Does Vergil is Mentally Ill?

Does Vergil is Mentally Ill?

I hope nobody needs the disclaimer that this is babys second character essay so don't stone it please

Hello and welcome to me rambling the fuck out about my headcanons.. Spoilers for DMC all media below!

Disclaimer: none of those things are meant to be me stereotyping. Nobody is a monolith ETC, I'm just interested in picking up different traits from Vergil. Another disclaimer: This one will probably be a tad shorter OR edited around than the one about Utsuro because  energy levels

Now let's go to the HCS.

Canon-Reliant Headcanons

I think Vergil has:

1. Other specified Dissociative Disorder OR Dissociative Identity Disorder
Symptoms (bolded=experiences it, italics=sort of experiences it)

  D.I.D symptoms:

• Inability to recall large memories of childhood;
• Lack of awareness of recent events, and if they do remember, inability to explain them, for example not being able to explain how the patient got somewhere, or how the acquired a possession;
• “lost time,” or frequent memory loss;
• Flashbacks or sudden return of memories;
• Feelings of disconnection or detachment from body or thoughts;
• Hallucinations or voices;
• So called “out of body ” experiences;
• Self-harm or suicidal thoughts;;
• Changes in handwriting;
• Functional changes: from nearly disabled to highly functioning
• Less commonly observed manifestations observed in patients with DID:
• Mood swings or depression;
• Anxiety, nervousness, panic attacks or phobias;
• Eating and food issues;
• Unexplained sleep disorders;
• Headaches or general body pain;
• Sexual issues, sex addiction or sexual avoidance (AAMFT, 2014).

Defense of HC:

•   As far as I am aware, D.I.D. is caused by childhood trauma, at most. Vergil had severe childhood trauma, and the way he dealt with it (splitting himself from man and demon), added in with 'Nightmares',or Beings V had to reconcile with in order to fuse with Vergil (Evil Dante, Nelo Angelo, Withered Vergil, Little Vergil), felt like a D.I.D. allegory
• One thing is, though, I do not think that V, Urizen, or Vergil - or other alters have memories only assigned to them, as in there's no amnesia. Without amnesia, AFAIK, you can still be diagnosed to have D.I.D, though it is more common to be diagnosed with OSDD than not, but that's my only note
• Additionally: Fusion isn't everyones final decision but it seems to have helped him heal.

  OSDD symptoms:

 

1. Chronic and recurrent syndromes of mixed dissociative symptoms. This category includes identity disturbance associated with less than marked discontinuities in sense of self and agency, or alterations of identity or episodes of possession in an individual who reports no dissociative amnesia.
2. Identity disturbance due to prolonged and intense coercive persuasion: Individuals who have been subjected to intense coercive persuasion (e.g., brainwashing, thought reform, indoctrination while captive, torture, long-term political imprisonment, recruitment by sects/cults or by terror organizations) may present with prolonged changes in, or conscious questions of, their identity.
3. Acute dissociative reactions to stressful events: This category is for acute, transient conditions that typically last less than 1 month, and sometimes only a few hours or days. These conditions are characterized by constriction of consciousness; depersonalization; derealization; perceptual disturbances (e.g., time slowing, macropsia); micro-amnesias; transient stupor; and/or alterations in sensory-motor functioning (e.g., analgesia, paralysis).
4. Dissociative trance: This condition is characterized by an acute narrowing or complete loss of awareness of immediate surroundings that manifest as profound unresponsiveness or insensitivity to environmental stimuli. May be accompanied by minor stereotyped behaviors of which the individual is unaware and/or that he or she cannot control, as well as transient paralysis or loss of consciousness. The dissociative trance is not a normal part of a broadly accepted collective cultural or religious practice.
 

Defense of HC:

• Examples of these, if not all, can be seen in the VOV manga, if not in general lore. 2, from Munduses' entrapment, 3, that one set of panels where an Angelo caused him to have a flashback and regress to Little Vergil when Nero stood up to defend him, 4, I would say that would be the whole mission of defeating Nightmares both in-game and in the manga. For 1, I would not say that Vergil was shown to have repeated dissociative symptoms, as we have not seen enough of his private life to begin with. We have entire gaps in what his life were in-between the games NGL.
• And again, memories are shared, so I lean towards this HC more, maybe..

Sub-headcanons:
Alongside D.I.D., I think DP/DR and CPTSD would go hand in hand with it. CPTSD because he had multiple traumatizing events in life - Mundus, Mundus again, multiple near death experiences, etc.

 

I also think that Vergil is..

2. Autistic

I am a little more able to word myself well when defending D.I.D. as a headcanon, however when it comes to Autistic headcanons, I fear coming off as a bit stereotype-y, so I want to warn here that I do not think "being rude/not liking to talk a lot/etc=autism" or that autism = evil disorder.
I will share the criterions, and why I consider him to fit them. I will try to word myself well.

• criterion A: persistent deficits in reciprocal social communication and social interaction
• criterion B: restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities
• criterion C: symptoms must be present in the early developmental period
• criterion D: symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning
• criterion E: these disturbances are not better explained by intellectual disability or global developmental delay.

There have been mentions of Vergil hating crowds and loud places, interactions he has with others are short and he can come off as cold or disinterested, speaking only when necessary. Now, all this is something everyone can do, and "coming off as mean" is in no way an Autism trait, however I am looking at all those things together as him having specific sensory and social-cue related needs that do not fit to being in crowds with lots of people (overwhelming) or having to interact with someone outside his immediate family (confusing, lotsa socializing and cues to miss)

I think, as a repetitive interest of his, that would be quest for power (trauma based, too) and sparring with Dante, so I would lean onto the second one as being his special interest, which he has been engaging in since he were a child! Poetry too, maybe, though that seems to be a repressed spin, re-awakened by V. I would have to have another look-over at his timeline to see if I'm correct, tho.

