To start things off, let me just say that Schizophrenia and Multiple Personality disorder are two completely different things. I personally think she has Multiple Persinality Disorder, but others think Schizophrenia. I don't care which. Anyway, let us begin. 3405390

Let me explain:
In the Cutie Mark Chronicles, we learn that Pinkie's full name is Pinkamena Diane Pie. Later, when the Sonic Rainboom takes place, her personality is drastically altered into the happy Pinkie we know today. This is where the crazy comes in: Party of One. After Pinkie interrogates Spike, her mane deflates, and her personality is drastically altered again, back to when she was little. Then she has her moment of (almost) Psychosis, proving she is mentally unstable, and there's obviously something wrong. After it's revealed to her that her friends' behavior was to conceal the surprise(it's so punny it hurts), poof! Drastically altered personality! I think that these personality changes are proving of her having Multiple Personalities. Any arguments? (Also, Cupcakes :P). Anyway, I hope this helps!

2050520

I don't think she has any disorders.

It's insulting to the character to assume such, and it's also probably insulting to those with said disorders.

She's special because she's Pinkie. Let her be Pinkie.

2050520
She has multiple personality disorder. Simple as that.

That sounds reasonable. It makes you think...has Pinkie ever reverted to Pinkamena without the dominant personality having knowledge of it? Was there a night when Pinkamena emerged, did her crazy...thing, then returned back home with Pinkie being none the wiser?

Another question: did the multiplying of Pinkie in Too Many Pinkie Pies cause the multiple personalities to become more pronounced? That would logically follow, but it seems that she kept Pinkamena in check throughout the ordeal. Maybe the Pinkamena personality got returned with the other copies, and she's cured now.

2050536
How is it insulting to people with the disorders?
Disorders are a fact of life. To deny their existence and make everyone mentally perfect would be more insulting than giving a character said disorders, I should think.

2050551

Because it's never outright stated that she even has disorders. It's never dealt with, never explained, never elaborated on. Disorders are real things that need to be taken seriously, and comparing a person with them to a made up character that's never explicitly stated to have disorders is not taking them seriously.

What happened to people just taking shows for what they are, having fun, and not trying to turn every character into a special medical study case?

2050549
That isn't very logical because, since she was Pinkamena before Pinkie, her true personality would be banished to the mirror pool. That would just make it worse. That's what I think, but what do I know?

I think she just has a rather mercurial sort of personality. It fits in with the show more than assuming that she's ill.

2050520 I think bipolar disorder fits better than both multiple personality disorder and schizophrenia. Pinkie just happens to spend most of her time in a manic phase.

She doesn't have any disorders, she's not multiple ponies, and she sure as hell isn't a crazed killer.
She's generally a happy pony, but sometimes she gets depressed. Period.

2050555

Let's not forget that this is a kids show. Children of the age demographic that the show is aiming for aren't going to want to be confronted by some serious topic like mental and/or personality disorders. They want to laugh and have fun. For this reason, topics like these aren't confronted in the show and aren't even pointed out or hinted at. They're simply made into a part of the characters to serve as comic relief for the audience.

The characters are not blatantly given disorders, they're not even hinted at having disorder and we are not asked to see them as having these disorders.. Rather it is simply made a part of their character, as a way to flesh them out more to make them more interesting and less one-dimensional. However, being of an older age, we will often see these traits and point them towards different disorders that we are familiar with. For example, I saw Twilight Sparkle and instantly thought "Does she have autism or something?" due to the fact that I, myself, have it and saw traits in her character that I shared with her, due to my having autism. In a way, this can make the characters unintentionally better for older viewers as it gives things about them that the viewers can relate to.

I'm not saying that people with Multiple Personality Disorder should find humor in, and relate to, Pinkie Pie's behavior. I won't deny that more than a few would probably be slightly, if not really, offended by it. I'm just saying that it CAN serve to provide something about the character they can relate to.

