fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2503 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2503 ⌋

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Sherlock Holmes's parents being abusive. It's not OOC or unrealistic at all, but I'm sick of it being taken as canon in every fic. It's also kind of offensive to me, like the only reason a person would be non-neurotypical is CHILDHOOD TRAUMA OMG.

Same with him having a disastrous love affair early in life that soured him on romance until Irene/Watson "cured" him with her/his magical brain/penis.

I concur. And the second one is OOC, too.

Anon from the "Holmes on drugs" thread.

See, what gets MY goat is the "Holmes as non-neuro-typical" thing -- it is stated repeatedly throughout Canon that he is an ordinary Victorian gentleman with an extraordinary intellect, that he hones to a razor's-edge; I reread The Missing Three-Quarter just to refresh my memory, and after years of fanon "psychopath/sociopath/assburgers Sherlock" the bit where it's mentioned that he's always able to put a witness at ease? Yeah, suck on that, those who want to pathologize a fictional character (in the first place) and then add insult to the injury by trying to pathologize the way said fictional character thinks.

I'll, uh, mop up....

ayrt

IA that he so does NOT fit sociopathic/psychopathic/aspergers. Just like...he doesn't.

But honestly...your comment offends me even more than all the "abusive parents" people. Yes, his intellect is perfectly okay, and I do take issue with assholes who assume that all smart people HAVE to have mental problems/be arrogant assholes, that there's no such thing as a normal person with a great intellect. But for Sherlock Holmes specifically? I would say there's definite evidence of some kind of milder borderline issues -- people with no mental issues whatsoever do not wildly alternate between extreme activity and utter lethargy, or plunge into black moods of depression that are so abhorrent to them that they need to take cocaine to stave off their misery if they don't have a puzzle to occupy their mind. That behavior and personality is in no way typical, no matter how you slice it.

And you know what? THAT'S OKAY. It's okay to have borderline issues. People with mental issues =/= sociopaths who do not care about other people or cannot understand how to interact with people and put them at ease. Your idea that having mental issues means you're an inhuman nutcase who can't interact or empathize with people smacks of the very Victorian prejudices that made mental health issues, so stigmatized in the first place.

And it's not "stated repeatedly that he's perfectly normal," it's just not stated that he has any specific diagnosed disorder, because Victorian psychology was utter crap and had no idea how to treat mental problems. Watson/Doyle may have been quite progressive about some of their medical notions, but they weren't from the future. These stories were written in the 19th century, with 19th century characters. That does not mean mental health issues did not exist in the 19th century because they weren't categorized as such.

Oh, just needed to add: this of course doesn't mean he totally absolutely has a mental disorder -- it's possible that he's just a very odd person with no diagnosable or categorizable problem -- but there's definitely enough evidence to make the case that does have one, and your argument that of course he doesn't have a disorder because he is capable of empathy is just as offensive as the idea that he ABSOLUTELY TOTALLY HAS X SPECIFIC DISORDER...which is kind of impossible to determine because he's a fictional character written by a 19th century person who had no idea what most mental disorders were and was not basing Holmes's entire personality on a real person, and not every single aspect of his personality needed for such a diagnosis is available for analysis.

Actually, I agree that borderline issues are a valid interpretation. I don't see the character this way, and I certainly cannot see him having a full-blown personality disorder (...well, maybe a mild bipolar. Maybe.), but it's there.

Another thing, however, is that I don't see much sense in interpreting pre-twentieth century fictional characters as mentally ill, unless they were based on some very specific experiences the author had with real mentally ill folks or on some person who had mental issues. [or unless their problems are blatantly obvious, of course, but that's beside the point]. The point is, the 19th century characters are not 19th century people - they're a secondary product, mostly created by authors who had no clue as to what personality disorders are. Even if it is in the canon, it was not intended as an illness.

IDK, I'm a bit of two minds about it. There was ACD's father, but it was an obvious case, and he was pretty much perfectly dysfunctional in the end. I don't think it had anything to do with Holmes.

But the anon's phrasing was awkward, true. I assumed they only meant Asperger's while talking about empathy.

Tbf, he's a very eccentric ordinary Victorian gentleman. And he does sometimes appear cold or rude. But that of course does not make the pathologizing any more plausible, and he sounds nothing like an aspie/bipolar/whatever. Viewing Holmes's eccentricity as a part of a personality disorder seems to me similar to viewing it as a result of his childhood trauma - is being mentally ill the only way he could acquire these personality traits?

He is eccentric in a way that fits fairly well within the normal ranges of Victorian gentleman eccentricity. He's an oddball, but an oddball of a specific type, an eccentric in relatively recognizable ways, with interests and ways of pursuing those interests that are in some respects typical of certain elements of the age.

Mmmaybe. I kind of agree.

But I think that the ultimate stumbling block is Holmes's "moods". I personally am of the opinion that they're due to his exceptionally bright mind having difficulties adjusting to daily existence, but I see how people can interpret it as a mental issue.

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