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Walter White Personality Disorder

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Walter White is the main character in the TV series "Breaking Bad" as a family man and high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with lung cancer. He doesn’t have much time to live so he takes it upon himself to make sure he leaves his wife, son, and new born daughter enough money so they don’t have to work after his passing. To do this, he teams up with a former high school student, Jessie Pinkman. Jessie is a meth addict and falls quickly into the idea of making millions with White. Together, White and Pinkman create one of the biggest meth empires in the Southwest, and eventually the whole country, under the name of "Heisenberg".

Throughout the five seasons, it becomes more apparent that Walter White has continued acts of …show more content…

He also watched as Jessie Pinkman's girlfriend, Jane, choked on her own vomit after overdosing on crystal meth, and did nothing to help her, just because he was mad at Jessie. After an innocent little boy was killed because he witnessed what they were doing, Pinkman quit because he couldn’t handle the stress of a young child being killed; but Walter did not care. He only cared about the money and himself. Both of these situations show the typical symptoms of this disorder, excessive need for admiration, disregard for others' feelings, an inability to handle any criticism, and a sense of entitlement.

Walter White fits the criteria for narcissistic personality disorder for many reasons. First, he repeatedly lies, uses aliases, and conns people for personal profit and pleasure. When he was first making meth, it was about the money and that was all, but later on in the show he lacked remorse. He didn’t care who he had to kill or conn to get what he needed to fulfill himself. Secondly, he expected to get constant attention, admiration and positive affirmation from others. In the final episode, White cons his last victims, the people who he had worked with and sold his share missing an opportunity to make millions. Towards the end of the season he wanted everyone to envy him and believe that everyone recognized him as superior and special for making millions illegally. Third, he was preoccupied with thoughts and fantasies throughout the show.

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