The Finite

PSY 350: Abnormal Psychology
Oct 18, 2009

This recitation assignment entails a brief summary of a depressed character of your choice portrayed in literature, theater, film, and/or television.

    Marvin the Paranoid Android is a character from the 6-part trilogy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in all its incarnations (including books, radio series, and feature film). He is an artificially intelligent, humanoid robot that was originally employed to serve the position of ship robot on the starship Heart of Gold.
    Marvin is a prototype of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation’s Genuine People Personalities (GPP) technology. As he is imbued with human emotion, he feels mostly depression (but ironically not paranoia despite his title). He constantly reminds his employers, the story’s protagonists, how depressed he is.
    Marvin expresses what I believe to be sufficient signs for Major Depressive Disorder. He is undeniably morose for most if not all of his existence. In fact, his first line in his film appearance is, “I think you ought to know I’m feeling very depressed” in a very melancholy tone. Marvin has never appeared in media without his characteristic demeanor. This satisfies one of the five DSM-IV required symptoms for Major Depressive Episode, that the patient expresses a self-noted depressed mood for most of the day, nearly every day, and continues for longer than 2 (Earth) months. He also lacks very much interest in the activities of any of the other main characters. Furthermore, he feels this way about everything. “Life,” said Marvin dolefully, “loathe it or ignore it, you can’t like it.” He also is very anhedonic if his time stranded by his owners on an abandoned planet for eons is any indication; “The first ten million years were the worst. And the second ten million… they were the worst too. The third ten million I didn’t enjoy at all. After that, I went into a bit of a decline.” This may be faulty engineering on the part of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation or a reflection of Marvin’s prototype status, but it also could be a legitimate facet of his artificial personality. “My capacity for happiness, you could fit into a matchbox without taking out the matches first.” He also constantly reminds us of how no one listens to him and exhibits other signs of low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness. “I’d make a suggestion, but you wouldn’t listen. No one ever does.” He also is dissatisfied with his unfulfilling job on the starship. “Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to take you down to the bridge. Call that job satisfaction? ‘Cos I don’t.” In addition, he appears apathetic about death and even mentions suicide several times. He is impassive and does nothing when fired upon by a crowd of Vogon marksmen in the climax of the film. “I’m just trying to die.” he retorts at another point. Unfortunately, due to his being a robot, he lives far beyond the lifetime of any biological character. In fact, due to repeated time-travel-filled story arcs, he ends up being “thirty-seven times older than the Universe itself” by his final appearance. The fifth symptom he meets is “psychomotor agitation”. “…and then of course I’ve got this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left hand side… […] I’ve asked for them to be replaced but no one ever listens.” This may be a mechanical failure as opposed to psychological, but his portrayal in the film adaptation by dwarf Warwick Davis shows ungainly plodding movement unbecoming of any non-depressed hyper-intelligent alien robot.
    These characteristics are shown consistently without any manic or psychotic episodes. Though Marvin does not seem excessively distressed by his condition, it does cause problems for other people. Once, when Marvin electronically interfaced with an artificially intelligent bridge, the bridge promptly committed suicide and in the process killed the entire crowd gathered on it for the grand opening. Although usually, it is somewhat of a social impairment to be inadvertently killing large crowds of people, Marvin seems to accept this casually, perhaps because he’s a robot who doesn’t care for human life, but also possibly because he’s grown accustomed to being abandoned by his companions.
    Treatment options for Marvin are few. Since he is not a biological organism and thus does not have organic blood, a brain, or neurons, medication is probably going to be ineffective. Lithium salts wouldn’t work for the same reason and pure lithium may have incendiary or possibly explosive adverse effects. (Although since Marvin’s mood is, to many, sufficiently stable, lithium shouldn’t be prescribed for medical reasons anyway.) Similarly, electro-convulsive therapy may have disruptive side effects, such as overheating and processor damage. It seems the only options left to Marvin are cognitive-behavioral therapy and interpersonal therapy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy would let Marvin deprecate some of his negative thought processes and overwrite them with more healthy reactions and schemas. Marvin would benefit from interpersonal therapy by correcting relationship disputes with the other main characters and developing his social skills to perhaps find a more fulfilling job. Of course, they are probably better off replacing him with a newer model of robot, anyway.

I’m told another person chose Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh although this wouldn’t be the first time someone has done things like this.

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