The transformation of lead character Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader in 'Star Wars' may be due to a borderline personality disorder, researchers have said.
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"I had watched the two prequel movies 'Attack of the Clones' and 'Revenge of the Sith', and it was during my residency in psychiatry while trying to explain borderline personality disorder to medical students that I thought of Anakin," Live Science quoted Eric Bui, a psychiatrist at Toulouse University Hospital in France, as saying.
Bui and his colleagues first presented their diagnosis at the annual convention of the American Psychiatric Association in 2007. Now, their letter to the editor titled "Is Anakin Skywalker suffering from borderline personality disorder?" is slated to appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychiatry Research.
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He only needed to meet five criteria to qualify as suffering from the disorder.
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Abandonment issues also surfaced. Skywalker had a permanent fear of losing his wife, Padme Amidala, and he went so far as to betray his Jedi mentors and companions to try to prevent her death.
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The first episode took place after he slaughtered a local tribe of Tuskens responsible for his mother's death.
A second episode occurred following his murderous rampage among young Jedi trainees, as he voiced paranoid thoughts about Obi-Wan Kenobi and his wife.
Lastly, any 'Star Wars' fan would recognize Skywalker's identity issues and uncertainty about who he was.
His fateful turn to the dark side and change of name to Darth Vader could represent the ultimate sign of such identity disturbance, the researchers said.
The future Darth Vader would also still qualify as a "borderline type" under the revised guidelines of the DSM-V, which will serve as the new bible for psychiatry.
"From what we know of the future DSM-V, Anakin is a 'good' to 'very good' match to the future BPD," Bui said.
Skywalker's case of borderline personality disorder has proven useful for both Bui and Rachel Rodgers, a researcher at the Center for Studies and Research in Applied Psychology in France.
They have used the 'Star Wars' example to teach their students for the past few years, and noted that such a famous fictional example could spread awareness.
The researchers also suggested that the success of the 'Star Wars' prequel films might partially rely upon how teens can relate to the troubled Anakin Skywalker.
Only adults can be diagnosed with to borderline personality disorder under the current DSM-IV guidelines, but Bui and Rodgers pointed to several studies that suggest the disorder is fairly frequent among teens.
Either way, the situation in the 'Star Wars' prequels seems clear to Bui. He pointed out that the emperor's dark and destabilizing influence upon a young Skywalker might have even exacerbated the symptoms of borderline personality disorder.
But like any good doctor, Bui also has a treatment recommendation.
"I believe that psychotherapy would have helped Anakin and might have prevented him from turning to the dark side," Bui explained.
"Using the dark side of the Force could be considered as similar to drug use: It feels really good when you use it, it alters your consciousness and you know you shouldn't do it," he added.
Source-ANI
