Help find out why Pinkie is loco in her coco!

[Gone for good 1,593]

So, fellow bronies. There is a new DSM coming out very soon. With it, we might be closer than ever to finding out the truth to what makes Pinkie Pie loco in her coco! So here's the deal, I want us bronies to research as much as we can about pinkie pie both in the show, comics, etcetra blah blah blah anything that could be considered canon! Once this new DSM comes out, we may finally have enough information to cracking the secret that many of us have been asking since the show first came out.

 

this was originally a thread about my own giant analysis of Pinkie Pie but why not change it to this not only because it would be more fun but because season 3 destroyed my hypothesis completely. You can find it down here:

 

 

Pinkie Pie is really freaking weird, there's no denying that, but she's not the negative kind of weird that we call the people on youtube who show off their "manly" halo 3 poster that's ducktaped to the wall or the people on the metro who don't have hadphones so they blast music through their speakers the entire ride. That being said, because of her variety of weirdness we all assume that she's bonkers. Because I have way too much freetime, I started looking into the mind of Pinkamena Diane Pie and after reading whole books to accurately diagnose her with something, I have finally come to a conclusion on her mentality. I can answer this question that many of us have been asking for awhile: is Pinkie Pie loco in her coco?


Before I answer that, it's important to note that Pinkie Pie is a unique character. Rather than using one episode as proof that Pinkie Pie has a certain disorder, it's actually more fun and more conclusive if you use the series as a whole. Any professional wouldn't use just one incident as proof that something was wrong and would look more at the individual as a whole before any diagnosis is actually made. As of me writing this, there have been fifty-two episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic aired on TV. Each episode is about half an hour, so that's around twenty-six hours of technicolored cartoon horses frolicking about on our TV screens. It's entirely possible that some people haven't seen the entire series, or that they just can't remember a part of it so before we get to conclusions lets analyze Pinkie.

Pinkie Pie, although originally named Pinkamena Diane Pie, was originally born to Mr. and Mrs. Pie and lived on a dull and boring rock farm. It's implied that for the majority of her childhood, she was living one of the most dull and boring lives imaginable. Her daily routine of being bored and depressed was broken one way when she by chance happened to see a Rainbow Dash perform an awesomely awesome, epic, huge, loud, awesome, colorful, and awesome Sonic Rainboom in the distance. This completely dazzled Pinkie, and put the biggest smile on her face that is shown throughout the series. It was from this day forward that Pinkie had a newfound obsession with fun and made it her goal to make every creature smile.

While Pinkie does at times come out as a bit rude or “annoying” as some people say it, she has good intentions. She said so herself when she sang her song in A Friend in Deed. Her entire song is about her goals of making people smile and how it's her life's dream. In that same song she acknowledges that sadness exists when she sings these two lines:

It's true some-days are dark and lonely;
And maybe you feel sad, but Pinkie will be there to show you that it isn't that bad.

This is something that's unique to note. Usually the archetype for characters that party all the time is that they simply don't care much for others and are more preoccupied on having fun. It's one of the many things that set Pinkie apart from other characters.

Regarding the dark and lonely days that Pinkie Pie mentioned; she feels them herself even though she's a pink thing of energy. The most notable episode here that includes sad days like these would be The Party of One. This episode is usually the first thing people jump to when trying to make a statement about Pinkie's mental health. If you haven't seen it yet, just go watch it right now.

In this episode, she started thinking something was funny when all 5 of her friends declined the invitation, which considering that they normally wouldn't have anything going on is a perfectly logical thing to think but, she really started thinking that they were all trying to avoid her because they hated her after she found out that Twilight was lying and noticed that she was trying to avoid her. I'll touch base on her breakdown later but it's important to note how mad she was when she found out they were lying. A similar thing of rage can be found in The Last Roundup.

In fact, in this episode she got so mad that she literally had steam coming out of her ears. For a quick synopsis of what was going on, AppleJack pinkie promised Pinkie that she would tell the group why she wasn't ever going back to ponyville at breakfast, but when she seemingly lied and tried running away before breakfast, Pinkie flipped out.

She managed to catch up to AppleJack and was about to give her the most brutal scolding of her life, but AppleJack reminded Pinkie Pie that the promise was for the truth to come out at breakfast, which AppleJack hadn't gone to yet. The promise wasn't broken so Pinkie Pie basically shrugged and went back to being her typical self.

