Psychoanalyzing Perfectpaw (ToPh)

Instructions

WARNING: THIS IS LONG. ITS BASICALLY A PSYCHOLOGY ESSAY. I'm really hyperfixated on psychology and started thinking abt what actually causes those kind of behavioral issues and then parenting styles and all that and then suddenly I had a whole dang essay in my hands Is everything I say here basically already explained and confirmed and is kinda just stating the obvious? Yes. Do I care? No, this was still really fun write :) This covers: - Perfectpaw's behavioral issues - Possible causes - Clan parenting vs Dave's parenting - Return to RiverClan --- As stated by Mintstar in chapter 15, Perfectpaw has "extreme behavior problems, narcissistic tendencies, and appears to have a lack of empathy". I'm not experienced enough to determine if Perfect has a disorder that is causing these issues, but since he is still young, had a relatively okay kithood, and his behavior does get better over time and with the right methods, I'm going to say it's just basic childhood behavior problems. However, people, especially children, don't just behave like that for no reason. We're not given very many peeks into Perfectpaw's early kithood, but I have a couple theories as to why he acts the way he does. 1. Spoiled rotten If Perfectpaw was given tons of attention as a kit, and was always allowed to have his way no matter what, then he would probably heavily resist being forced to grow up. This feels like the most likely cause to me, given that Sunnysong literally named him "Perfect" and he was clearly her favorite of her three kits (possibly to the point of slightly neglecting Tansypaw and Moonpaw, leading them to grow up mature and independent quicker than they should have). This is also evident by his introduction in the first chapter, where he claims that everyone loves him and any cat who doesn't (namely, Frostface) is evil. He gets very upset whenever he doesn't get his way, has a tendency of walking over other cat's feelings and bullying anyone who will let him, and retaliates harshly to any punishments he is given. He essentially believes he can do no wrong. (This is further proven by the flashbacks in chapter 65.) 2. Neglected If the opposite situation happened, where Perfectpaw didn't get enough attention as a kit, then his acting out could be a way of drawing attention to himself. It's shown a couple times that the trio's father, Nightfang, is a bit neglectful to his mate and kits, not even showing up for the kits' birth (shown in ch. 65), or defending Perfect when he was exiled as Sunnysong did. Perfect also gets upset when he is shown up by Tansypaw at catching fish, and wants all the attention on him, to prove that he is better than his sister. Other than that, though, there isn't much evidence for this, and even plenty of evidence against it, so I'm pretty sure the first option is the real cause. So how come this behavior is easily corrected by Dave, while the Clan's methods consistently failed? Simply put, RiverClan leaned more towards an authoritarian parenting style, at least with Perfect (they are much less strict with the other, admittedly more mature, apprentices, using not quite exactly but at least closer to an authoritative style instead). I would not really consider it bad enough to be abusive, but it's definitely unproductive and even detrimental to Perfect's behavior. It just doesn't work to correct his behavioral issues. It's a constant power struggle between Perfect and his superiors: - Perfectpaw does something rude or even dangerous - The adults in his life don't have the time or patience to actually communicate with him and explain why what he did was wrong, help him calm down and think through his actions and emotions, and figure out a productive way to correct his behavior in the future - They don't take time to examine their own emotional responses either, and jump straight to scolding, yelling, and punishments. This also means Perfect doesn't have any positive role models to learn from - Perfectpaw gets upset and lashes out or retaliates And the cycle continues, and builds up until it reaches the breaking point and Perfect is exiled. But Dave used an authoritative, or "gentle" parenting method. He doesn't bend to Perfectpaw's attempts to make him angry, which gradually teaches Perfect that being rude will get him nowhere. He's a positive role model and demonstrates what polite behavior and good decisions are like. He understands that Perfect is coming from a place of anger and hurt, genuinely listens to his feelings, and challenges his narcissistic thought patterns. He is patient and calm when teaching, and uses natural consequences instead of imposed punishments to discipline Perfect so that he can learn from his bad decisions. When Perfect hurts him directly, he explains his own feelings and teaches Perfect about empathy instead of just scolding him for being bad. (This is getting too long so it's continued in Notes and Credits.)