This is a joke, right...?
A conversation with a psych major who was struck by this analysis, and emailed me to ask about...well, you'll see.
(She'll be represented by the Greek letter Psi. Some of the text has been trimmed for relevance, but otherwise it's unedited.)
I read your article on 'Stephen" with great interest. Being a psychology major and writer, I was curious as to your academic background. Have you met the 'Stephen' in person, or are you merely drawing your conclusions from a persona that is an on-screen alter ego of a genuine person. His book was written in the persona of his character, not his real life! The entire article was a joke, correct?
Hey,
I haven't taken many formal psychology classes; I'm a senior in college, but studying other topics. Most of my knowledge here comes from the psych reading I've done, which is about forty books so far, although many of them were read after writing that particular essay.
I don't know if "joke" is the right word. What it is, is character analysis. As the website says in multiple places, all of this writing refers to the fictional "Stephen", not the actor who plays him.
I've never met the real Colbert, although he talks about his character sometimes in interviews, and those observations influence my opinions of the character.
I've obviously never met the fictional "Stephen", although "ability to talk to fictional people" would be a pretty neat superpower.
Hope that clears things up!
Erin,
Your explanation does indeed answer my questions. As a student of psychology, I sometimes wonder if the 'Stephen' character might not be a alter ego of the man himself. The man seems to be a well adjusted, happy person, but he is an actor...possibly living through a well presented facade. Through the character of 'Stephen', the actor seems to be reflecting his hidden inner pain through the obnoxious, poorly adjusted spokesman of his character. This happens more often than not in the cases of entertainers. The man himself was multiply traumatized as a child, losing his right ear drum and going deaf in that ear, plus losing his father and 2 brothers in a plane crash at the age of 10. Also, he apparently was further traumatized by being thrown into lockers by his peers, and shoved into walls as well. Such childhood incidences do remain in the subconscious recesses of even the most well adjusted person, and present themselves in numerous ways. What to you think? Your analysis of the 'Stephen' character is true to form regarding PTSD, I will admit that. I enjoyed reading it. The man, however, seems to have found his true soul mate in his wife...a lucky thing for him. She seems like quite a lady.
ψ,
This is awfully dicey territory. It's hard enough to deconstruct a person on the couch, let alone one you mostly know about through magazines and NPR.
I will say that, in all the out-of-character interviews I've read and heard, the real Colbert comes across as phenomenally well-adjusted. He's willing to own up to mistakes; he has a broad sense of perspective; he finds a lot of joy in what he does. By his own admission, he's not eager to go into a lot of detail about the deaths in his family, which isn't exactly a surprise; but he doesn't freeze up at the mention of the topic either.
There are definitely parts of Colbert's personal views that bleed into "Stephen" (again, this is something he has said, though he avoids giving specifics — he has too much fun confusing people). And it would hardly be surprising if he directly mines his own past for material, as he's done elsewhere. (For instance, the episode of Strangers With Candy that kills the main character's father, and proceeds to milk it for all the comedy it's worth.) In particular, some of the things Colbert has recalled about himself in his twenties, when he says he leaned heavily on anger as a defense mechanism, definitely sound like they inform the way he portrays "Stephen" today.
This is pretty much exemplified by a lovely clip from June 4, 2007. "Stephen" is profiling a congressional district where Colbert used to study theater, so a black-and-white photo from some play appears on the screen. "I don't know who that bearded guy is, but he looks serious," remarks the host. "He should really lighten up."
So, all in all, Colbert comes across as much too self-aware to be unconsciously sublimating issues into his performances. If anything, my money's on good-natured self-satire.
P.S. -- If you're interested in looking deeper into the character's issues, I've found that borderline personality disorder generally describes him better that PTSD. I just haven't gotten around to writing that essay yet :)
Erin,
I agree with you. The real man is well adjusted and is dealing with his painful past through total satire, as voiced by his alter-ego, 'Stephen'. I'm sure he's laughing all the way to the bank, as well. If you would watch the most recent red-carpet edition of the 2009 Emmy's when Stephen Colbert and his wife were interviewed, he said that his character, 'Stephen' is the one who is NOT welcome home to dinner, and he said he'd better never bring him home with him. It's one lucky person who can satirize their prior pain and sit back and laugh at themselves.
[...]
I agree that the character presents borderline personality disorder as well as perhaps a tad of explosive behavior disorder. What do you think?
I still don't think we're talking along exactly the same lines. "Stephen" has plenty of attributes that can't be related to the real Colbert — which only makes sense, given that he's a satire of sentiments and attitudes that anyone could pick up by watching the news. The actor has cited influences from Bill O'Reilly's anger to Anderson Cooper's shininess to Stone Phillips' neck, and there are plenty of other things being parodied, from Glenn Beck's paranoia (the "Doom Bunker" segment) to Keith Olbermann's exaggeration (the recurring "Craziest F@#king Thing I've Ever Heard", which recalls the "Worst Person in the World").
