#BPD! Oswald Cobblepot I guesss

[glittter-skeleton]

Oswald Cobblepot as seem in “Gotham” may have Borderline Personality Disorder, my dudes

So I want to prefix this by saying that this is no way meant as an attack on people with BPD. I know he’s a murderer and a bad person in general but he’s also the best thing about my favorite show. He’s a great character and not just in a fun villain way. I think he’s complex, interesting and I haven’t seen this take on him a lot outside of some posts like him on @bpdcharacteroftheday. I like learning about neurodivergency and relating it to stuff I like really helps with remembering and staying invested. I myself do not have Borderline Personality Disorder or relate to many of the symptoms so I really hope this is not offensive. I tried getting my research from reliable sources but I’m real sh*t at reading so it’s mostly YouTube videos. Most of this is from MedCircle and Dr. Ramani, my beloved. Usually you need 5 out of 9 symptoms for a diagnosis as is with most diagnoses because all people experience the world differently (so if my examples for some of these are more flimsy than others that’s kinda how it is in real life). I should also note that we as an audience don’t really know what is going on in his brain so a lot of these are based on my personal reading of the character. Let’s begin with the symptoms!

1. Intense, rapidly-shifting moods. What makes these mood swings different from periods of mania as we see in people with bipolar disorder is that they are a lot quicker with each episode lasting from a few hours to a few days. People with BPD are usually described by experiencing emotions way more strongly than neurotypical people do. This is what we get a lot with Oswald as he is practically characterized by his big emotional outbursts. A good example of a shift would be in the beginning of season 5 when he goes from angrily threatening his men to cooing Edward in the matter of seconds.

2. Intense/inappropriate/repressed anger. Again, a thing we see with him very often in scenes where Robin Lord Taylor looks like he’s about to choke on his own spit. This is totally normal for the amount of sh*t this man goes through but he does it even at pretty minor inconveniences like when after when Jim gets shot in season 5 and Harvey assumes it was him only to get a “temper tantrum”. Like, yeah, he got punched but that’s a clear overreaction or an absolutely normal reaction from a man with BPD.

3. Fear of abandonment (real or imagined). In most of the stuff a watch it was stated that this was one of the most important factors that form the rest of the symptoms.

The fear of being abandoned as in being scared of it. Like in the scene with Barbara telling him to get his sh*t together. Ed has not left nor betrayed him at that point, but he still seems to be falling asleep on the sofa and crying his eyes out. We see this again with him passing around the room and throwing vases when Fries and Brigit leave. And of course the most clear example is with Isabella as (among other reasons) he sees her as the beginning of the end that will make his love abandon him.

Rapidly initiating intimate (physical or emotional) relationships. We can see this most clearly with Ed as on screen Oswald goes from aggression and disinterest to singing songs and laughter quite quickly. There is no in between scene if you think about it. He goes from threatening Ed with a knife to killing with him and that’s that. Later in the show he is much slower with forming these connections like with Sofia but here we get a glimpse of what his natural response is.

Difficulty trusting, which is sometimes accompanied by irrational fear of other people’s intentions. Wow, isn’t that just him in a nutshell. As quick as he is to idealize (which we’ll talk about in a second), getting through to him is very very hard. Just think of how much stuff Sophia had to do in order for him to believe her and even then he would have constant doubts. This, however, is probably not an innate quality of his as in the world he has found himself in there isn’t much place for trust as most people around him really cannot be trusted, so this argument is a bit flawed.

4. A pattern of intense and unstable relationships with family, friends, and loved ones, often swinging from extreme closeness and love (idealization) to extreme dislike or anger (devaluation). Though we don't see this type of behavior with everyone he does seem to idealize the people that do get close. After saving Oswald life Jim immediately becomes a friend and ally though he did nothing more than offer basic human decency; his mother who we as see wasn’t perfect and often quite patronizing is seen as a saint and Ed who he had known for like 3 months at best and has had some questionable behavior (going behind his back for the sake of a grand reveal, refusing help when Oswald needed it most after Arkham) is the love of his life. The rest, however helpful they may be, are just stepping stones for him be that Butch, Fish or Mr. Penn

5. Unstable self-image/low self-esteem. This one doesn’t fit him that well as he has a pretty clear image of who he wants to be aka. the king of Gotham. He also presents himself extremely confidently and we don’t really know how he feels about himself or whether his suits are a protection mechanism or just a preference. What I am going to point out is that this more casually manifests in things like frequent changes in image. He does a lot of this with his hairstyles and multitudes of styles of suit. (Yes, they’re always dark and vaguely alternative-inspired but you can’t tell he didn’t get a full wardrobe change somewhere after his first stay in Arkham and in the beginning of season 5)

6. Chronic feelings of loneliness or emptiness. He’s when we stumble across that “can’t read his mind” problem but to me personally he does seem lonely throughout most of the show. He doesn’t have many friends and from his speech to Ed the popsicle we know that even in a moment of triumph he sees himself as frozen. He has everything he could want and even some confidants yet still feels unhappy.

7. Self-destructive behavior (substance abuse, self-injury, excessive spending or sex, eating disorders, gambling, risky driving, etc.). Just… drinking. So much drinking with him, god.

8. Suicidal thoughts or behaviors. This one is another that doesn’t line up very smoothly as he’s very protective of himself and doesn’t threaten his life unless completely necessary but one can only put his life in danger so many time before it becomes a pattern. The fight for Gotham was a suicide mission thought so there’s that.

9. Feelings of dissociation, such as feeling cut off from oneself, seeing oneself from outside one’s body, or feelings of unreality. Again, no way to confirm or deny but in my read I’m leaning towards no.

So… yeah, I think they somehow accidentally managed to write a character with BPD and stayed true to it unlike Ed’s autistic coding that just… disappears. I hope this was interesting and encourage you to learn more about this and supporting neurodivergent folk