Kaidou Shun And Psychosis.

Kaidou Shun and psychosis.

This is a more serious analysis I've been debating on writing because I don't think I can properly convey my thoughts, but I'm gonna try. I'm not a professional but I am diagnosed with a psychosis-based mental illness. A lot of my reasoning is just similarities between my mental illness and Kaidou, but for this analysis, I'm going to stick to the facts. Content warning for mentions of trauma, mental abuse, and mental illness.

So throughout the series, there are many times when it's clear Kaidou knows his dark reunion fantasies are a facade, but there's also times that feel like he actually believes it's real. Specifically, I want to talk about the time when he was manipulated by a classmate into doing homework and giving up his wallet. Why would Kaidou, someone who is pretty smart and brave, fear dark reunion so much that he is legitimately manipulated into losing his wallet? That goes beyond typical chuunibyou behavior. I know he's supposed to be a chuunibyou stereotype, but the symptoms of that don't involve intense fear for your safety from those delusions like Kaidou has. I think in moments like these, Kaidou is having episodes of psychosis.

I dont think he believes in his fantasies all the time, and usually just shows the normal signs of chuunibyou. There are many times when he knows he doesn't actually have powers and backs away from danger. But psychosis doesn't mean a person is having episodes 24/7. When Kaidou is more grounded, he may know that his fantasies aren't real, but when he has an episode, he does believe it's real.

To be more scientific, some symptoms of psychosis Kaidou shows include:

-delusions

-innapropriate behavior

-unusual or overly intense ideas

-difficulty telling fantasy from reality

-belief that ordinary events have significant meaning

Psychosis can be caused by extreme stress in one's life and Kaidou has plenty of that. At the beginning of the series he was a social outcast that would cry alone in the bathroom. His mother is constantly concerned about grades and makes him spend most of his time studying. She dislikes the few friends he does have if they are not studious enough. She also doesn't give him any privacy which causes him to become sexually repressed. I dont think she's evil but this pressure combined with the bullying he receives is really damaging.

So that's why Kaidou developed chuunibyou syndrome. Because of how much the loneliness and feelings of inferiority affect him. I think the stress caused the chuunibyou to eventually become full psychosis as he relied more and more on his fantasy world.

I also think this is why Saiki cares for Kaidou more than we've seen him care about any other character. He identifies Kaidou as his friend when he claims to dislike all of his classmates. He makes sure Kaidou is safe and takes revenge when he is taken advantage of. This is not something Saiki would do for anyone else at the beginning of the series. I think it's because Saiki, through his mind-reading could tell Kaidou was very vulnerable.

Psychosis isn't really often talked about or assigned to positive characters, so that's why I wanted to discuss it here. Basically I think the legitimate fear Kaidou shows around dark reunion goes beyond chuunibyou and into psychosis.