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robintism · 4 months

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shinonome ena: npd or bpd?

A while ago there was discourse (albeit, on twitter, where else would discourse be) about Ena’s cluster B coding. About whether she was NPD or BPD-coded and “what’s wrong with letting people headcanon whatever they want?” The thing is that you CAN headcanon whatever you want, but coding is something interwoven with the canon narrative that serves a purpose for the character.

If we want to argue about coding, we must first look into what sets NPD and BPD apart.

NPD and BPD are both Cluster B personality disorder, characterised by unpredictable, dramatic, or intensely emotional responses to things. Outwardly, many of NPD and BPD traits and behaviours are similar. Their respective episodes can look like one another’s and many mistake one for the other. These two disorders are also incredibly gendered in the sense that NPD women are notoriously misdiagnosed as BPD, and the reverse being true for BPD men. Women and female characters who display Cluster B behaviour are more often than not, diagnosed with BPD without being given much thought or consideration.

This is the core of the issue with Ena. Many are quick to point out the Cluster B likeness of her behaviours, but are unable to properly pinpoint the intention behind it, which would become the crux to solve the question.

MORE UNDER THE CUT

Ena’s motivations & fears

At the start of the Nightcord story, we can see that Ena is jealous of Mafuyu’s innate talents, and even angrier at her for saying that she has nothing, when she has everything that Ena has ever wanted. Ena struggles with empathy here (which I will touch upon more later) but the key to her character is very explicitly shown here – Envy. She is envious of what Mafuyu has that she can never be able to attain, because talent is something you’re born with. At this point in the story, she already wants to disappear because of her perceived lack of her skill, and her belief that she will never be enough for her father, and herself. So seeing Mafuyu, who has everything she’s ever wanted (on a surface level anyways) also want to disappear, angered her to no end.

In case I wasn’t clear enough, Ena’s motivations are linked to her simultaneous superiority and inferiority complex, her ego. She wants to be better than everyone else, and can be critical of others, but any criticism of her is a blow to her ego. In a way, Mafuyu’s depression is like a blow to herself because “If I were you, I would never be as miserable as I am now.” Not only is she unable to empathise with Mafuyu here, she’s suffered a blow to her ego. Her and Mafuyu are uncanny mirrors of each other here–Mafuyu has the talent, Ena has the will but both are miserable in their respective standings because they lack what the other has.

On This Blank Canvas I Paint is, in my opinion, one of the best Ena focus events because it dives deep into her insecurities and issues, even if it doesn’t offer an immediate and complete resolution. This event shows us the first of her many hurdles, and how she dealt with it in the process. It also shows us her very first “crash”.

At first when she was at the top of the Art Class and getting praised, she was happy and confident. Then came the conversation with Papanome, where her entire worldview and confidence was shattered. She was shaken and her next composition was a complete bust, it was as if a switch had been flipped.

Ena’s father is a bad father, and he shouldn’t have said all that in such a manner, but for the sake of this analysis let’s take a deeper dive into his words. Papanome, as a seasoned artist, has experienced the industry much more than Ena has. He KNOWS the reality behind the industry, and knew his daughter well enough to understand that if she kept going with that kind of mindset, she would’ve crumbled. And she did.

The next time she went to class, she was criticised by her teacher, and he even points out her core motivation “If praise is all you seek” because all this time, she’s only ever been praised for her artworks. It was her primary motivation in this field, to the point that she grew complacent and stagnated without realising that her peers have evolved well beyond her.

That realisation shatters her again, when she realises that everyone else has improved but her. Her sense of self-worth begins to deteriorate and she spirals, she even disassociates to the end of class and quits impulsively because she couldn’t take it anymore.

Basically, it struck her ego and she has a narcissistic crash. Narcissistic crash happens when a person with NPD becomes unable to uphold their grandiose, confident image due to a perceived fatal blow to their ego or reputation. This leads to a breakdown which manifests as angry outbursts, depression, withdrawal from others, irritable or defensive behaviour, and verbal or physical aggression. My understanding is that, internally the pwNPD feels a loss of self along with perceived rejection and abandonment. (Side note: I was doing some research thinking this was a splitting episode but it’s actually a narc crash, you learn new things everyday). This describes Ena’s crash and other outbursts really well. She tends to be very defensive and actually did withdraw from others, she even dropped out of her art class without warning after this incident. This is because her ego has classified the art class and her teacher as a threat to her image and self-esteem, so she needs to withdraw from it.

Again, this is the crux of BPD vs NPD. The key to BPD is the persistent fear of abandonment, while NPD has to do with the ego. None of Ena’s (coded) cluster B behaviour stems from a fear of being abandoned, or being unable to define herself. It stems from her need for grandiosity and her need to be important, successful and better.

Ena’s right to exist

Ena validates herself through the amount of praise (and therefore, also criticism) she receives. When her artwork was first criticised in her flashback in On This Blank Canvas I Paint, she loses motivation, her grip on herself and her sense of self-worth. When her artwork doesn’t gain traction on her social media, she posts selfies, which admittedly get a lot more views and compliments. While she is disheartened by her artworks not getting as much attention, because she does actually love art and drawing, she is able to in a sense, replenish her narc supply by posting pictures of herself.

The Primary Narcissistic Supply is attention, in both its public forms (fame, notoriety, infamy, celebrity) and its private, interpersonal forms (adoration, adulation, applause, fear, repulsion). Any kind of attention, both negative and positive, contributes to the narc supply. Here, Ena taps on her own face card to boost her narc supply because she knows she will gain attention through it. She validates herself in these forms and lives vicariously through her followers’ eyes.

This isn’t to say that there is anything inherently disordered or even wrong about wanting attention, especially attention online, but this combined with her other traits combines to form a bigger, narcissistic picture.

While BPD sufferers also have issues with their self-worth and identity, and may use similar methods to have a better grip on themselves, it manifests slightly differently. Borderlines are more likely to shape themselves into what others want, in order to avoid abandonment. Whereas narcissists are more likely to show off the more palatable parts of themselves while hiding their perceived weaknesses, so everyone will only see their inflated self. In a sense, both “manipulate” how others view them in order to feed into their personality disorders but in different ways and for wholly different reasons.

Narcissus flowers

Also, Ena has a lot of association with narcissus flowers. In her 3rd anniversary redesign, there are narcissus flowers on the pattern of her dress. In her card, I Don’t Want To Give Up, she wears a flower crown made of these flowers, and they are also spotted on the pattern of her dress. One of her outfits from a card where she is explicitly shown to be painting, a card that represents the exploration of her character (since it’s a colourful festival card), is called “Narcissus Salopette''.

Other than their obvious correlation to narcissism and by extension, NPD, these flowers represent Ena’s self-obsession and her need to overcome it to achieve something great for herself.

One of the official art also has this.

Rin, in the Empty Sekai, is a direct manifestation of Ena’s feelings. Here they mirror each other, and Ena is shown as a reflection of Rin in the pond, much like the infamous Narcissus myth where he drowns to his death after falling into the pond from admiring himself too much. The myth of Narcissus warns us of self-obsession, to the point of neglecting the world and the people around us. We destroy ourselves in the pursuit of ourselves because we can’t see beyond it.

Ultimately, this isn’t to say that you can’t headcanon her to have BPD or relate to her if you don’t have NPD, but ignoring her very blatant narcissism coding is just really, really weird when 1) NPD is severely stigmatised 2) NPD women go under the radar by professionals and casual armchair diagnosers in favour of BPD.

#ena shinonome #project sekai #pjsk #ena #npd #bpd #npd coded #meta #character analysis

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