loss the two children experienced when their mother abandoned them “for the afternoon.” Our heroic Id adds to this bold gesture a rake and a toy man, and thus completes the Oedipal triangle.

Freud on Seuss > Catena Ex Situ

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