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How Willy Wonka Portrays Schizotypal Personality Disorder

Maanya Vasishtha

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a beloved children’s novel written by Roald Dahl. It has been adapted into two movies as well and is perhaps Dahl’s best-known story. It is centred around five kids who each win the famed golden tickets and tour the largest, most famous chocolate factory in the world, owned and run by the eccentric Mr Willy Wonka. The trip to the factory radically influences and changes Charlie Bucket’s (one of the five kids, also the main character) life and the storyline, in general, provides ample entertainment with its quirky twists and turns. 


The most quirky of them all is Mr Willy Wonka, who is brought into the limelight due to his complex and odd personality. Judging from the strange and conflicting aspects of his personality that are portrayed in the movie, it is likely that he could be diagnosed with Schizotypal Personality Disorder (STPD). As mentioned, he exhibits several symptoms of the disorder throughout the story and that gives us insight into the behavioural and thinking patterns of people generally diagnosed with STPD.


To begin with, Schizotypal Personality Disorder is defined as “a personality disorder characterized by various oddities of thought, perception, speech, and behaviour that are not severe enough to warrant a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Symptoms may include perceptual distortions, magical thinking, social isolation, vague speech without incoherence, and inadequate rapport with others due to aloofness or lack of feeling” (APA 2013). Wonka displays a variety of these pathological schizotypy traits that range from being “simultaneously unflappable and socially anxious, superficially friendly but deeply detached, altruistic and sadistic, hopeful and cynical, grandiose and markedly fragile” (Pincus, 2006).


Furthermore, Wonka's universe is divided into two parts: that which is behind the chocolate factory's gates (indicating schizotypal isolation and withdrawal into imagination) and that which is outside the gates (representing a painful and distrusted reality). The inside is populated by both good and bad people, and one could think of the Oompa Loompas- tiny people that live inside and help run the factory- as an extension of Willy Wonka's fragmented manner of experience. Other than that, he lacks close friends or confidants other than first-degree relatives, such as his father with whom he had a traumatic childhood. Most of all, he is excessively socially anxious and avoids interaction with anyone from the outside world, including people his own age.


In addition to that, a disturbing attribute of Wonka’s is his restricted affect, defined as “emotional expression that is reduced in range and intensity” (APA 2013). This is most evident through his implicit enjoyment of the death of four of the five kids. When the children are terrified and in danger, he appears indifferent and watches with distant fascination. He is nonchalant about the parents' concern and is secretly pleased that he has taught them a terrible lesson. Moreover, Wonka also demonstrates odd beliefs and magical thinking. For example, he asserts that whipped cream comes from cows whipped by real whips, and also believes that all dreams can be followed, even ones that are impossible, obvious from his saying “I am the maker of music, the dreamer of dreams!” (Rith-Najarian 2017). 


The expressive criteria of odd thinking and speech, as well as strange, eccentric, or peculiar behaviour or appearance, are also illustrated well. Willy Wonka has a distinctive appearance, with velvet gloves, big round sunglasses, flamboyant clothing, and a continually spaced out facial expression. He constantly repeats himself unless reminded that he has previously stated something, and he relies on printed flashcards to say any of it exactly right. He rarely pays attention to what others are saying and is ready to answer with tangential, perplexing speech, such as “Oh! My sainted aunt!” (Dahl 1964). Wonka frequently rebukes one of the kids for "mumbling" and claims that he (Wonka) has not comprehended what the child has said in response to his clearly stated verbal challenges. He also regularly and abruptly disengages from interactions that challenge or distress him with a disdainful and tangential "you're weird" (Dahl 1964).


Wonka also has unusual perceptual experiences and physiological illusions, such as isolated flashbacks to earlier developmental traumas, which are exacerbated by the stress of bringing people into the fantasy world of his chocolate factory. Although the Oompa Loompas appear to be "real" in the sense that visitors see and interact with them, they can also be regarded as more broadly evocative of probable hallucinations. The distinction between dream and reality begins to blur once Willy Wonka's guests enter the chocolate factory.


The entire story does end happily, with Charlie Bucket moving into the chocolate factory with his family and Willy Wonka dubiously reuniting with his father. The end is indicative of the fact that Wonka overcame his aloofness and detachment with the help of familial love and support, as extended by Charlie’s family towards him. The overall end suggests that Wonka healed from STPD and is now free to healthily express the creative side of his schizotypy. In actuality, an individual such as him would need a clinical prognosis and long-term treatment, based on how severely disturbed he is. 



References


American Psychological Association. (2013). Schizotypal Personality Disorder. APA Dictionary of Psychology. Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://dictionary.apa.org/schizotypal-personality-disorder 


American Psychological Association. (2013). Restricted Affect. APA Dictionary of Psychology. Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://dictionary.apa.org/restricted-affect 


Dahl, R. (1964). Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.


DSM-IV and DSM-5 Criteria for Personality Disorders. (2012). Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://www.psi.uba.ar/academica/carrerasdegrado/psicologia/sitios_catedras/practicas_profesionales/820_clinica_tr_personalidad_psicosis/material/dsm.pdf  

 

Pincus, A. L. (2006, March). The Schizotypy of Willy Wonka. ResearchGate. Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247431559_The_Schizotypy_of_Willy_Wonka 


Rith-Najarian, L. (2017, June 1). Personality disorders in the media. Psychology In Action. Retrieved April 11, 2022, from https://www.psychologyinaction.org/psychology-in-action-1/2013/10/31/personality-disorders-in-the-media 

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