Pinkie is also a cocky individual. She gets pretty angry when she even remotely thinks that she's being challenged. This can obviously be seen in her attempts to chase down AppleJack, but can more notably be seen in the episode Baby Cakes. In this episode, Pinkie Pie takes on the full responsibility of looking after a couple fillies even though she was warned that it is a hard task to do. When she is offered assistance from Twilight, she rejects any help and demands that she leave immediately. Eventually Pinkie breaks down into tears because of how hard baby sitting truly is, and accepts Twilight's help at the very end of it all.

While she certainly is cocky, she's not particularly mean spirited. The only time that she is mean spirited is when she was under Discord's spell. In her corrupted state, which is the opposite of what's in her heart, Pinkie Pie is just cruel. She was focused on how seemingly miserable her life was, and was being as mean as possible to everyone.

Her true side isn't like this at all! She's normally bouncing up and down with joy and laughter, cracking jokes at any given moment, searching for those in need, looking for new friends to make, finding any reason to chatter and partying like none other. There's a reason why everypony in Ponyville likes her, and it's simply because of how happy she is. While she has had issues with certain people, she always has came through in the end and has put a smile on their face.

Despite how she well she managed with other folk, she has some social issues. In The Party of One, she wasn't able to read the facial expressions of her five close friends who obviously were lying and it wasn't until she actually sees Twilight outside of where she said she'd be that she realizes the truth. She also isn't able to tell that AppleJack is sleep deprived in and tells Twilight that she seemed perfectly fine at the end of the embarrassing award ceremony. On a more humorous note, she wasn't able to tell what kind of party the Gala was and continued trying to put Most notably is how in a Friend in deed Pinkie wasn't able to notice that Cranky Doodle didn't want to see her even after chasing him around and being yelled at. When she finally realized her mistake, she went back to chasing him around to apologize.

Pinkie also is by far the most hyperactive in Ponyville. She's able to run at ridiculous speeds, will pop up out of the most unexpected places, knows the solution to just about everything, and always has some cartoonish gag ready for any occasion. Fan videos, excluding the much more hilarious ones where she's a psychotic murderer, more times than not nail her activities down perfectly.

As fun as it was to document Pinkie's life, I think that's enough of her life and it's now time to look at her mind. While Pinkie Pie is a horse, her personality resembles that of a human and she, like the rest of the ponies in Ponyville, are pretty much humans trapped inside of a cartoonish horse shape prison thing. That being said, a normal psychologist would have months worth of information to diagnose a patient but with Pinkie Pie, I only have a little bit more than a day's worth of info about her. If you have an issue with anything I say here, counter it! I'll learn something, people reading will learn something, you'll probably have some fun shooting me down from the sky and I'm gonna counter something else somebody said so yeah!

Lets get back on track, here. Despite how questioned Pinkie is both inside the show and inside the fandom, there have rarely been any attempts at explaining her behavior. Probably the most notable would have to be the statements from Kyronea, a member of MLPforums. “Psychologically speaking, Pinkie Pie is difficult to understand...Pinkie Pie does actually have serious mental and emotional issues...She suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder.” [1] To sum up what he said: Pinkie is emotionally unstable; she has a black and white thought pattern and will jump to the worst possible conclusion. He diagnosed her with Borderline Personality Disorder which, according to him, explains her actions in The Party of One, A Friend in Deed, Baby Cakes, and Putting Your Hoof Down. While I will agree that Pinkie Pie is a bit unstable, he’s unfortunately mistaken on just about everything else.

While it's true that there is something different about Pinkie Pie, she doesn't suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder. At first glance, it may seem that Pinkie Pie has BPD, as yes she did have a breakdown when she found out that her friends were avoiding her in The Party of One and she doesn’t seem to take any criticism well at all but when one compares case studies of those who have had BPD and our beloved Pinkie Pie, things are wildly different. Most people who suffer from BPD have traumatic childhood experiences, that usually include sexual abuse; manipulative behavior is actually very common in people with BPD; self-destructive behavior, which includes sex, alcoholism, threats of suicide and self-mutilation, is evident in most patients. In one case study of a BPD patient named Rachel, she would often have severe mood swings, have aggressive outbursts that were actually very hard to identify the cause of, would make several irrational comments, and told the psychologists about her alleged sexual abuse. (Samuel Arnold, 4)

Pinkie doesn’t even fit the criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder. In order for someone to be diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, he or she must fit under at least five categories of nine listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000); Pinkie Pie really only fits under one of them. (710) For Pinkie Pie to even qualify for a personality disorder, she must also fit under the criteria for a personality disorder which she doesn't fit even one of the descriptions listed. (688) If Pinkie Pie doesn’t have BPD, her breakdown in The Party of One would logically have to be explained by another mental disorder, but in reality it doesn’t.

