Mental Disorders In Shakespeare's Hamlet

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to a mental disorder meaning we should look at his character with more sympathy than disgust during the play. There is a certain criteria a patient must meet in order to be diagnosed with a mental disorder. And when someone is declared with a mental disorder it does not necessarily mean they are “crazy” because “crazy” is a word we must be careful with due to its numerous connotations. In order to see if Hamlet is “crazy” we must first see if he meets the symptoms for any of the mental disorders according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-5). The disorders Hamlet is being tested for are the ones most commonly associated with people declared “crazy”. For the Mood Disorder, Hamlet meets four of…show more content…
(Transmedial Shakespeare) Dissociative Identity Disorder results from when people have alters or different identities. These people tend to live under different names, change their personal information, and have multiple personalities. We do not declare Hamlet with Dissociative Identity Disorder because even though he shows different behaviors throughout the play, he keeps the same identity the whole time. (Transmedial Shakespeare) This is another mental disorder we can scratch off the list of options for Hamlet. Next we test Hamlet for the disorder that many people associate with “crazy” people, Schizophrenia. The symptoms for this disorder include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, abnormal psychomotor behavior, and negative symptoms such as blunted affect. Hamlet does not experience any delusions during the play. As for the hallucinations, it depends if Hamlet really saw the ghost of his father or not, but for the purpose of the play it is assumed he really did. He seems to have pretty organized speech during the play, he even stays on topic when on his outbursts. The abnormal psychomotor behavior described by DSM-5 is Catatonia which consists of repeated gestures which Hamlet does not typically perform. He does not associate with the blunted affect either which is not expressing emotion whereas Hamlet does so frequently. (Transmedial Shakespeare) Hamlet therefore cannot be diagnosed with

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