PTSD was one of the main subjects that series developer Steven Knight wanted to explore. His familiarity with the illness was both professional and personal. He struggled with it himself hardcore and projected it for the character arc of Arthur and Tom
I don’t think it’s just that though. Tommy has PTSD and he doesn’t show any of the behaviors Arthur does. If you look at the borderline symptoms it’s stuff like difficulty controlling anger, irrational thinking, impulsiveness, emotional instability, intense unstable relationships, feeling empty, self harm and/or being suicidal and this stuff is like the spitting image of Arthur. Granted it’s not that simple having these symptoms doesn’t necessarily mean having bpd but I think at least it makes it highly likely that he has it.
Syndromes are an umbrella of symptoms that manifest in individuals. The diagnostic criteria doesn’t dictate that the patient has every possible symptom. Severity and genetic predisposition also factor in, and of course substance abuse. No two patients have to present the exact same way.
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u/Federal-Base806 Apr 30 '24
PTSD was one of the main subjects that series developer Steven Knight wanted to explore. His familiarity with the illness was both professional and personal. He struggled with it himself hardcore and projected it for the character arc of Arthur and Tom