Cruising through digg.com I came across an article on the CBS News website about Darth Vader. With the movies wrapped up, he usually only reappears in major news articles as being listed one of the most scary movie villains in celluloid history. Apparently the American Psychiatric Association has suggested a diagnosis for Darth Vader. From the article:

Schmitt’s team describes Skywalker’s symptoms, including problems with controlling anger and impulsivity, temporary stress-related paranoia, “frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment (when trying to save his wife at all costs), and a pattern of unstable and intense personal relationships,” including his relationships with his Jedi masters.

No kidding. It took a team of doctor’s to tell the public what Star Wars geeks have known for years. I suppose the years of slavery, separation from his mother, and exposure to a megalomaniac politician didn’t help either. Watching his mother die in his arms after being tortured by marauders was probably traumatic. Then there is the years on the front lines of an intergalactic war. I would have a borderline personality disorder too if my mentor cut off three of my limbs and left me for dead next to a lava flow. I suppose the years of rehabilitation from the burns and isolation in a mechanical body wouldn’t help either. Then there is the whole thing about my pregnant wife being “killed” and being taken into hiding, never to be heard from again. I suppose the day-to-day stresses of organizing contractors to build a moon-sized battle station capable of destroying a planet couldn’t help.

I wonder what the APA would have to say about my compulsion to buy any action figure of Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader that I come across. The APA should stop focusing on fictional characters. Their energy would be better spent rehabilitating geeks across America.