I would like to get one major thing clear regarding Pinkie's breakdown in The Party of One: it was actually perfectly natural. There was nothing out of the ordinary at all about Pinkie's actions. She was convinced that she had lost a grand whopping of five friends and her lifelong goal of making everypony smile was seemingly shattered into a million sharp pieces. Her depression, anger, and strange party with inanimate objects can all be explained using the states of grieving which for those who don't know are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. There isn’t a rule for which state comes first and which state comes after but they all end with acceptance. (On Grief and Grieving, page 7) The loss of several close friends at once and the destruction of dreams would hard to handle for anybody.

So basically, Pinkie's actually not the crazed serial killer on the inside that fanfics like Cupcakes love to describe. If one were to go pick up a copy of the DSM and scour through it looking for anything that describes Pinkie, they would more likely than not be disappointed that she only fits under two of the more mild disorders. While Pinkie has a pretty quirky personality, there's really nothing wrong about it. A fun personality isn't a bad one, and unless it's getting in the way it's not a disorder. That being said, the two disabilities that she has are possibly preventing her from reaching her full potential.

Pinkie Pie is an extremely hyper active mare, and everypony in Ponyville knows this. When she starts running her mouth she won't stop unless she's physically incapable of doing so, she's known to pop up out of every unexpected place you can name, and she can get distracted from just about anything out there. Her attention and hyperactivity issues are surprisingly severe, and since she doesn't seem to have anything in particular setting her off. I first diagnosed her with ADHD predominately impulsive type.

ADHD predominately impulsive type is when somebody has the same symptoms of ADHD but are leaning more so towards hyperactivity than inattentiveness. South county child and family consultants, who are a team of psychologists and clinicians who offer psychological treatment , describes kids with ADHD predominately impulsive type are “...
unable 
to 
sit 
still 
at 
home
 and
 in
 school, 
may
 be 
extremely 
fidgety 
or 
restless, 
may 
always 
be 
moving 
one 
body 
part 
or
 another, and 
may 
never
 seem
 to 
tire. ..girls
 who 
are
 described 
as 
the 
hyperactive‐impulsive 
type 
tend
 to
 be 
very talkative
 and 
are 
often
 described 
as 
social 
butterflies...” (Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder: Hyperactive-Impulsive Type)

I think it's safe to say that she has at least some form of ADHD here, but after checking the DSM yet again I noticed that she doesn’t fit in criteria B, which is for symptoms to be noticeable before 9 years of age. It is possible that Pinkie Pie showed symptoms of hyperactivity on the rock farm, but from what little we know about it it’s unsure. Even then, the link is strong enough that I am going to diagnose her with ADHD not otherwise specified, or ADHD-NOS for short.

Pinkie Pie, while loved by nearly all the ponies in Ponyville, has some severe social issues. Pinkie was unable to notice the fact that Applejack was sleep deprived during Applebuck Season, she didn't seem to notice or care that Gilda and Rainbow Dash were trying to talk to each other alone in and was confused when they would move on in Griffon the Brush-Off, she was unable to understand how Cranky Doodle didn't want her help in A Friend In Deed, and probably the most famous was how she crashed the gala with her own party tracks thinking that the “sophisticated” ponies wanted to have her kind of fun during Suited for Success. She also has an obsession with fun; in fact, that's all she thinks about! All of these symptoms lead me to originally diagnose her with Aspergers.

Aspergers is a disorder that is on the autism spectrum, but is noticeably different. One of the main things that set people with Aspergers apart from those with Autism is that people with Aspergers are awkward, but social. It's also common for people with Aspergers to have an interest that's almost like an obsession. There was a case study about a boy named Andy. He had issues when it came to understanding people's feelings and emotions. He would also occasionally start ranting on about entirely different subjects and seldom would stop talking. I myself was also diagnosed with Aspergers as a child, and was told that I had issues looking people into the eye and had some pretty big social issues (whether or not I grew out of it, I'm not sure).

