Paul's_Case__Personality_Disorders

Leslie Smith Professor Richard Dry October 23, 2011 English 4 DE Personality Disorders Can Destroy Lives Childhood is the prime developmental stage of any individual’s life. We learn much about the world as a whole through the eyes of our parents and the environment that we grow up in. The knowledge we acquire from the influential people in our lives as a child has a deep impact on our ability to mature into adulthood. If a child is disturbed during the developmental years, this can cause the child to have issues that will affect their behavior and their personality for the entirety of their lives. In the story “Paul’s Case” the main character, Paul, had psychological issues that affected this thought process and his life dramatically; so much that death was inevitable for him. Psychological criticism is a literary criticism that uses the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud to analyze fictional characters within a story. Using Freud’s psychoanalytic theories, one can determine the undiagnosed psychological issues of a character by studying their behavior. When a character’s behavior within a story is studied, it will reveal hidden motives, unconscious feelings, and disorders the character may have. The results from this analysis are then used to diagnose the character with one of the many behavioral and personality disorders that have been discovered in psychology. In “Paul’s Case” Paul requires psychoanalysis to bring light to his undiagnosed issues. Willa Cather titles her short story “Paul’s Case” alerting the readers that Paul has some underlying issues. The readers may then question what exactly is Paul’s case' Early in the story, Paul seems like the typical immature child rebelling against authority. As the story progresses, Paul’s deeply rooted psychological issues become evident. Paul’s instructors give a description of the type of aggression he had but “his instructors felt that it was scarcely possible to put into words the real cause of the trouble” (p 107). Paul's issues began early on in his life with the death of his mother after his birth. Without the presence of his mother to help balance out his ego, Paul’s issues lead him down a path of self destruction. After reading the story, I believe that Paul should be diagnosed with both narcissistic personality disorder and Bi-polar disorder. Paul’s behavior and personality throughout “Paul’s Case” resembles an individual who is narcissistic. Narcissistic personality disorder, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), is a condition where an individual is overwhelmed with fantasies involving unlimited success, power, love, or beauty and feel that they can only be understood by others who are, like them, superior in some aspect of life. In the beginning of the story, the attire Paul attire at his meeting with the faculty at his school reveals how Paul may feel superior to the authority figures he’s meeting with. His clothes were a trifle outgrown and the tan velvet on the collar of his open overcoat was frayed and worn; but for all that there was something of the dandy about him, and he wore an opal pin in his neatly knotted black four-in-hand, and a red carnation in his buttonhole. This latter adornment the faculty somehow felt was not properly significant of the contrite spirit befitting a boy under the ban of suspension (107). Paul’s goal was to upstage his teachers as if to prove that he belonged in a high class of individuals, regardless of the fact that he was in trouble for his behavior in school. The things Paul did in class with his students also reflected upon his unconscious belief that he was of a higher class than his peers or teachers. “In one class he habitually sat with his hand shading his eyes; in another he always looked out of the window during the recitation; in another he made a running commentary on the lecture, with humorous intention” (107). He did all this as if to prove to his authority that he was above their ranking in society. The additional symptom of someone who is narcissistic is when the person exaggerates their achievements and has a sense of entitlement. Paul feeds of the praises that he receives from the upper class individuals who attend the Opera where he works as an usher. “He was a model usher; gracious and smiling he ran up and down the aisles[…]he carried messages and brought programmes[…]all the people in his section thought him a charming boy, feeling that he remembered and admired him” (109). Paul feels because the upper class individuals show so much respect for the work he does as an usher, that he is one of them. After working as an usher at each Opera concert, Paul would frequently visit the upscale hotel that the upper class individuals would stay called the Schenley. Paul would fantasize about the hotel “longing to enter and leave schoolmasters and dull care behind him forever” (110). Paul feels because he works as an usher at the local opera that he should reap the rewards of the upper class citizens because he interacts with them daily. He feels he deserves to be amongst the upper class even though he hasn’t done anything to establish himself in the rankings. Paul’s behavior also can be diagnosed as an individual who suffers from bi-polar disorder. The bi-polar disorder is a mental illness that causes an individual to have severe mood swings. The individual can jump from being depressed to the manic phase where the person is incredibly happy and overjoyed back to being extremely depressed at any given moment. Throughout the story, Paul displays many symptoms of an individual who is affected by the bi-polar disorder. Early on in the story one of Paul’s teacher states that he “happen to know that [Paul] was born[…]only a few months before [Paul’s]mother died..of a long illness. There’s something wrong about that fellow” (108). It’s clear here that the death of Paul’s mother may have triggered the symptoms of bi-polar disorder that he displays consistently. Paul’s drawing instructor also felt something serious may be trouble Paul. The drawing instructor studied the details of Paul’s face and “noted with amazement what a white, blue-veined face it was[…]wrinkled like an old man’s about the eyes, the lips twitching even in his sleep[…]with a nervous tension” (108). This description gives a clue that Paul, at a young age, may have experienced depression and a lot of stress that has affected his appearance. As the story progresses, Paul’s narcissistic ways further influence his symptoms of the depressed stage a bi-polar individual goes through. Paul wanted to live the life of luxury that he fantasized about daily. He receives a reality to check every time he returns home his old neighborhood. He dreads the neighborhood he lives in and the commonality he feels after leaving the upper class neighborhood. Paul becomes depressed because of his “loathing of respectable beds, of common food, of a house penetrated by kitchen odors” (111). His depression messes with his psyche so much that he avoids his home altogether and sleeps in his the basement of his home because he did not want to speak to his father. Paul isolates himself from his father along with his sister because of the deep depression he consistently encounters when he returns home. Paul’s bi-polar disorder turns from depression to manic phase every time he leaves his home. He sneaks and visits one of his favorite theatre downtown. “It was at the theatre and at Carnegie Hall that Paul really lived; the rest was but a sleep and a forgetting” (113). The narrator expresses here how Paul was dead and depressed with life if he was not at the theater. Paul’s manic phase heightens when he is surrounded by the theater. He becomes even more overjoyed when he works directly with an actor named Charles Edwards. The next day in school, Paul brags to his classmates about how he become friends with everyone involved in with the theater. He goes so far as to lie to his classmates and tell them that he’d be travelling to Naples, Venice and Egypt but is forced to continue his pathological lying when he never departs for the trips when he states he would. Paul falls into a deep depression all over again after his father punishes him for continually misbehaving in school. His father removes him from school and cancels Paul’s involvement with the theaters, tells the Opera that Paul works for to find another usher and forces him to get a job working for Denny & Carson’s office. Paul would never forgive his father for taking him away from his one true passion. Paul lashes out on impulse, one of the symptoms of the manic phase, and embezzles money from Denny & Carson and flees to New York to fulfill is lifelong dream of living a life of luxury. His manic phase reaches it’s maximum when he arrives in New York City. Paul goes on shopping sprees and an alcohol binge while in New York City. He stays in the Waldorf, one of the premier upscale hotels in New York City. Paul lives the life of luxury without a care in the world for eight days straight. On the eighth day, reality sets in for Paul and his bi-polar disorder swings from the manic phase to a depressive phase instantaneously. Paul finds out that his father had paid back the money he’d stolen from Denny & Carson and was heading to New York to look for him. Paul felt the depression phase hit him harder than before describing it as “the old depression exaggerated” (120). Paul immediately became suicidal, another symptom of the depressive phase of the bi-polar disorder. “He saw everything clearly now. He had a feeling that he had made the best of it, that he had lived the sort of life he was meant to live” (120). His depression hits an extreme low here. Paul feels that this was his destiny; that he had finally lived the live he had been so desperately trying to portray. He could not face going back to the old lifestyle because he felt that, within the eight days of luxury he’d lived, it wasn’t meant for him. Acting on impulse once again, Paul flees New York City to the country by train. In the country the state of depression he is in consumes him. He’s too weak to walk so he sat down to relax. “The sound of an approaching train awoke hi, and he started to his feet, remembering only his resolution” (121). These are Paul’s last actions before he throws himself in front of the oncoming train. His depression consumes him so much that Paul commits suicide, the symptom of someone who has the bi-polar disorder. Psychological issues in childhood can take a tremendous toll on children if they are not treated for their issues. In “Paul’s Case” the main character, Paul, strived to make his fantasies a reality but unbeknownst to him, his psychological issues consumed him. Paul took his own life after briefly making his dream a reality. If Paul would have recognized his problems and received help for his issues, his life would have went down an entirely different path. Work Cited Cather, Willa. “Paul’s Case.” The Art of the Short Story. Dana Gioia. R.S. Gwynn.,New York: Pearson Longman. 2006. Pg 107-121. SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Paul’s Case: A Study in Temperament.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2007. Web. 23 Sept. 2011. Cummings, Michael J. Paul’s Case: A Study Guide. Cummings Study Guides. 2006. n.d. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV. Arlington, VA.: American Psychiatric Association, 2007. Print.