Britt Roth
General Psychology
McGee
Digital Psychology
Zero is a Maverick Hunter who works a very stressful job. He has been in active duty for a long time and rarely gets to enjoy a break. His day-to-day schedule consists of patrolling occupied territories and keeping peace. He has no time for personal relationships, nor does he have any interest in them and his past is a complete blur.
Over the years, Zero has exhibited signs of major depression and schizophrenia. However, he will not get close enough to anyone to talk about it. His superior officers have a hard enough time just trying to get Zero to speak about the mission. Though, Zero’s cold and distant personality may be related to the fact that it was actually he who started the Maverick Wars.
Zero is a very aloof and distant individual, haunted by fragmented memories and voices. He is at times very dense and oblivious and he has few, if any, friends. He is self-sacrificing, which is a sign of a true hero, but he is also very depressed. Though, Zero would sooner give his life to protect others rather than to give into suicidal thoughts. He has never discussed this and probably never will as any attempts to get him to open up were met with a change of subject and a distraction on Zero’s part.
How does Zero’s personal history relate to psychology? While this was not delved into with such detail in the games, Zero has quite a history of mental illness. He is unstable and socially inept and has exhibited some degree of psychosis. Zero suffers from what appears to be an undiagnosed schizoaffective disorder brought on by a troubled past and a malicious plague that he started.
Schizoaffective disorder is a complicated and confusing mental illness characterized by having symptoms of both a mood and a schizophrenic disorder. Many individuals with this disorder have been misdiagnosed as either being manic-depressive or schizophrenic. Usually the schizoaffective diagnosis is used for when the patient does not meet all the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia and/or a mood disorder. The diagnostic criteria for schizoaffective disorder are as follows:
Schizoaffective Disorder is characterized by the presence of one of the following:
As well as the presence of at least two of the following symptoms, for at least one month:
(Only one symptom is required if delusions are bizarre or hallucinations consist of a voice keeping up a running commentary on the person's behavior or thoughts, or two or more voices conversing with each other.)
The occurrence of the delusions or hallucinations must be in the absence of any serious mood symptoms for at least 2 weeks. The mood disorder, however, must be present for a significant minority of the time. The symptoms of this disorder also can not be better explained by the use or abuse of a substance (alcohol, drugs, medications) or a general medical condition (stroke).
Zero has exhibited psychotic symptoms quite a few times; mostly auditory hallucinations. His memory impairment may be part of or may actually induce these hallucinations. In Megaman X7 Snipe Anteator brought up the subject concerning Zero’s auditory hallucinations:
Snipe Anteator: Hohoh! Very well. But you've
forgotten your true mission.
Zero: ...? My true mission?
Snipe Anteator: I see data buried deep within
you... Is it memories of the future? Or false images of the
past?
Zero: ...
Snipe Anteator: Blue - the lies that have
infested the earth. Red - those destroyed and sealed away forever.
Zero: Hm! I don't know what you saw, and I
don't care, either. My "true mission" is to defeat you, here and now!
Snipe Anteator: Hohohoh...
You certainly are driven.
Zero: I don't have time to listen to your prattling. Ready yourself!
Zero supposedly has two distinct sides to his personality; Hunter Zero, the distant and aloof personality that does his job and speaks very little, and Maverick Zero, the hidden psychotic beast that wants nothing more than to complete his mission and tear everyone to shreds. These personalities are kept in check by a Control Chip.
The Control Chip does not switch Zero’s personalities back and forth like a light, there are a number of factors that come into play before Zero can slip into his alternate personality. When he slips into his Maverick personality, Zero becomes bloodthirsty and essentially psychotic. He retains his headstrong job-first ethics but the way he accomplishes his goals is by ripping his opponents limb from limb. The auditory hallucinations become more and more frequent, telling him to hurt others to “accomplish his primary objective.” Zero has had to date only a few blackouts in which he switches to his alternate personality. His memory of those blackouts is fragmented and usually comes back to him in his dreams or whenever stimuli from a certain situation will trigger such memories.
These blackouts along with the impaired memory point to a dissociative identity disorder. Zero’s mood is often unstable and he suffers from frequent headaches. These headaches are brought on whenever his personalities attempt to switch between Hunter and Maverick. Most often, Zero can control this and prevent the switch from taking place, but it causes a great deal of stress and takes quite a bit of energy on his part.
Dissociative identity disorder is basically described as when a person experiences or displays two or more distinct personalities at varying times. This disorder is often scoffed by the psychiatric community as it can be easily faked. The symptoms for the disorder are as follows:
The following are common symptoms of MPD. However, as previously cautioned, many people who do not have MPD may experience some of these symptoms. (Most people with MPD experience most of these symptoms.) Therefore, only a psychotherapist with considerable experience with clients with MPD should make a diagnosis.
· Loss of time: "blackouts" unrelated to drugs, alcohol or neurological disorders.
· Cannot recall a very large portion of childhood
· Spontaneous trance states: staring …and even may talk to oneself
· Marked differences in manner, voice, or dress from one time to the next
· Varying insistence on identifying oneself with a different name
· Thought withdrawal: "going blank," often in mid-sentence
· Mood shifts: sudden unpredictable or explainable mood swings
· Little forgetfulness: for example, lighting a cigarette while another is still burning
· Peculiar forgetfulness: for example, thoroughly learning school material then totally forgetting it the next day
· Headaches
· Thought insertion: surprising and atypical thoughts seem to be imposed in thoughts or "just happen"
· Imposed Emotions: surges of unexplainable emotions "out of the blue" that are not owned or claimed
· Imposed Impulses: strong impulses to perform actions that are not felt to be one’s own
Currently, Zero
remains untreated for the condition and does his best to attempt to hide it
from others. He does this by distancing
himself from those around him for he is afraid that his Maverick personality
may cause harm. Megaman Xtreme/2, X4, X5, X6, X7, X8.
Zero’s relationships with others have suffered due to this fear. He is oftentimes cold to his fellow officers and the only one he will actually talk to is his combat partner, X. Even then, Zero’s conversations are brief and vague.
Zero has not pursued a relationship with any women due to his fear of self and being oblivious to their advances. Even when a woman is blatantly showing interest in him, he ignores it. He often forgets names as well. Megaman X8.
His superior officers have expressed concern over his mental state, though they never made it known to him. Only once did the medical officer speak to X concerning Zero’s condition and there were attempts made to help him, but Zero refused. He remains untreated and unmanaged to this day due to this resistance.
The prognosis for Zero’s condition is good if he would agree to treatment. Because of his refusal to speak and his cold exterior, it will be difficult to get him to attend any counseling sessions. For the treatment of schizoaffective and schizoid personality disorder, Zero would greatly benefit from group therapy. This will place him in a setting with others who share similar problems and by seeing that he can trust the therapist it will get him to finally open up.
To treat the schizoaffective disorder, drug therapy would be used in conjunction with group counseling and hospitalization. The outlook for patients with this disorder is good and Zero may only need to be hospitalized once just to monitor his initial reactions to the medication and to set up an intensive group therapy. Afterwards, he will be able to return to work and live a normal life while attending therapy and maintaining his medication. Though, to make sure he complies with such treatment outside of a controlled hospital setting will be difficult as that is where the majority of patients stray off track.
Zero’s dedication to his job may work for therapy as he may dedicate himself to resolving the issues between himself and his personalities. His stress will be greatly reduced as he will not be constantly fighting that battle. The only problem that remains is to confront Zero and convince him to agree to such treatment.
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Sidera, Zan. "Notes on Zero." Zero's Mental Health. 4 Jan. 2006. 4 Jan. 2006 <http://www.megaman-community.com>.
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