According to the DSM, she fits into every criteria needed to be diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome except for criteria A. Even though she is lacking in one criteria, she has enough symptoms that there is definitely a link here. She should be diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, or PDD-NOS for short because there is obviously a huge link here, but as of right now there isn't a way to determine what exactly she has. Maybe as the show goes on or as psychological knowledge increases there will be a better conclusion as to what she has.

So basically, the two disorders that she does have are actually pretty common. She is a bit weird, nobody can argue against this, but she's otherwise in good shape.

I just wrote more than a thousand words and still haven't answered the question in the first paragraph. Is Pinkie Pie loco in her coco? Honestly, I'd say no. She's a bit strange, sure, but once again she's not insane because of this. She does have a couple disorders but they are of the more menial variety. Maybe we should all try to emulate Pinkie's joyful way of life in one way or another. She has some issues, but she still tries and for the most part she puts a smile on everyone's face. While it's flat out impossible to have everyone like you, she certainly has a lot more friends than enemies.

Anyway there are a couple citation issues in here that I will solve right when I get home. This netbook is being lame and isn't letting me load up all of the pages that I want so i will provide the links and APA style citations right when I get home. I just want to upload this around now because holy crap this is driving me nuts aaaaaaaaaaa By the way, tell me if you liked reading this because I had a lot of fun doing this and would totally do something similar with the others if this is well recieved

 

 

By the way, this will be done entirely for fun. I understand that blah blah blah you're overanalyzing this blah blah blah, which yeah actually we would be but you know what it'll be fun.

Edited April 14, 2013 by Lord Bababa

[Vicke 3,189]

Umm...

That is probably the longest post ever created on this forum.

Please, tell me you copy-pasted all this?

 

Umm... Yeah, but i agree.

Pinkie Pie is coco in her loco.

Edited September 26, 2012 by Vicke

[Cakesplat 38]

I love a good conspiracy or overanalyzed point. Someday MLP might reach the levels of people who supposedly cracked the Hylian language in the Zelda games.

 

You, sir, probably need a rest and some tea...

Edited September 26, 2012 by Cakesplat

[Shiki 5,855]

 

Really, though, I stopped reading at "Asperger's". As someone who supposedly has it, and as someone who knows about 89234750293 people who have it, and as someone who knows 4890357290348 who know 48123590485602394856 people who have it... I have given up on believing that any of these kinds of diagnosis or diagnosis-like things are legitimate in any way. Pretty much everyone has some kind of autism, these days. Or some kind of attention disorder. The amount is ridiculous, and I cannot take it seriously anymore.

 

Though you did do an impressive amount of speculation on this, I just can't take it seriously. I apologise.

[pinkiefan1287 610]

Eventually Pinkie breaks down into tears because of how hard baby sitting truly is, and accepts Twilight's help at the very end of it all.

No she didn't. At the end of Baby Cakes when Pinkie started to cry, Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake felt bad for what they did and decided to go easier on her. Twilight was not seen in the episode after that.

 

Still I like your info and it seems like you put a lot of work into it. Good job.

Edited September 26, 2012 by pinkiefan1287

[Gone for good 1,593]

 

Really, though, I stopped reading at "Asperger's". As someone who supposedly has it, and as someone who knows about 89234750293 people who have it, and as someone who knows 4890357290348 who know 48123590485602394856 people who have it... I have given up on believing that any of these kinds of diagnosis or diagnosis-like things are legitimate in any way. Pretty much everyone has some kind of autism, these days. Or some kind of attention disorder. The amount is ridiculous, and I cannot take it seriously anymore.

 

I was diagnosed with Aspergers, and I agree with you. The diagnostic criteria are, in my opinion, ridiculous. There are only a few things in there that should actually be used for diagnosing anything. In my honest opinion, and this partially comes from the fact that I believe I was misdiagnosed, I think that most people who are diagnosed are actually misdiagnosed.

 

Twilight was not seen in the episode after that.

 

wait what? Seriously? I watched that episode when I was doing this and how did I aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

 

Note to self: take better notes in the future

[pinkiefan1287 610]

wait what? Seriously? I watched that episode when I was doing this and how did I aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Note to self: take better notes in the future

Eeyup That is how the episode ended. Hope that info does not mess you up.

