why i think Kyle Broflovski has OCD/is good OCD rep in media; an analysis + how his parents have insighted this in him with sources
lots of people think that OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) just means being a clean freak, when it is not. OCD can take many forms, and while this is a reality for some people (contamination OCD, to be specific), that should not be the baseline nor requirement of what OCD is for every individual. OCD is any repetitive, negative, intrusive thought that is time consuming (longer than 60 minutes, source: here), and interferes with a persons life. there are themes of OCD, such as ROCD (relationship ocd) harm OCD (fear of harm to oneself or others) HOCD (compulsions about homosexuality) and false memory OCD (fear of having done something one cannot remember/misremembers). you can read more about themes here, i wont cover them all in one post, nor will I assign a specific theme to Kyle, as I believe he has a multitude of them, but i will throw themes around.
these subjects can be 'taboo' and insight others to not talk about them, leading to shame. guilt is a huge part of OCD, even when one has done nothing wrong or has a false sense of a 'wrong doing'. a good way for me to describe OCD to others is the 'what if disorder'. people with OCD are always asking "what if?", as in "what if im a bad person, what if im contaminated, what if im gay," among other things. lots of people with OCD perform 'compulsions' which are antics the person will do to feel better, such as double checking if a stove is turned off multiple times before leaving the house due to fear of a house fire. compulsions often cause violent images of the outcome the person is fearing to appear in their mind.
now that thats out of the way, how does this appear in Kyle Broflovski?
the first and earliest example of Kyle showing signs of having OCD (that I have seen) are in the Tooth Fairy's Tats 2000 episode. In this episode, the boys have an idea to dress cartman up as a fairy to get money from the kids teeth that their parents put under their pillows. during this episode, Kyle learns that the tooth fairy is fake. you may be asking; donovan, thats a normal part of childhood. how does that demonstrate kyle having OCD signs? and i say this because Kyle has an existential crisis over the fact that the tooth fairy is not real. this may be normal, but Kyle convinces himself that HE may not be real, and this causes him to become anxious. GAD and OCD go hand in hand with eachother, and untreated OCD can lead to depression. (source) in this scene, Kyle has to actively think about the fact that he exists or he becomes a "concept", he stops "existing", or at least this is his fear. the compulsion is Kyle forcing himself to believe that he is alive 24/7, and the outcome in his mind (the fear) is that if he stops thinking about it, HE will cease to exist. this is a compulsion. Kyle has to actively *do* something, or his fear will come true in his mind. he is performing the compulsion to help him feel better. (existential OCD source)
the second case of Kyle having OCD is Cartmanland. in this episode, something really good happens to Cartman, while Kyle, who had the idea that he was just as "good" of a person as Cartman has something terrible happen to him. once again, Kyle develops a complex that he must be morally inferior to Cartman and that the god that he believes in is not real/has failed him, because he has the belief that "if people like Cartman don't get punished for being horrible people but I get punished for doing nothing, the god i believe in must not be real/good." this is not an ideal way to think. like people with OCD, when something terrible happens to them but karma doesn't happen to someone who has wronged them, they often feel that it is their 'fault' or they aren't deserving of good things. (misplaced shame) Kyle loses the will to live in this episode and betrays his religion because he is set on believing that he is not 'worthy' or his god has 'failed him'. Kyle has to get reassurance from other people that he loves (reassurance helps people with OCD at times, click 4 source) in order to feel better. people with OCD often reassurance-seek to feel better or get reaffirmed on a compulsion, either this be to tell the person with OCD that it's not worth worrying about or they are in the right about a situation, or to comfort someone about a mistake they made that they feel guilty about. the compulsion is Kyle thinking that Cartman must be better than him and he doesn't 'deserve' good things, and the fear is his god not being real or it not caring for its followers. this ones a bit harder to pinpoint a specific compulsion, but he is showing definite symptoms of OCD here. (religion OCD source)
the next case of Kyle having symptoms of OCD is in Toliet Paper. in this episode, the boys toliet paper a womans house and Kyle begins to feel guilt. this is not misplaced guilt, however. Kyle should feel bad about this, but the fact that the other boys such as Stan can feel bad about it and not let it consume their lives show that there is a difference in Kyles behavior here. Kyle loses sleep over this, feeling that he must confess (people with OCD often feel that confessing will alleviate them of shame, even when its misplaced. source:) and he feels that he won't be able to have peace until he does tell an adult what he did. the compulsion is the desire to confess, an action to make him feel better, and the fear is being a bad person if he lets Butters take his punishment/if he doesn't get any repercussion from what he's done. not much to say about this one, this episode has a very concise message alluding to Kyles OCD.
