crazythatcounts
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 | Subject: On the Origin of Masky  Fri Jan 31, 2014 8:00 pm | |
| On the Origin of Masky So, with the end of Marble Hornets on the horizon, I feel it's a good time to throw this into the wind, before it becomes an answered query and a moot point of discussion. What follows is an (rather lengthy, sorry) overview of a Theory on the Origin of Masky, what Masky is to Tim and what this could mean for coming videos. I use canon references and research, but this is a theory, just as much as any other theory, and I don't pretend to know anything for sure. - Theory:
Tim is suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder, or Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) as it is now referenced, and thus this has produced the secondary entity, Masky, as a coping and defense mechanism against The Operator. Masky was created to serve as a sort of mental block against The Operator when Tim was a child, only feeling the need to be a prevalent and active part of Tim when Tim faces any danger than he cannot handle, and the medication he takes is actually from a misdiagnosis of something else entirely, but is preventative of symptoms relevant to DID.
- What is "DID":
Dissociative Identity Disorder is, according to the DSM-IV-TR*, is " the presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states that recurrently take control of behavior. There is an inability to recall important personal information, the extent of which is too great to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness. The disturbance is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance or a general medical condition. In children, the symptoms cannot be attributed to imaginary playmates or other fantasy play" (526). People with DID tend to have missing memory from past and more recent experiences, and the personalities can range from being more passive to more hostile, with the more aggressive and more powerful being capable of allocating time to other personalities and being able to restrict and block memories of events and circumstances. (526)
"Transitions among identities are often triggered by psychosocial stress" (527), and "certain identities may experience conversion symptoms (e.g., pseudo seizures)..." (527). These "pseudo seizures" are not to be confused with complex partial seizures, those these can occur together (527). Also, "individuals with Dissociative Identity Disorder may manifest posttraumatic symptoms (e.g., nightmares, flashbacks, and startle responses) or Posttraumatic Stress Disorder." (527)
The final important aspect of DID is that something usually happened in childhood to cause stress. The DSM categorizes it into abuse, be it physical or sexual, but this can also include neglect, and for the sake of the Marble Hornets Universe, other outside stressors that create similar situations to abuse in terms of trauma suffered. (527)
*(the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revised)
- What Makes Me Think DID:
There's one important thing that needs to be considered when attempting to diagnose anyone in the MH Universe, and that is that anyone in the Universe is subject to a sort of sickness that arises from being around The Operator for too long. It needs to be taken into account that some symptoms will not overlap and may be stray, and can therefore probably be attributed to the sickness and not the diagnoses in itself. Therefore, all information in this can be separated into two categories of Relevant to the Diagnosis and Sickness.
Starting at the beginning of the diagnosis, we first have the presence of a secondary identity as an identifying factor. I don't think anyone would argue that Masky, as an entity, doesn’t stand out as something separate and apart from Tim's normal behavior and habits. Masky is bold, and prone to attack, while Tim is more reserved and only violent when provoked. [See Entry #59 for an example of Tim's provoked aggression]. However, as a child Tim was described as having "violent episodes" (Entry #66) which is much unlike Tim but could be considered as something Masky would do. This falls in line with the idea that some personalities can be more hostile while others more passive, and the hostile ones (Masky) can allocate memory and other things between personalities.
Having that, we can then expand into the next criteria - the loss of time and memory. The specific criteria is that there is memory loss past regular forgetfulness, and Tim tells us straight that things like that happen and have happened. As he says in Entry #59, "Imagine waking up one morning in the back seat of your car, miles away from home, with blood in your hair and no idea what happened. Imagine waking up one morning with your leg broken and no memory what so ever of that happening. Think about that. Imagine not being able to keep a job because you call into work one morning and they say oh, we're sorry, we had to fire you because we haven't heard from you for the last three weeks!" (Entry #59) Tim says specifically that he missed three weeks, which is more than enough to fit into the criteria. Three weeks is a massive amount of time missed, and this is something that happened regularly. With the idea that Masky could allocate memory, it makes sense when you realize that some of these moments Tim describes are caught on tape - Alex breaking Tim's Leg (Entry #35) being the most obvious, where it's Masky having his leg broken.
Next is that transitions are marked by psychological stress, and this is where the Sickness starts to play more of a roll. In Entry #61, we get a sort of glimpse of the transition, and it's marked by an over-exposure to the Operator in previous videos and then a lack of pills that Tim takes, which could be a combination of anticonvulsants and schizophrenic prevention medication, but have never been identified. He exhibits coughing and there is camera static, which the audience has been trained in associating with the Operator, and after failing to find his medication, he collapses into a fit of coughing that devolves into a mild seizure which he recovers from - but as we can see in #62, he does not recover as himself but as Masky. This pinpoints that The Operator and lack of pills both cause enough psychological stress to make him transition. It also pinpoints that he has seizures, which, as stated, can be part of the diagnosis.
Not only that, but according to Tim's Medical Records (Entry 60.5), he was on a anticonvulsant for seizure precautions at a very young age and had a history of falls which could result from those seizures. It states a similar thing again, later, that underlines seizures as a cause of falls and also underlines hallucinations, which is probably what caused a misdiagnosis which will be discussed later. The medical records also give us an insight onto something else present in Tim concurrent with the diagnosis, being that he suffers nightmares as well as some PTSD and other symptoms caused by DID. In the records, he comes in for insomnia several times and is noted that he cannot sleep much at all. It also mentions that he may have possibly come in for a suicide attempt at one point, as his Suicide/Self-Harm Assessment Tool page states that he's high risk for suicide - which seems like it could be a combination of post-traumatic symptoms and a need to escape from under the Operator and the Operator's influence. Tim even exhibits a panic attack and post-traumatic symptoms during Entry #65, where he runs into the room he used to live in and has what can be considered flashbacks. He screams at nothing "he's right there" and cries "let me out, let me out" repeatedly, while coughing loudly and causing static, a symptom of the Sickness that is common among those over-exposed. He described later being locked in his room, as he had a tendency to run away from his "hallucinations", most likely The Operator, so this scene presents itself as a flashback which, as well as nightmares, fall into the post-traumatic category.
