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Revisiting the Anakin Skywalker diagnostic: Transcending the diagnostic criteria

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... From the categorical diagnosis perspective, the literature tends to agree that Anakin Skywalker had BPD (Bui et al., 2011;Carvalho, 2017;Friedman & Hall, 2015a, 2015bHall & Friedman, 2015;Tobia et al., 2015), although there are controversies (Rocha et al., 2012). The BPD can be difficult to diagnose because of the symptoms it shares with other conditions, mainly mood disorders (Biskin & Paris, 2012). ...
... He manifests signs of grandiosity solidly and recurrently, from his childhood to his adult years. However, as grandiosity is the sole sign related to manic episodes and its manifestation is not episodic, we can conclude that Anakin's grandiosity is an expression of a pathological trait, as previously stated (Carvalho, 2017;Hall & Friedman, 2015;Rocha et al., 2012). Anakin presents six of the nine diagnostic criteria composing BPD (Fornaro et al., 2016). ...
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Objective: Previous publications have focused on a leading pop culture phenomenon, Star Wars, to teach several issues in psychiatry, which can make understanding challenging themes easier. This article delves into matters of differential diagnoses regarding two psychiatric disorders. Methods: We examine and compare the symptoms and specificities of borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder in the light of the fictional villain of the films, Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker. Results and Conclusion: Our considerations of his diagnosis should be interpreted as an academic exercise with two main goals: to discuss the differential diagnosis between borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder in an illustrative, soft, and ludic way; and to teach how to connect one’s behaviors with diagnostic criteria - in this case, those related to borderline personality disorder.
... He is thus perceived as a contender to become the 'Chosen One', who according to an ancient Jedi prophecy, will bring balance to the Force by destroying the Sith Order. 2 As shown in Star Wars Episode II: The Clone Wars (2002), the course of events is, however, complicated by Skywalker suffering from severe emotional problems during his training to become a Jedi Knight. Although it remains a matter of intense scientific debate (da Rocha et al. 2012;Tobia et al. 2015), Skywalker appears to develop a borderline personality disorder during his formative years (Bui et al. 2011). The emotionally unstable Skywalker secretly gets married even though Fig. 1 The 'middle ground hypothesis'. ...
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According to the ‘middle ground hypothesis’ formulated by the neuroscientist E. Paul Zehr, case studies from popular culture may facilitate discovery learning in physiology education. In the present chapter, I present and evaluate the use of Darth Vader from the Star Wars saga and Miles Dyson from the Terminator franchise for teaching respiratory and cardiovascular physiology to 2nd-year medical students. Based on evaluation forms from 50 students, my findings suggest that students find the use of cases from popular culture instructive, involving, and entertaining. End-term multiple choice tests on the relevant core curriculum in 67 students who had been taught with the use popular culture case studies and in 51 who had not, furthermore showed that the former achieved the highest test scores. The use of case studies from popular culture thus appears to be an effective means for enhancing student learning, conceivably by reaching into the students’ affective domain while also providing a familiar mental landscape where the scientific principles can be explored.
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Is Anakin Skywalker suffering from borderline personality disorder? Borderline personality features possibly related to cingulate and orbitofrontal cortices dysfunction due to schizencephaly
  • E Bui
  • R Rodgers
  • H Chabrol
  • P Birmes
  • L Schmitt
Bui, E., Rodgers, R., Chabrol, H., Birmes, P., Schmitt, L., 2011. Is Anakin Skywalker suffering from borderline personality disorder? Psychiatry Research 185 (1–2), 299. da Rocha, F.F., Malloy-Diniz, L., de Sousa, K.C., Prais, H.A., Correa, H., Teixeira, A.L., 2008. Borderline personality features possibly related to cingulate and orbitofrontal cortices dysfunction due to schizencephaly. Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery 110 (4), 396–399.