 

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpsJSp6K7no&list=PL1C437539CD931798&index=136&feature=plpp_video

 

Also I saw that you put down that Pinkie did not notice that AJ was sleep deprived. The other noticed it to, but at the end they did not see it. So is that something?

Edited September 26, 2012 by pinkiefan1287

[Gone for good 1,593]

Also I saw that you put down that Pinkie did not notice that AJ was sleep deprived. The other noticed it to, but at the end they did not see it. So is that something?

 

After watching it again, they knew something was up but it didn't look like they all knew that she was actually sleep deprived. I don't think it's worth noting just because I honestly think that they just didn't happen to notice how bad her face was, but Pinkie Pie still stands here.

 

By the way, while I said something about MLA citation in my post I'd much rather cite this using APA style and then post it on tumblr or something. Can anybody help me out here since I really don't understand it at all and these guides are only making my brain hurt even more?

[Gone for good 1,593]

I'm going to edit the title of the thread altogether in just a second, but since there's a new DSM coming out very soon and sine we are kind of dorks already I propose an idea for us to research and find out the truth regarding Pinkie Pie! Here's what I propose, we all get as much information as possible and maybe think of some theories and then once the new dsm comes out we look at that and test our little theories. Once we have done just that, we may have unlocked the truth and then we can party.

[Pinkazoid 3,493]

 

Nah, but seriously

 

I stopped reading after i read "Aspergers" 

 

I honestly don't believe any of the threads where they show the diagnoses of a character having ____________ 

 

The amount is just ridiculous.

[Ganondox 899]

So, fellow bronies. There is a new DSM coming out very soon. With it, we might be closer than ever to finding out the truth to what makes Pinkie Pie loco in her coco! So here's the deal, I want us bronies to research as much as we can about pinkie pie both in the show, comics, etcetra blah blah blah anything that could be considered canon! Once this new DSM comes out, we may finally have enough information to cracking the secret that many of us have been asking since the show first came out.

 

this was originally a thread about my own giant analysis of Pinkie Pie but why not change it to this not only because it would be more fun but because season 3 destroyed my hypothesis completely. You can find it down here:

 

 

Pinkie Pie is really freaking weird, there's no denying that, but she's not the negative kind of weird that we call the people on youtube who show off their "manly" halo 3 poster that's ducktaped to the wall or the people on the metro who don't have hadphones so they blast music through their speakers the entire ride. That being said, because of her variety of weirdness we all assume that she's bonkers. Because I have way too much freetime, I started looking into the mind of Pinkamena Diane Pie and after reading whole books to accurately diagnose her with something, I have finally come to a conclusion on her mentality. I can answer this question that many of us have been asking for awhile: is Pinkie Pie loco in her coco?

 

 

Before I answer that, it's important to note that Pinkie Pie is a unique character. Rather than using one episode as proof that Pinkie Pie has a certain disorder, it's actually more fun and more conclusive if you use the series as a whole. Any professional wouldn't use just one incident as proof that something was wrong and would look more at the individual as a whole before any diagnosis is actually made. As of me writing this, there have been fifty-two episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic aired on TV. Each episode is about half an hour, so that's around twenty-six hours of technicolored cartoon horses frolicking about on our TV screens. It's entirely possible that some people haven't seen the entire series, or that they just can't remember a part of it so before we get to conclusions lets analyze Pinkie.

 

Pinkie Pie, although originally named Pinkamena Diane Pie, was originally born to Mr. and Mrs. Pie and lived on a dull and boring rock farm. It's implied that for the majority of her childhood, she was living one of the most dull and boring lives imaginable. Her daily routine of being bored and depressed was broken one way when she by chance happened to see a Rainbow Dash perform an awesomely awesome, epic, huge, loud, awesome, colorful, and awesome Sonic Rainboom in the distance. This completely dazzled Pinkie, and put the biggest smile on her face that is shown throughout the series. It was from this day forward that Pinkie had a newfound obsession with fun and made it her goal to make every creature smile.

 

While Pinkie does at times come out as a bit rude or “annoying” as some people say it, she has good intentions. She said so herself when she sang her song in A Friend in Deed. Her entire song is about her goals of making people smile and how it's her life's dream. In that same song she acknowledges that sadness exists when she sings these two lines:

 

It's true some-days are dark and lonely;

And maybe you feel sad, but Pinkie will be there to show you that it isn't that bad.