While we haven't seen a bigger example of this yet, or I don't remember it, in PXZ2 and PGR there are two instances in which the way Vergil interacts with people causes them to misinterpret him or in general see him as antagonistic. In both these cases it seems that he does not bother to clear up the problem, which, headcanon aside, is such a Vergil thing to do, LOL. He does not GAF about irrelevant things

I think, while being isolated for so long, anybody could have a delay in doing adulting, people-ing, or existing in general, but I still prefer to look at this through the perspective of an Autism HC, please and thank you


Mid-Canon based territory
3. ASPD
Disclaimer: In this house we do not stigmatize people with personality disorders. We all heart you, people of all clusters. OK let's go

A. Disregard for and violation of others rights since age 15, as indicated by one of the seven sub features:

1. Failure to obey laws and norms by engaging in behavior which results in criminal arrest, or would warrant criminal arrest
2. Lying, deception, and manipulation, for profit or self-amusement,
3. Impulsive behavior
4. Irritability and aggression, manifested as frequently assaults others, or engages in fighting
5. Blatantly disregards safety of self and others,
6. A pattern of irresponsibility and
7. Lack of remorse for actions (American Psychiatric Association, 2013)

The other diagnostic Criterion are:

B. The person is at least age 18,

C. Conduct disorder was present by history before age 15

D. and the antisocial behavior does not occur in the context of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013)

First things first, ASPD is no mood or empathy disorder - it is a behavior disorder caused by severe trauma. Which takes me right to the defense-of-hc part: Vergil had severe trauma. In games and novels, we can see a collection of 1&2 together in his interactions with Arkham(dmc3) and Sanctus(novel), where he will see some people as pawns to use for his goals, or straight up walk into someones bed chambers like nothing just because he wants to get something from them.

His self esteem and goals are (or were if we consider his PGR character arc, but let's keep it in pre-pgr state for now) based around himself, his personal gain, or power. Get it get

Impulsive behavior, I would say he does not have much of that anymore, but in younger years definitely. I would not say that he is easily enraged either, or prone to fights. Maybe, some of that could have happened while he was busy surviving and hiding ages 8-18(before events of DMC3), but we do not know. One small example of him being easy to anger would be frequent fights with Dante, but that would be more being predisposed to anger than having that happen due to trauma, since I'm talking about the V.O.V. flashback scene <_<

Though! he does disregard others' feelings or safety, and does not care for consequences of his action/inactions. Some of this can be seen challenged by V in VoV when he decided to save the child who was crying for his mommy (ough little Vergil type character)
B. He is indeed in his forties C. He could, but we don't know (^see above) D. Nope >:)

TOTAL HEADCANON TERRITORY

4. PICA/ARFID Combination
Symptoms:
PICA

• Persistent eating of non-nutritive, nonfood substances for a period of at least one month.
• The eating of nonnutritive, nonfood substances is inappropriate to the developmental level of the individual.
• The eating behavior is not part of a culturally supported or socially normative practice.
• If occurring with another mental disorder, or during a medical condition, it is severe enough to warrant independent clinical attention.

ARFID

• Criterion A demonstrates an eating or feeding disturbance associated with at least one of the following: significant weight loss, significant nutritional deficiency, dependence on enteral feeding or oral supplements such as a nutritional formula, and a marked change in psychosocial functioning. In this case, a feeding disturbance could be due to the following reasons:

  • Low appetite and disinterest in food

  • Avoidance of foods or narrow selection of foods related to sensory issues (e.g. related to smell, taste, texture)

  • Avoidance or restrictive eating related to fear of consequences (such as choking, vomiting, and nausea).

• Criterion B demonstrates that the interference with eating is not related to religious or cultural practices or lack of availability of food.
• Criterion C demonstrates that the feeding disturbance is not due to another eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, evidenced by lack of body image issues or preoccupation with body weight.
• Criterion D demonstrates that the feeding disturbance is not due to another psychiatric or medical condition (for example, gastrointestinal disease or malignancy) that may better explain the symptoms.(1, 17)

Some canon notes, which also reject the headcanon:

1. Vergil hasn't had proper human food since the age of 16 or 18, and even earlier would probably go through severe malnurition after running away from home, thanks Mundus. And his palate or appetite has to have been messed with severely, which probably got worsened by having to live a long time in the demon world with nothing but their meat or fluids to have, too.
2. We see V engaging in eating demon meat for nourishment, though he also eats a burger afterwards, no problem.. So, loose standing in the hc..
3. In PGR he considers strawberry sundae too sweet, even though he loved sweets as a child. Hey! Hey! His palate got fucked with! Or he just grew up. But if we put it in context, it's definitely both

Why do I think this could happen to him anyway?

1. Cuz I'm built different.
2. Because he would have gone a long time viewing food as something that, at first, is something to wait for and store away in pieces, (inner-headcanon: maybe even something to deserve?! he still would hate himself for moms death.) (earlier years), then something that tastes disgusting but he needs lots of to survive (later years)
3. Due to this, I think he would fall back on the habit of eating unsavory things/inedibles, or go the opposite way and avoid food as much as possible altogether. But this is just a theory, a what if theory :P

ok i rambled the fuck out thanks