I would like to point out that I'm not saying she most definitely has it. I'm just saying that, as older people, we sometimes have a tendency to see ways some characters behave and make connections to them having disorders of some kind. That's just the way we are as people; We analyse and make assumptions.

Forgive the huge comment, I just kept thinking of things to add in.

2050520 Ahh, bad enough that I'm always telling people not to compare Pinkie to Surprise... now Surprise is POSTING about Pinkie!

You ponies never make things easy for me. That's why I love you.

2050633

Fair enough. It's in your right to see Pinkie as that, as these things tend to be subjective.

I'll continue to see her as just Pinkie, though. A random, pink perky party pony with a passion for making others smile.

2050643
You cannot escape the surprise.

2050649
dat rare moment when an internet discussion ends with an agreement.

2050520

proving she is mentally unstable

The only thing it proves is that you apparently have a very weak grasp of personality theory.

2050655

We're discussing Pinkie. How can I get mad at all?!

I tend to try and be polite on the interwebz. Usually because it doesn't take much to spark an argument.

2050655 I don't want to escape Surprise! I write fanfiction about her! And I've got more stories on the way! Heck, I just got done outlining her life story in another thread!

I wuv Surprise (and for what it's worth, I deal with alternate interpretations by declaring that they're wrong and horrible alternate universe versions of Surprise).

Pinkie, on the other hand, I have a more changeable opinion of. Mostly whenever her personality starts to revolve entirely around parties or fourth-wall humor.

2050672
Trixie needs moar love.

2050520

Schizophrenia is erroneously considered to cause multiple personalities.

It does not.

Schizophrenia is a breakdown of thought processes which may lead to delusion and paranoia.

It can cause significant changes in behavior, but the person ultimately only has one personality.

2050649
Random is her thing. Being random sad makes sense sometimes. Also I have those certain things that just instantly almost make me cry or do cry. Once in a great while I just get depressed. I don't know if that is normal, but Depression isn't anything new.

Long story short Pinkie Pie is Pinkie Pie!

2050672
This.. this is soo cute! Why is this one so cute?

2050520
Nah.

I don't think that Pinkie has any kind of schism in her personality. I don't see there being 'two Pinkies' in any way, shape, or form. Just because someone feels different emotions than their norm doesn't immediately make them a different person.

I'm generally slow to anger, for example. But when I get there, obviously I seem very, very different. I'm quieter. More biting. I get a bit vindictive, and more manipulative. It's all very not 'me'. But I didn't suddenly become someone else. Everyone seems different when on two opposite extremes of the emotional spectrum.

We normally see Pinkie with the 'glee' setting of her brain turned up to 11. In Party of One we see her depressed, angry and betrayed.

And yeah, clearly she has some issues. She was hallucinating, for heavens sakes. But she was always 'Pinkie'. She never ever thought of herself as someone different. There was no differences in her memory, or self-identity. There was no break in the continuity of her experience, as if some part of what happened, happened to someone else.

2050672
Day?
Brightened.

By fifteen lumens, I'd say.

2050882

I wondered when you'd notice that.

PM if ya wanna chat. Or, like, open a doc. Whatever works, whenever.

2050520 I think Pinkamina is more an extension of Pinkie Pie as opposed to an outright alternative personality. Never once was there anything that hinted at Pinkmina being seperate from Pinkie Pie.

2050520

I suppose that she could have a controlled form of Dissociative Identity Disorder. I share a similar trait in real life, having a mental personality named Hanz Werfenheimer. This is not an imaginary thing, as this personality speaks and controls my actions occasionally. I. No professional, but I'd say that Pinkie has DID onset by sadness.

2050520 2050536 2050539 2050660 2050632 2050549 2050807 2050808 2050879 2050949 2051227 2050809
I've seen people who were otherwise perfectly normal, everyday people go nucking futs in situations where they felt like their world was being turned upside down and inside out. Intense duress and a sudden challenging of your beliefs has a way of inducing a temporary psychotic break, and it can happen to anybody.

