Psychology
The Big Bang Theory features five characters among them roommates Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter and neighbor Penny, a waitress living just across the Hall. The great intellect of the four is contracted comically with Penny’s social skills.
Sheldon completes his PhD at only 16 and has an IQ of 187. He observes a very strict routine and lacks an understanding of sarcasm and irony and is disinterested in socializing. He is very egotistic and frequently boasts of his intellectual prowess. He relies on friends to drive him around as he is unable to complete his driving school. His sense of cleanliness in awkward and is greatly disturbed when he seen Penny’s dirty apartment and eventually breaks in to clean it.
The socially inept and nerdy Sheldon can be diagnosed with multiple personality disorders. He totally shuns things that he is not passionate about.
The following traits identify Sheldon as suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: perfectionism, lists and schedules, rigidity and the need to control and a preoccupation with orderliness. This can be seen when he speaks about the position of his seat relative to other objects in the room. He has to complete his set of knocks on the door even after Penny has answered. He is distressed when his routine food schedule is disturbed.
His arrogance and haughtiness and a sense of importance needing special treatment is also consistent with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). He feels intelligent and deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize. He has a problem trusting others hence Paranoid Personality Disorder. The characterization is however exaggerated perhaps for comic effect. Such traits only occur in extreme cases in the real world.
DID is diagnosed by doing background checks. The aim of treatment is to relieve symptoms consisting of helping the person express traumatic memories that result in dissociation as a coping mechanism. It may be a combination of psychotherapy, creative, family and cognitive therapy, clinical hypnosis and medication.