 

This is something that's unique to note. Usually the archetype for characters that party all the time is that they simply don't care much for others and are more preoccupied on having fun. It's one of the many things that set Pinkie apart from other characters.

 

Regarding the dark and lonely days that Pinkie Pie mentioned; she feels them herself even though she's a pink thing of energy. The most notable episode here that includes sad days like these would be The Party of One. This episode is usually the first thing people jump to when trying to make a statement about Pinkie's mental health. If you haven't seen it yet, just go watch it right now.

 

In this episode, she started thinking something was funny when all 5 of her friends declined the invitation, which considering that they normally wouldn't have anything going on is a perfectly logical thing to think but, she really started thinking that they were all trying to avoid her because they hated her after she found out that Twilight was lying and noticed that she was trying to avoid her. I'll touch base on her breakdown later but it's important to note how mad she was when she found out they were lying. A similar thing of rage can be found in The Last Roundup.

 

In fact, in this episode she got so mad that she literally had steam coming out of her ears. For a quick synopsis of what was going on, AppleJack pinkie promised Pinkie that she would tell the group why she wasn't ever going back to ponyville at breakfast, but when she seemingly lied and tried running away before breakfast, Pinkie flipped out.

 

She managed to catch up to AppleJack and was about to give her the most brutal scolding of her life, but AppleJack reminded Pinkie Pie that the promise was for the truth to come out at breakfast, which AppleJack hadn't gone to yet. The promise wasn't broken so Pinkie Pie basically shrugged and went back to being her typical self.

 

Pinkie is also a cocky individual. She gets pretty angry when she even remotely thinks that she's being challenged. This can obviously be seen in her attempts to chase down AppleJack, but can more notably be seen in the episode Baby Cakes. In this episode, Pinkie Pie takes on the full responsibility of looking after a couple fillies even though she was warned that it is a hard task to do. When she is offered assistance from Twilight, she rejects any help and demands that she leave immediately. Eventually Pinkie breaks down into tears because of how hard baby sitting truly is, and accepts Twilight's help at the very end of it all.

 

While she certainly is cocky, she's not particularly mean spirited. The only time that she is mean spirited is when she was under Discord's spell. In her corrupted state, which is the opposite of what's in her heart, Pinkie Pie is just cruel. She was focused on how seemingly miserable her life was, and was being as mean as possible to everyone.

 

Her true side isn't like this at all! She's normally bouncing up and down with joy and laughter, cracking jokes at any given moment, searching for those in need, looking for new friends to make, finding any reason to chatter and partying like none other. There's a reason why everypony in Ponyville likes her, and it's simply because of how happy she is. While she has had issues with certain people, she always has came through in the end and has put a smile on their face.

 

Despite how she well she managed with other folk, she has some social issues. In The Party of One, she wasn't able to read the facial expressions of her five close friends who obviously were lying and it wasn't until she actually sees Twilight outside of where she said she'd be that she realizes the truth. She also isn't able to tell that AppleJack is sleep deprived in and tells Twilight that she seemed perfectly fine at the end of the embarrassing award ceremony. On a more humorous note, she wasn't able to tell what kind of party the Gala was and continued trying to put Most notably is how in a Friend in deed Pinkie wasn't able to notice that Cranky Doodle didn't want to see her even after chasing him around and being yelled at. When she finally realized her mistake, she went back to chasing him around to apologize.

 

Pinkie also is by far the most hyperactive in Ponyville. She's able to run at ridiculous speeds, will pop up out of the most unexpected places, knows the solution to just about everything, and always has some cartoonish gag ready for any occasion. Fan videos, excluding the much more hilarious ones where she's a psychotic murderer, more times than not nail her activities down perfectly.

 

As fun as it was to document Pinkie's life, I think that's enough of her life and it's now time to look at her mind. While Pinkie Pie is a horse, her personality resembles that of a human and she, like the rest of the ponies in Ponyville, are pretty much humans trapped inside of a cartoonish horse shape prison thing. That being said, a normal psychologist would have months worth of information to diagnose a patient but with Pinkie Pie, I only have a little bit more than a day's worth of info about her. If you have an issue with anything I say here, counter it! I'll learn something, people reading will learn something, you'll probably have some fun shooting me down from the sky and I'm gonna counter something else somebody said so yeah!

