# Positive portrayals of mentally ill characters in fiction (esp SF) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 9, 2005, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-portrayals-of-mentally-ill-characters-in-fiction-esp-sf/320772 "2005-09-09T02:52:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-portrayals-of-mentally-ill-characters-in-fiction-esp-sf/320772/21 "2005-09-10T02:32:05Z")
Heinlein’s main character from Double Star is a xenophobe. But he gots cured, so I’m not so sure it’s valid. In addition to Lois McMaster Bujold’s Mark Vorkosigan, in the same book the author makes the point of showing the audience just how nuts **Miles** Vorkosigan is. Also, her main character from Paladin of Souls is a recovering lunatic, in the full, old sense of the word. But that is a fantasy, not SF. Her Sergeant Bothari character from Shards of Honor, Barrayar, and The Warrior’s Apprentice is one seriously messed up dude. I’m not sure one could call him a _positive_ portrayal, but I don’t think he’s a negative one, in spite of all his flaws. It’s harder for me to think of other authors who use characters that are obviously suffering from mental illnesses. Tim Powers has often driven his characters mad. In The Anubis Gates, both the main character and the romance interest are suffering a number of mental illnesses. A better example might be his dealing with the Jaybirds in Dinner at Deviant’s Palace. I consider the main character in Robert Frezza’s A Small Colonial War, Raul Sanmartin, to be suffering major depression. I’m not sure that he’s aware of it. Nor that the author is really aware he’s made a mentally ill character. I hope this list offers you some places to look. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-portrayals-of-mentally-ill-characters-in-fiction-esp-sf/320772/22 "2005-09-10T02:35:19Z")
Crazy Jane from the Grant Morrison run of _Doom Patrol_ has MPD. ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-portrayals-of-mentally-ill-characters-in-fiction-esp-sf/320772/23 "2005-09-10T09:18:15Z")
> [@hildea](#): > > Come to think of it, in Card’s “Xenocide”, the ruling caste on the planet Path suffer from OCD. I really should get around to reading Xenocide since the main character in the novel I’m writing suffers from OCD (among other things), but since it’s supposed to be a follow-up to Ender’s Game and the book after that I want to read them all in order. Might not make sense otherwise. Card’s dickishness on certain political issues has kept me from reading him for some time, but according to people I trust EG-and-sequels don’t have a Mormon/conservative agenda. I’ll probably start EG tomorrow. I’m quite familiar with the entire Dick catalogue, so we don’t need to run through it, even though over half his books would fit the criteria. He’s going to figure prominently in the paper, I can tell you that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-portrayals-of-mentally-ill-characters-in-fiction-esp-sf/320772/24 "2005-09-10T13:20:17Z")
There’s a Timothy Zahn story whose name I can’t recall. The story appears to be about a team of people sent in to destroy an alien artifact that generates a mind control field. In the end of the story, it’s revealed that the “team” is one person with split personalities. And there was a John Varley story about a man whose memory disappeared every night when he slept. I believe it was called “Another Perfect Day”. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-portrayals-of-mentally-ill-characters-in-fiction-esp-sf/320772/25 "2005-09-10T13:55:28Z")
Not SF, but Chief, the narrator from _One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest_ was schizophrenic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/positive-portrayals-of-mentally-ill-characters-in-fiction-esp-sf/320772.md?page=1)