Paranoid Personality Disorder

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It is normal to have a fear, because fear is wired within human beings. Fear is paired with emotions, and emotions may control a person’s behavior and reaction to certain situations. Most psychologist and psychiatrist have discovered that this is how the human mind and body synchronize with each other. If prolonged our sense of fear can manifest into something bigger, such as a personality disorder. Authors of horror genres place disorders within their stories, because situations that are life-threatening can alter a person’s mindset, such as a zombie apocalypse. A psychologist or psychiatrist may not be present during the zombie apocalypse, but if there were such professionals available, a character like Morgan Jones would be the perfect patient. AMC’s television series The Walking Dead, and Robert Kirkman’s and Tony Moore’s The Walking Dead comic book has given readers and viewers an example of how a situation such as a zombie apocalypse would make an individual develop “Paranoid Personality Disorder.” Paranoid personality disorder can be examined through the field of psychology, which plays an important role within these stories because psychology allows us to analyze and evaluate a character’s condition through specific research of various disorders. Through the field of psychology, Morgan’s development of fear and paranoia can be furthered examined by looking at the situations he was placed in. Psychology can help readers further examine how this disorder effect Morgan’s decisions, so that an effective treatment can be proposed.
A goal of a psychologist would be to examine Morgan Jones’s sudden transition from average to a paranoid mental state, so that the psychologist can determine if Morgan truly exhibits characteristics...

... middle of paper ...

... many drugs available to reduce anxiety symptoms, such as Valium and Prozac, researchers warn that patients shouldn’t get too dependent on the drug (Siegel 198).

Works Cited

Dobbert, Duane L. Understanding Personality Disorders: An Introduction. Westport,
CT: Praeger, 2007. Print.
Freeman, D., & Freeman, J. (2008). Paranoia: The 21st-century fear. Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press. Pp. 189.
Freeman, Daniel, and Jason Freeman. "Is Paranoia Increasing?" The Psychologist 22.7
(2009): 582-585. PsycINFO. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
Siegel, Marc. False Alarm: The Truth about the Epidemic of Fear. Hoboken, NJ: John
Wiley & Sons, 2005. Print.
Stout, Martha. The Paranoia Switch: How Terror Rewires Our Brains and Reshapes
Our Behavior--and How We Can Reclaim Our Courage. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Print.

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