 

Lets get back on track, here. Despite how questioned Pinkie is both inside the show and inside the fandom, there have rarely been any attempts at explaining her behavior. Probably the most notable would have to be the statements from Kyronea, a member of MLPforums. “Psychologically speaking, Pinkie Pie is difficult to understand...Pinkie Pie does actually have serious mental and emotional issues...She suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder.” [1] To sum up what he said: Pinkie is emotionally unstable; she has a black and white thought pattern and will jump to the worst possible conclusion. He diagnosed her with Borderline Personality Disorder which, according to him, explains her actions in The Party of One, A Friend in Deed, Baby Cakes, and Putting Your Hoof Down. While I will agree that Pinkie Pie is a bit unstable, he’s unfortunately mistaken on just about everything else.

 

While it's true that there is something different about Pinkie Pie, she doesn't suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder. At first glance, it may seem that Pinkie Pie has BPD, as yes she did have a breakdown when she found out that her friends were avoiding her in The Party of One and she doesn’t seem to take any criticism well at all but when one compares case studies of those who have had BPD and our beloved Pinkie Pie, things are wildly different. Most people who suffer from BPD have traumatic childhood experiences, that usually include sexual abuse; manipulative behavior is actually very common in people with BPD; self-destructive behavior, which includes sex, alcoholism, threats of suicide and self-mutilation, is evident in most patients. In one case study of a BPD patient named Rachel, she would often have severe mood swings, have aggressive outbursts that were actually very hard to identify the cause of, would make several irrational comments, and told the psychologists about her alleged sexual abuse. (Samuel Arnold, 4)

 

Pinkie doesn’t even fit the criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder. In order for someone to be diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, he or she must fit under at least five categories of nine listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000); Pinkie Pie really only fits under one of them. (710) For Pinkie Pie to even qualify for a personality disorder, she must also fit under the criteria for a personality disorder which she doesn't fit even one of the descriptions listed. (688) If Pinkie Pie doesn’t have BPD, her breakdown in The Party of One would logically have to be explained by another mental disorder, but in reality it doesn’t.

 

I would like to get one major thing clear regarding Pinkie's breakdown in The Party of One: it was actually perfectly natural. There was nothing out of the ordinary at all about Pinkie's actions. She was convinced that she had lost a grand whopping of five friends and her lifelong goal of making everypony smile was seemingly shattered into a million sharp pieces. Her depression, anger, and strange party with inanimate objects can all be explained using the states of grieving which for those who don't know are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. There isn’t a rule for which state comes first and which state comes after but they all end with acceptance. (On Grief and Grieving, page 7) The loss of several close friends at once and the destruction of dreams would hard to handle for anybody.

 

So basically, Pinkie's actually not the crazed serial killer on the inside that fanfics like Cupcakes love to describe. If one were to go pick up a copy of the DSM and scour through it looking for anything that describes Pinkie, they would more likely than not be disappointed that she only fits under two of the more mild disorders. While Pinkie has a pretty quirky personality, there's really nothing wrong about it. A fun personality isn't a bad one, and unless it's getting in the way it's not a disorder. That being said, the two disabilities that she has are possibly preventing her from reaching her full potential.

 

Pinkie Pie is an extremely hyper active mare, and everypony in Ponyville knows this. When she starts running her mouth she won't stop unless she's physically incapable of doing so, she's known to pop up out of every unexpected place you can name, and she can get distracted from just about anything out there. Her attention and hyperactivity issues are surprisingly severe, and since she doesn't seem to have anything in particular setting her off. I first diagnosed her with ADHD predominately impulsive type.

 

ADHD predominately impulsive type is when somebody has the same symptoms of ADHD but are leaning more so towards hyperactivity than inattentiveness. South county child and family consultants, who are a team of psychologists and clinicians who offer psychological treatment , describes kids with ADHD predominately impulsive type are “...?unable ?to ?sit ?still ?at ?home? and? in? school, ?may? be ?extremely ?fidgety ?or ?restless, ?may ?always ?be ?moving ?one ?body ?part ?or? another, and ?may ?never? seem? to ?tire. ..girls? who ?are? described ?as ?the ?hyperactive?impulsive ?type ?tend? to? be ?very talkative? and ?are ?often? described ?as ?social ?butterflies...” (Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder: Hyperactive-Impulsive Type)

 

I think it's safe to say that she has at least some form of ADHD here, but after checking the DSM yet again I noticed that she doesn’t fit in criteria B, which is for symptoms to be noticeable before 9 years of age. It is possible that Pinkie Pie showed symptoms of hyperactivity on the rock farm, but from what little we know about it it’s unsure. Even then, the link is strong enough that I am going to diagnose her with ADHD not otherwise specified, or ADHD-NOS for short.

