10 Meta: Wacko

[partly]

tvrealm has a prompt where you are supposed to claim 10 words and do something off of them. "Meta" was one of the choices, so I'm going with that. This post's prompt: Wacko.

One of the more interesting tropes in Supernatural is the thought that Dean and Sam are insane -- their behaviors, their attitudes and their relationships are all dysfunctional, their actions deranged. Quite honestly if they would live in our world, that assessment would be right, but I’m always drawn back to R. D. Laing’s statement.

“Insanity - a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.” - R. D. Laing

It’s not paranoia if everyone is really out to get you. Co-dependency is necessary when both of the brothers have to survive in order for, well, the world to survive. And you really can’t call it “delusions of grandeur” when they actually have killed gods and stopped the apocalypse. Dean’s willingness to sacrifice himself could be considered a psychological problem -- if he wouldn’t always have a way that his sacrifice wasn’t the only way to make the situation work out for the best. Sure, Sam sees Lucifer everywhere, but quite honestly, that is probably the least psychologically damaged thing that could have come from being in locked in the cage.

The problem with establishing a psychological “norm” is that you can’t apply it to people who don’t live in our “normal” world. It’s the reason why our psychological diagnoses don’t always travel well to other cultures. Its why people who have lived outside our “norm” for any length of time have such a hard time readjusting when they return. Ask any combat vet -- and I’m not even talking about PTSD, I’m just talking about adjusting to the noise and chaos of our everyday life.

Sure if Dean and Sam were just siblings who grew up in average-world America their behavior would definitely be insane. But they didn’t, they grew up in completely bat-shit crazy America -- their “insanity” is perfectly sane.

Comments

[kitap.livejournal.com]

Actaully you could go more basic than that: are Sam and Dean among the few sane in a world which refuses to see all the demons, ccreatures, etc.?

In their line of work a certain amount of insanity- or ability to handle everything- is imperative for them to survive. There are probably hundreds of hunters down through the ceturies that couldn't handle everything and flamed out: suicide, insanity and just walking away.

That they can do this non-stop says something about them, and I do wonder how they would/will handle not being hunters anymore.

[kitap.livejournal.com]

To add to my thought #1, if they are among the few sane, then surely that must be draining and, perhaps, lead them into the shallow waters of insanity because it is hard to be one of the few sane in the land of the insane.

Co-dependency is necessary when both of the brothers have to survive in order for, well, the world to survive.<.blockquote> It's not really co-dependency; these guys have literally (and how often can you say that?) died for their brother. They are exactly what you would expect veteran soldiers who have been able to rely only on themselves in battle- along with a suppy line- to be like. Hannibal certainly would think so.

[partly.livejournal.com]

They are very much like war veterans -- or should I say they are like soldiers currently in a war. And the biggest problem with any hunter that wants to walk away is that they can't unlearn that the mosters are out there. How do you live without hunting when you know you can save people if only you would hunt the monsters?

[kitap.livejournal.com]

And on top of that they must- they are not stupid- wonder who can replace them. They know they are superior hunters. They must worry.

Plus, and let's honest: whoever they marry/settle down with will have to understand their world and their bond. That's a hard, hard thing to understand, especially their bond.

[kitap.livejournal.com]

Sorry- computer keeps BSODing me- have to do this piecemeal.

Plus- think of all the friends they've lost. This has to eat on them all the time.

OK, to further the war analogy this is a war that few can see- or will see. If we really wanted to get all war metaphor-y these would be Viet Nam vets: no one wants to acknowledge the war or to acknowledge them.

[kitap.livejournal.com]

God only knows what those guyses nightmares must be like- and I bet they have them. COme to think of it, I'm awfully surprised we haven't seen them kicked out of a hotel or two because of them.

Do you think they have a list of hotels where they know not to return to due to bad credit cards, damages, etc?

Also, to get back to retiring: what would they do with posessions? Everything they own is in the Impala. How would they handle furniture and more than 3 sets of clothes and paying bills regularly?