Tyler Wondolowski
Criminal Thinking
The Psychological Profile of Luffy
The seemingly happy-go-lucky character of Luffy from the One Piece series is a perfect example of a wide number of criminally common disorders. Behind his giant grin is the mind of a killer. Upon closer inspection of his behavior and thought process, one can find ample evidence of dependent, narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial personality disorders.
One Piece is an incredibly popular cartoon in Japan, and has been running for over ten years. It was brought over to America by two companies, with significantly less impressive reception than it always received in its native land. It is the story of a group of pirates, called the Straw Hats, trying to achieve their own independent goals and frequently coming into conflict with the government. Despite this they spend most of their time helping people, saving countries from war, and chasing their dreams. They are depicted as nothing but good, and rarely even cross over into anti-hero territory, despite being wanted criminals, with bounties on their heads near the highest of anyone else in the world. Luffy is the captain of the crew, and is trying to find the greatest treasure in the world and gain the title of King of the Pirates.
Luffy generally shows himself as a goofy, loveable, happy, and caring man. He tries to make friends with everyone that he meets and repeatedly risks his life to help these friends, and faces every situation with a smile. He regularly spares the lives of people that are trying to arrest or kill him, and has saved more people than one could reasonably count. He also is shown to value his friends and mentor more than anything, else in the world, including himself. Despite all of this apparently not being an act, he nonetheless seems to be filled with disorders common in criminals, as would be expected of a far more bloodthirsty pirate than him.
Dependent Personality Disorder is a disorder in which people do not trust their own ability to make decisions. They will regularly rely on others judgment, and frequently endure anything to maintain their relationships.
While almost all people are dependent to a degree, Luffy shows his massive dependence upon his friends repeatedly throughout the series. The best examples of this is when he said "Idiot!! I can't use a sword!! I don't have navigation skills!! I can't cook!! And I can't lie!! I'm sure I won't survive if no one helps me!!" This is why his friends are so vital to him.
He rarely even makes decisions for himself aside from "I want to be the King of the Pirates," "I want meat," and "I'm gonna kick [that person that you suggested we fight's] ass." His adventures are largely up to his crew to decide. Naturally the navigator picks where they go, but the crew picks who they help, who they fight, how they spend their money, and how they'll spend their time.
Despite his obvious dependence on his crew, to a degree far larger than you would expect of any captain, his crew is also heavily dependent upon him. They always expect him to come to the rescue when they're in danger, and feel that he will always come through in the end. This is largely because he will not allow himself to lose them, as he feels that he can't function without them. This no doubt helps fuel his case of narcissistic personality disorder.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder causes people to believe that they are better than others, believe that they are better than they actually are, become wrapped up in fantasies of wealth and power, lack empathy, and to expect favorable treatment.
Despite there being thousands of people striving for the title of King of the Pirates, many of which have countless years more experience, are more powerful, and at least at first, have higher bounties, Luffy is always confident that he will become Pirate King. Whenever anyone else claims the right to the title, Luffy will insist "I'm the man who's gonna be King of the Pirates."
There is also never a doubt in his mind that he can beat any opponent he faces. Even when his foe is claimed to be God, he simply says "I'm gonna kick your ass," and keeps fighting without a doubt in his mind. One could argue that this is due to precedence of his being more powerful than others, but he is repeatedly defeated by people, often with ease, and he will then go up to the person again and insist that he can beat them.
He seems to expect a very large amount of favorable treatment from others. Everyone he meets he expects to provide him with food and drinks. At one point he even thought that the pirates raiding the ship that he was on would be willing to give him a boat.
The feats that he attempts as part of his narcissism are often part of his histrionic personality disorder as well. Histrionic Personality Disorder causes people to be easily influenced by others, have a low tolerance for frustration, and need to be the center of attention.
He seems to always want to impress his crew, and wants to own or be able to do anything that he finds cool. This goes as far as recruiting a member of his crew simply because he thought they were cool.
