TV Couch: Pop psych ‘diagnoses’ of which mental disorders TV or reality TV characters suffer from
An actual case of adjustment disorder, in which a person has an extremely difficult time coming to terms with a major life change, can be rehabilitating. It can go hand in hand with depression, and often compounds issues of grief and anxiety. Sometimes it kicks into gear when the sufferer has left home as an adult.
Sometimes it’s helped by the fact that the sufferer kinda- sorta moves back in.
Raymond: Constantly in a state of whine Via
This was the nucleus of Everybody Loves Raymond; a mama’s boy moved his wife and kids across the street from his parents, and hilarity and much yelling ensued. It’s American television’s most recent classic; like Seinfeld, its simple premise allowed it enormous latitude in character- based plots and focus on everyday problems.
A common flash point was Raymond’s refusal to truly grow up, the constant submission to his mother’s emotional manipulation and father’s general disapproval. Egged on by an elder brother who vied for his mother’s affection, Ray was in a constant state of childhood.
He lied, he hid, he messed up and didn’t take responsibility for said lying, hiding, and messing up. Pulled between his mother and could- get- shrewish wife Deborah, he was constantly in a state of whine.
For a full- grown man with a pretty sweet job (sportswriter for New York newspaper) and three kids, it might have been alarming. And yet, Richie Petrie- like, the Romano children managed to magically disappear when it was time to have a somewhat Adult Themed Plot. I mean, it’s a lot to adjust to.
