Misery

                After a deep evaluation of Annie Wilkes, it seems that she may have several different psychological issues:

• Electra Complex: Through Annie’s hateful actions and words towards men, it seems that she may have been suffering from a reverse Electra complex. Annie is protective towards females such as her mother, Nancy Wilkes, and the character of Misery and she shows extreme hate towards men (murder of her father). An incident in her childhood must have sparked this within her and carried on and grown stronger through her adulthood.

• Bipolar Disorder: As you read the novel Misery, there is a strange pattern regarding Annie’s emotions. We see that she goes from extreme happy moods to extreme depressed moods and her emotions wave back and forth. For example, Annie yells and rants at Paul for his actions and then quickly apologizes and becomes happy again. These fluttering emotions strongly relate to bipolar disorder.

• Borderline Personality Disorder: This is another possibility regarding Annie Wilkes psychological state. She is very antisocial, (no friends, or family) and keeps to herself. She switches from different moods and different behaviours very fast, resembling a personality disorder. She shows her fluttering emotional changes and easily becomes irritated, angry, and depressed. Her constant changes of emotions and behaviours could be the result of borderline personality disorder.