While never as bad as Usopp, one of the members of his crew, who regularly brags about everything imaginable (which almost exclusively consist of lies) despite being a very skilled man in his own right, Luffy has repeatedly shown a desire to impress his friends. He regularly defeats people in the showiest manor possible, while smiling at everyone watching. Even the title that he so desperately seeks is little more than a bragging right. Luffy wants the title of Pirate King to impress his former mentor, Shanks, and show that he has become the greatest pirate on the seas.
He is incredibly easily influenced by others. He instantly believe anything anyone tells him.
Luffy has an incredibly low tolerance for frustration. Anytime anything is wrong or troubling him, his response is to pummel the person responsible. He also feels that pondering on something for too long will make him sick.
In addition to everything else, and despite seeming to care about his friends, the disorder that shows the most throughout the series is his antisocial personality disorder. He is violent, cruel, and he places no value on the lives of the rest of the people in the world.
It should come as no surprise that a pirate would have Antisocial Personality Disorder. ASPD causes people to break the law repeatedly, lie, steal, and fight often, have shallow emotions, disregard the safety of one's self and those around them, to lack a sense of guilt, and generally to think of people as objects that they can use as they please. The only thing that would make it surprising is that Luffy generally acts good-natured. Repeatedly throughout the series, however, his crueler self shines through his happy-go-lucky exterior.
He obviously breaks the law as he has a massive bounty on his head and is constantly being pursued by the Marines.
He clearly enjoys inflicting suffering upon other people. In the first episode, when he meets Coby, someone, whom he later refers to as his "friend," his reaction to them is "You're a moron and a coward, I hate people like you." He says this while laughing and smiling, but it is nonetheless obvious that he is not joking. A few minutes later he hits When Coby exclaims "Why'd you hit me?!" Luffy response is simply "Cause I felt like it."
One may think that his repeated sparing of the lives of his enemies is evidence that he must not be as cruel as his encounter with Coby would make him seem. However, the creator of the series has explained that Luffy doesn't do this out of morality, but out of a feeling that letting them live and see their dreams ruined is a far worse fate. That certainly sounds like something someone who enjoys the pain of others would say more than someone who enjoys helping other people.
He has made it quite clear that he doesn't care about the lives of anyone that isn't in his crew, or directly affiliated with it in some way. When he was saving a kingdom from civil war, he explained to the villain that he had no issue with the people killing each other, but that it bothered Vivi, a member of his crew, and as such, he had to stop them. In a later episode, when the government had taken a member of his crew to help them insure that they would have access to a weapon of mass destruction, Luffy explained "I don't care about the world, or the government, you can have them, but I won't let you have my friend." While this does show either caring, or a great sense of ownership of that person, it demonstrates clearly how he feels about the rest of the world.
He also frequently endangers himself and his crew. He will leap into danger, often dragging his crew with him, he frequently ends up slamming them into things, and will in general show disregard for their safety.
What shows that he only thinks of his crew as his possessions is that he never gives them a choice about joining his crew in the first place. With the exception of the one person who blackmailed their way onto the crew, every member has repeatedly refused to join him. His response to this is generally something along the lines of "I've already decided, you're joining my crew." He will then continue to pester them, and do anything to impress them that he can, in order to get them to join his crew. He has managed to be impressive, charismatic, and persistent enough that this has worked with every single person he has decided that he wanted to join his crew.
He does, however, appear to feel some emotions fairly strongly. The odd part of this is that it appears to only be happiness and anger, so while his emotions themselves may not be very shallow, the range of emotions that he can feel is. He has, however, never once shown a sign of guilt. Despite all the people he has hurt, and everything that has happened on his adventures, he seems to be perfectly fine with himself and his actions.
Captain Monkey D. Luffy may appear to a casual observer to be a kind and cheerful fellow, but upon further scrutiny, a criminal nature that would make most serial killers blush is easily revealed. He is dependent, narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial. It really causes one to wonder how the people at Fox felt that One Piece would work as a kids show.