On a simpler note, with about a dozen writers contributing to the show at any given time, it isn't as if Colbert is generating the material singlehandedly.
I would also be wary of assuming that Colbert is using the role as a coping mechanism — that he hasn't "dealt with" his issues in other, more direct (and more private) ways.
It is interesting to note, in that brief interview, that while Colbert's wife described the character as "a jerk" and "dumb", all Colbert himself said was, in essence, "My wife doesn't like him." The actor isn't inclined to dismiss "Stephen" in simplistic terms — in fact, he's objected to descriptions of the character as stupid: "He has a high IQ. He has a good mind, poorly fed."
This attitude could be related to personal experience, but of course it could just be the natural empathy that good actors and good writers develop for their characters. (Reminds me of the Arnold Bennett quotation, as well as some of the things that great actors have said about playing roles that are morally ambiguous at best.)
I haven't done any reading on explosive personality disorder — or intermittent explosive disorder, which is the DSM-IV classification — so I can't give you much of an opinion there. However, a quick browsing of the Google results say that it is only diagnosed when there's no other condition to account for the symptoms, and BPD can include issues with anger and self-control. So it would depend on whether the character presents symptoms specific to IED that aren't covered by BPD.
All that said, of course, the Report's writers are probably not putting much effort into being consistent with any disorder, and they've dropped references to everything from syphilis to schizophrenia. So the character is kind of a psychological grab bag :)
Erin,
We are speaking on the same lines...I think. I totally agree with what you said. The character distributes a myriad of personality disorders, as everyone has the tendency to do at times, all portrayed by a brilliant actor. Yes 'Stephen' is a highly intelligent man...he is, as you said misinformed on a lot of things, and goes off on tangents once in awhile. I personally enjoy the show for that very element...you never know what the character is going to say or do. Hence the brilliance of the actor and a great writing staff that puts word into the character's mouth. 'Stephen' is based on many elements, which makes him such a great character. I truly enjoy the program.
I agree with you, the real person is very well adjusted and brilliant to a tee. Yes, the real man's wife said she doesn't like the character, as she said he's 'dumb', but the actor himself is 'brilliant'. He is indeed.
Are you by any chance a Psychology major? I've read your analysis with great interest. I enjoy hearing from you. You're one observant person, and your character analysis is very good. Sorry if I misconstrued what you said. Hopefully, we can get onto the same pathway. As a published freelance writer, I'd love to interview the real McCoy! Now that would be interesting!!!
Yeah, I think we agree for the most part. A lot of what I say isn't me contradicting you; it's just me rambling, as I tend to do when "Stephen" is involved :)
It's the phrase "dealing with his painful past through total satire, as voiced by his alter-ego" that rubbed me the wrong way. Same for the idea that "everyone presents a myriad of personality disorders." Everyone is complicated and multifaceted, but you have to be careful not to diminish the suffering of people with serious mental health issues. For instance, everyone feels sad at some point in life, but that doesn't mean everyone knows what it's like to experience major depression.
(I don't know if that's what you meant, but I don't want to let the idea go uncommented on, just in case!)
That said — to answer the question from your other email, no, I'm not going to be upset because someone disagrees with my opinion on a fictional character. Don't sweat it. If my responses come slowly, it's because I've gotten bogged down in other things for a bit.
As I mentioned briefly, I'm studying other topics in college — my majors are religion and political science. So I haven't actually been trained by anyone; I'm just piecing together information from the books and papers I read in my spare time. (Yes, I'm a geek. How can you tell?)
It would be fascinating to sit down with the real Colbert, or even just to be a fly on the wall in his writers' room. I've read a lot of his interviews, but reporters are much more likely to focus on his personal life and philosophy than to deconstruct "Stephen" — not that I mind hearing about the man, but there are questions about the character that I wish someone would ask him.
Erin,
As always, wonderful to hear from you. Perhaps I should have phrased my statement about the 'alter-ego' less harshly. However, one of my professors (an older gent) was fond of stating that everyone wears two faces, and a lot of performers who are comedians go into that profession to mask their painful past.
My professor cited actor's mask of the faces of both laughter and pain. His favorite saying was 'anger turned sideways is humor'. That's where I got that philosophy from...being trained by an older, less flexible professor. When I mentioned the myriad of personality disorders, I was referring to being multifaceted. You are totally right...just because a person presents depression (in the example you gave), does not mean that they're clinically depressed. My 'old fella' also told us that 'everyone is sane and 'nuts' at the same time'. He had a million of em!!
As a writer, I am HOPING (and working on) securing a contract to write the biography of a deceased comedian, who did indeed live through an alter ego to conceal his very painful past. I cannot mention who he is at this time...as I don't want to jinx a potentially great contract...there is a lot of negotiating left to do!! I'd LOVE to write Stephen's official biography!!! That would be a hoot!!
I enjoy hearing from you. Have a good one and God Bless.