 

Pinkie Pie, while loved by nearly all the ponies in Ponyville, has some severe social issues. Pinkie was unable to notice the fact that Applejack was sleep deprived during Applebuck Season, she didn't seem to notice or care that Gilda and Rainbow Dash were trying to talk to each other alone in and was confused when they would move on in Griffon the Brush-Off, she was unable to understand how Cranky Doodle didn't want her help in A Friend In Deed, and probably the most famous was how she crashed the gala with her own party tracks thinking that the “sophisticated” ponies wanted to have her kind of fun during Suited for Success. She also has an obsession with fun; in fact, that's all she thinks about! All of these symptoms lead me to originally diagnose her with Aspergers.

 

Aspergers is a disorder that is on the autism spectrum, but is noticeably different. One of the main things that set people with Aspergers apart from those with Autism is that people with Aspergers are awkward, but social. It's also common for people with Aspergers to have an interest that's almost like an obsession. There was a case study about a boy named Andy. He had issues when it came to understanding people's feelings and emotions. He would also occasionally start ranting on about entirely different subjects and seldom would stop talking. I myself was also diagnosed with Aspergers as a child, and was told that I had issues looking people into the eye and had some pretty big social issues (whether or not I grew out of it, I'm not sure).

 

According to the DSM, she fits into every criteria needed to be diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome except for criteria A. Even though she is lacking in one criteria, she has enough symptoms that there is definitely a link here. She should be diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, or PDD-NOS for short because there is obviously a huge link here, but as of right now there isn't a way to determine what exactly she has. Maybe as the show goes on or as psychological knowledge increases there will be a better conclusion as to what she has.

 

So basically, the two disorders that she does have are actually pretty common. She is a bit weird, nobody can argue against this, but she's otherwise in good shape.

 

I just wrote more than a thousand words and still haven't answered the question in the first paragraph. Is Pinkie Pie loco in her coco? Honestly, I'd say no. She's a bit strange, sure, but once again she's not insane because of this. She does have a couple disorders but they are of the more menial variety. Maybe we should all try to emulate Pinkie's joyful way of life in one way or another. She has some issues, but she still tries and for the most part she puts a smile on everyone's face. While it's flat out impossible to have everyone like you, she certainly has a lot more friends than enemies.

 

Anyway there are a couple citation issues in here that I will solve right when I get home. This netbook is being lame and isn't letting me load up all of the pages that I want so i will provide the links and APA style citations right when I get home. I just want to upload this around now because holy crap this is driving me nuts aaaaaaaaaaa By the way, tell me if you liked reading this because I had a lot of fun doing this and would totally do something similar with the others if this is well recieved

 

 

By the way, this will be done entirely for fun. I understand that blah blah blah you're overanalyzing this blah blah blah, which yeah actually we would be but you know what it'll be fun.

 

Okay, this is probably the single best psychoanalysis for a pony I've seen. One thing I'm going to point out is technically there is nothing that says people with AS are social while those with AD are not, the most concrete difference in the criteria is that there is usually a speech delay in autism, but not aspergers. Yeah, Pinkie is definitely NOS. 

Edited April 28, 2013 by Ganondox

[Mister G 101]

Twily with Asperger's (I was diagnosed with it) looks more believable to me, but this one..... I just don't know.

Autism is devolving into another petty insult like "gay" nowadays.

About misdiagnosing autism, and stuff like it, I'd say as long as you are happy with who you are, you're OK.

Let's just accept that the inner machination of Pinkie Pie is, and WILL ALWAYS BE an enigma.

[Argumedies 1,748]

Dispite all these fancy phyco labels that everyone likes to throw around now a days. She's just a pony with too much sugar and time on her hooves.

 

The two things I've noticed is that she has a photographic memory and is terrified of being alone (which is a bad combination in anyone)

 

Oh and she's afraid of failure

Edited April 28, 2013 by Argumedies