#i haven't engaged in this fandom in four years please don't rip me to shreds

[b1eeding-sun-rambles]

I think that Nagito Komaeda from Danganronpa 2 has STPD (Schizotypal Personality Disorder)

I'm currently rewatching a playthrough of the game to refresh my memory so if I don't include big thing that refutes or corroborates my head canon that's probably why. Also this list is based on both the diagnostic criteria as well as my own personal experiences I know that a lot of his behavior in game can be explained by his frontal Temporal dementia but I just want to reframe his behavior though the lense of STPD as this is a comfort head canon of mine.

Some background information before I go into my list of reasons: schozotypal personality disorder or STPD is a cluster A personality disorder. Cluster A is known as the odd and eccentric cluster and also includes PPD (paranoid personality disorder) and SPD (schizoid personality disorder). As of the most recent DSM the DSM-5 STPD is considered to be part of the schizophrenia spectrum. I also want to make it abundantly clear that I don't think that people who deal with psychosis are all inherently bad people or that everyone with STPD would act in the same way that Nagito does. People with STPD are not a monolith one person's experience is going to be different than someone else's. Also this is just a head canon I'm not trying to claim that the creators made Nagito with the intention of making a character that exhibits symptoms of STPD.

Okay, moving on to comparing symptoms that I believe he exhibits.

1. "Patients with schizotypal personality disorder do not have close friends or confidants, except for 1st-degree relatives. They are very uncomfortable relating to people. They interact with people if they have to but prefer not to because they feel like they are different and do not belong. However, they may say their lack of relationships makes them unhappy. They are very anxious in social situations, especially unfamiliar ones. Spending more time in a situation does not ease their anxiety."

I think this pretty easily relates to Nagito. He doesn't make close friends with anyone on the island (though to be fair they weren't in the best environment for that) and he seemingly has never had any friends even before the game. He has a very difficult time connecting with his classmates in large part due to his insistence on putting them up on pedestals and also just overall off-putting behavior. He doesn't show any anxiety about the situation that they've been put in at the beginning of the game however. In contrast to Hajime's paranoia, Nagito feels relatively laid-back.

2. These patients often incorrectly interpret ordinary occurrences as having special meaning for them (ideas of reference). They may be superstitious or think they have special paranormal powers that enable them to sense events before they happen or to read other people's minds. They may think that they have magical control over others, thinking that they cause other people to do ordinary things (eg, feeding the dog), or that performing magical rituals can prevent harm (eg, washing their hands 3 times can prevent illness).

Okay so this is purely me self projecting and there's not much, if any, evedence in game for Nagito possession magical thinking (and I'm going to atribute that to the fact that we aren't privy to his thought process) but hear me out. His luck cycle is the result of his magical thinking. Firstly, it's entirely possible that he saw a pattern in the good and bad things that were happening to him and attributed it to a fictitious cycle of good luck and bad luck. Now, I hear you saying "what about chapter 5?" and to that I say, I don't know. This is Danganronpa, and I'm seriously overanalyzeing a character who was never meant to be thought this seriously about. I'm going to say that his luck is almost certainly real but the cycle of good luck and bad luck might not be. I mean we see his good luck almost constantly affecting him but we essentially never see his bad luck. In Danganronpa 2.5 we see a world essentially catered to Nagito's internal thought process and there his bad luck is affecting him significantly more than it ever did in the game itself. Also him orchestrating multiple murders in order to see hope shine could be seen as him thinking that his actions can controll or affect things out of his control. Again I think this is my most flimsy argument.

3. Speech may be odd. It may be excessively abstract or concrete or contain odd phrases or use phrases or words in odd ways. Patients with schizotypal personality disorder often dress oddly or in an unkempt way (eg, wearing ill-fitting or dirty clothes) and have odd mannerisms. They may ignore ordinary social conventions (eg, not make eye contact), and because they do not understand usual social cues, they may interact with others inappropriately or stiffly.

So most people with STPD are charicterised as either having a flat affect or an inappropriate affect. I think that an inappropriate affect describes a lot of Nagito's interactions exceptionally well. I feel like I don't need to give examples of this because it's pretty much the entire game lol. As far as dressing oddly, I feel like every Danganronpa character can be described as dressing oddly and Nagito actually dresses pretty normally in comparison. Again I don't really feel like I need examples of Nagito's odd behavior. He's frequently head cannoned as autistic for a reason.

Okay on to the actual diagnostic criteria:

To be diagnosed you have to exhibit:

1. A persistent pattern of intense discomfort with and decreased capacity for close relationships

2. Cognitive or perceptual distortions and eccentricities of behavior

I already explained why I think he exhibits both of these but he also has to exhibit five or more of the following for a diagnosis:

1. Ideas of reference (notions that everyday occurrences have special meaning or significance personally intended for or directed to themselves) but not delusions of reference (which are similar but held with greater conviction)

2. Odd beliefs or magical thinking (eg, believing in clairvoyance, telepathy, or a sixth sense; being preoccupied with paranormal phenomena)

3. Unusual perceptional experiences (eg, hearing a voice whispering their name)

4. Odd thought and speech (eg, that is vague, metaphorical, excessively elaborate, or stereotyped)

5. Suspicions or paranoid thoughts

6. Incongruous or limited affect

7. Odd, eccentric, or peculiar behavior and/or appearance

8.Lack of close friends or confidants, except for 1st-degree relatives

9. Excessive social anxiety that does not lessen with familiarity and is related mainly to paranoid fears

Nagito definitely exhibits numbers 4, 6, 7, and 8. It's hard to say for some of the others because he isn't the pov character but I would argue he likely also experience 1, and 2 with 3, 5 and 9 being less likely. due to his behaviors (but he could easily be masking paranoia) or the fact that there is zero evidence to suggest he is experiencing these things.

This whole thing is by no means me attempting to tell you that you need to adopt the idea that Nagito has STPD but I've been wanting to talk about this for like four years because it's a head canon that means a lot to me. I also want to bring more awareness to non cluster B personality disorders like STPD :)