IF I was going to attribute some kind of real-world psychology to canon Pinkamena, that would be it, though to be honest I just see it as Pinkie being Pinkie,

2050520 I don't think Pinkie has any disorders at all. Pinkie's, well, she's just Pinkie. On the rock farm, she just wasn't very happy, not crazy or anything. I just think whenever she's really unhappy, her main deflates, which is a pretty simple and effective use of symbolism.

2051346

I've seen people who were otherwise perfectly normal, everyday people go nucking futs in situations where they felt like their world was being turned upside down and inside out.

That's the very concept of a personality trait.

2050520

I think that these personality changes are proving of her having Multiple Personalities. Any arguments?

Well, see, just because you are going through a temporary personality change due to extreme emotional stress, it doesn't mean you have Dissociative Identity Disorder. You see, people don't have just one constant emotional state - no matter how peppy Pinkie usually is, she can get sad and depressed and scared just like any other pony. And when you get really, really, really upset you sometimes start doing or saying things you normally wouldn't. Psychotic episodes aside, that's actually pretty normal.

Anyway, even if you have a multiple personality disorder, you don't just spontaniously develop a secondary personality. What happens is that you lose your ego integrity - your identity actually shatters into smaller pieces that can't associate with each other. Hence: Dissociative Identity Disorder. Dissociation is one of the defense mechanisms the mind uses to deal with psychological trauma, and it mostly works by restricting access to feelings and memories that trigger said trauma. (Not by creating anything new.)

It should be added that DID is ridiculously rare, so much that we still don't quite know how it works, what causes it or how to treat it.

Anyhoo... It's not like Pinkie Pie doesn't have problems. I'm personally rather convinced she has some sort of mental impairment that effects the way she communicates with other ponies. That said, she's actually extremely stable emotionally speaking. It takes something very, very serious to get her genuinely distressed and even then she recovers amazingly fast. If anything, she's probably less likely to go crazy than any of the others.

2050536

Speaking as someone with an actual disorder: We generally don't mind as long as you do proper research first.

2050672

...Excuse me, I need to go find me some good Pinkie/Trixie fanfics.

2052941

Speaking as someone with an actual disorder: We generally don't mind as long as you do proper research first.

Fully agreed. If you're going to discuss any issue, do your research thoroughly. This includes us when writing fanfiction.

...Excuse me, I need to go find me some good Pinkie/Trixie fanfics.

And thus, on this day, the 29th of October 2013,TrixiePie was born. Unless it already exists.

Still, I wonder what I have unleashed by posting that picture...

Okay, here's my opinion:
In canon, she's Pinkie. Just Pinkie. Saying that she has mental health issues in canon is a step too dark for the show. However, in fanfiction I think it's fine that the writers may do as they please with her and her alter ego.

I've used this myself in my fic, stating that Pinkie's depressed persona (ponysona?) is due to magical interference by Discord with some of her ancestors. The reason she's almost always so hyper is because Discord and Pinkie's distant ancestors got along really well (due to both parties having an inclination to cause chaos wherever they went), so much so that Discord gifted them with some of his magical abilities for the fun of it.

Unfortunately, it didn't go as planned. Discord actually ended up 'donating' more magic that he should have, effectively ripping the souls of the ponies in two, leaving what is at its most basic, a happy/sad split.

Convoluted, I know.

2053004

And thus, on this day, the 29th of October 2013,TrixiePie was born. Unless it already exists.

Pixie. It's called Pixie.

THUS IS MY DECREE!

2052884
Ahem:
The primary identity, which often has the patient's given name, tends to be "passive, dependent, guilty and depressed" with other personalities or "alters" being more active, aggressive or hostile, and often containing more complete memories.
DID includes "the presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states" that alternate control of the individual's behavior, accompanied by the inability to recall personal information beyond what is expected through normal forgetfulness. I have done my research, and am just a kid trying to settle an age-old argument that's been plaguing me for months.