Finally, and most importantly, there is the criteria of "trauma". In the records, it specifically states that Tim "does not feel safe in his home (originally marked that he did)" and that he "wasn't afraid of anyone (originally marked that he was)". It also confirms that Tim was never abused, emotionally or sexually, or neglected in any way. However, we get a key fact in this that lets us know Tim may have suffered trauma previously. He originally marked the question of if he was afraid of anyone yes, though changed it. It is likely that when he marked yes, but could not explain who, as The Operator was not a person a doctor could recognize as such, then he either changed it of his own accord or was requested to change it by the doctors as if you can't say who then you're not really afraid of anyone.
The rest of the symptoms - the coughing and the headaches - are not related to the diagnosis itself but do make it clear that the Operator was nearby during the time that Tim was a child and developing. Most of those items can be listed under the Sickness. His frequent headaches and his coughing can both be attributed to things The Operator has caused previously, and only supply the idea that the Operator was around. Even the hallucinations seem to stem from being around the Operator, as in Entry #69 and Entry #72 Jay seems to start hallucinating seeing the Operator, and Jay shows no other signs of any other diagnosis.
- Why Not Something Else:
The common diagnosis for Tim's mental condition is schizophrenia, and while some symptoms overlap, the diagnosis isn't correct. There are several reasons why the doctors thought it was such, and why they went through so many things before they "... settled on schizophrenia eventually but I don't even think they knew for sure" (Entry #66). Most of it is explained well in the DSM once more. The DSM says "The differential diagnosis between Dissociative Identity Disorder and a variety of other mental disorders (including Schizophrenia and other Psychotic Disorders, Bi- polar Disorder, With Rapid Cycling, Anxiety Disorders, Somatization Disorders, and Personality Disorders) is complicated by the apparently overlapping symptom presentations. For example, the presence of more than one dissociated personality state may be mistaken for a delusion or the communication from one identity to another may be mistaken for an auditory hallucination, leading to confusion with the Psychotic Disorders, and shifts between identity states may be confused with cyclical mood fluctuations leading to confusion with Bipolar Disorder" (529). It also says that "In preadolescent children, particular care is needed in making the diagnosis because the manifestations may be less distinctive than in adolescents and adults" (528).
This means that diagnosing Tim as a child was made extra hard, and most of the diagnostics were dependant on the doctor in question. Also adding to the confusion is the idea that The Operator may add to the hallucinations and cause symptoms such as coughing and sleeplessness. Any doctor had to interpret if a hallucination was real, or if it was the imagination or a child, or a symptom of a schizophrenic disorder or a dissociative identity disorder, without much else to go on. Of course any doctor could misdiagnose, and the reason we know schizophrenia wasn't really the cause was because, as Tim says, the medication only helped a little and never really did more than numb him (Entry #66). This is a clear factor showing the audience that the medication for schizophrenia wasn't right, and therefore rules out the diagnosis.
- Backstory and Theory Explained:
So what does this all boil down to? The idea in question is that Tim has Dissociative Identity Disorder. My idea is that, as a child, he was confronted by The Operator, which began to haunt him, probably with the intent of taking Tim at some point. Tim, being a mild sort of boy, couldn't stand up to the terror he was screaming about every night, and his parents didn't believe him when he cried to them about the "tall man" in his nightmares. So Tim found a new friend, a friend with no name, who was willing to stand up to the terrible thing. And this new friend did what all children do when they're preparing to fight a monster - it prepared for battle. Children tend to grab pans and pots for helmets and sticks for swords when they're fighting a battle, and I can see the new friend grabbing a mask Tim had to guard his face, and a stick, and running against the terror. This mask that gave the new friend his name - Masky - proved to be useful, and Masky proceeded to stay every time Tim faced something bigger than he was. The Operator, for instance, or when Hoodie took his pills, or anything else Tim can't fight against by himself. Masky became a giant coping mechanism for Tim, and that's why he's still here. And that's why for a long time Tim was fine, because the Operator wasn't a problem and no one was fucking with him and he was away from it all and he didn't need Masky to help him.
- Citations and Stuff:
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Tiro1000
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| | Subject: Re: On the Origin of Masky Sat Feb 01, 2014 10:50 pm | |
| I'm going to wait until I catch up with MH until I read this fully, but it looks like you did your homework! | |
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BlueMarble
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| | Subject: Re: On the Origin of Masky Sun Feb 02, 2014 3:04 pm | |
| Nice work. Even though I've seen this theory before, this is the first time someone really elaborated it this well. | |
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crazythatcounts
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| | Subject: Re: On the Origin of Masky Sat Feb 15, 2014 12:50 am | |
| Thanks guys - I figured I wasn't the only one to think of the theory (usually good theories are like that) but I wanted to flesh it out more. Glad to see I wasn't overly wordy and it made sense! | |
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apokAlypse
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| | Subject: Re: On the Origin of Masky Sun Feb 16, 2014 8:29 am | |
| Ah I love reading about well dispositioned theories :3 I've never read that much about Masky before, but this was very ineteresting to read! | |
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