the next episode is Up The Down Steroid. i have a lot to say about this episode, because i feel that it highlights a significant moral flaw Kyle has throughout the show in general. in this episode, Cartman signs up to get into the Special Olympics for an advantage, and Kyle tries to stop him. this is also an OCD symptom in itself, because its common for people with OCD to feel responsible for others actions, emotions, or to prevent harm. (responsibility in OCD source) this is misplaced responsibility. Kyle and Cartman have a very unique relationship because in a way, Kyle feels morally responsible for whatever Cartman does when he cannot control him. because he's such a horrible person, Kyle has made it his job to oversee and prevent anything bad Cartman does/may do. Kyle lets Cartman know that if he does this, he will definitely "go to hell", and this brings up a interesting thing about Kyles character; why does he care about this? because when Kyle became Cartman's friend, he automatically signed a contract in his mind that if Cartman does bad things, it will look bad on him, too. (but not always, such as in AWESOM-O, when Kyle doesn't interfere. I feel he usually does this when a bigger group is at risk of harm.) this isn't confirmed, but by his behavior with Cartman, its clear that Kyle feels he's 'in control' of whatever Cartman does. i say this is a Kyle and Cartman dynamic because usually when Stan is going to do something 'wrong', he's already done it before Kyle knows/before he can do anything about it, (or its hard for him to interfere, i feel he tries but not as hard because Cartman is a worse person than Stan is and he hasn't attached as much responsibility to him) such as in Ass Burgers when he shows up to Kyles grill drunk. at this point, there is nothing Kyle can do about this. but since Cartman has a tendency to tell others he is going to do something before he does it, Kyle feels he has an opportunity, a moral duty to step in and stop him. the compulsion here is to get Cartman to stop, and the fear is if Kyle does not stop Cartman, he will look bad too.
the same rant applies to The Jeffersons. Kyle feels he must save Michael Jacksons child because "he doesn't look like he's taken care of well by his father." Kyle has a tendency time and time again to take matters into his own hands, to step in before things get worse, because of his overbearing responsibility. Kyle feels he must be the one to take all of this on, its his 'job'. i wont be covering any more episodes with this theme, since the same argument applies, even if with other characters.(for the sake of having this be KIND of short lol, there's a lot of contamination episodes too, but far too many responsibility themed episodes.)
the next episode is The List. in this episode, the girls make a list of the cutest boys in the school, and when Kyle is at the bottom, he has a bad feeling about his looks, which he didn't see as 'horrible' before. he starts to feel insecure about things such as his nose. it gets so bad Kyle considers setting fire to the school to get away from the daily ridicule. Kyles compulsion is being seen as 'ugly', and that's his same fear. Kyle is also easily swayed when it comes to himself, if someone tells him that he is ugly, even when he hasn't considered it before; he believes them. lots of people with OCD have low self esteem, and this can also be the fuel for ones themes, (ex. my partner must be cheating on me because i'm a horrible person/my friend must not want to hang out with me since i'm unbearable to look at. they are taking the actions of others as their responsibility/they're the root of the cause, this can be two themes: relationship OCD and responsibility OCD and this can lead to a person avoiding friends/partners.) such as how I talked about earlier, Kyle didn't feel that he was worthy of having anything good happen to him. (source)
the next episode is Pee. im going to keep this one brief because technically it is evidence of contamination OCD but i also think its valid for anyone to not want to touch pee and it isn't an indicator of a medical condition (lol). for the sake of supporting my argument and themes, i will include it. in this episode, Kyle finds out that everyone pees in pools and is grossed out to go back in the pool at the waterpark. this ruins his day with his friends and alienates him, even in a dire situation, Kyle is hesitant to be around pee (yes even if it saves his life), and Kyle once again feels morally responsible to set Cartman straight on who is the minority at the park. Kyles fear is pee contaminating him, and his compulsion is to avoid it as much as humanly possible. (contamination OCD source)
the next episode is Turd Burglars. in this episode, Kyles mother has a fecal transplant and this makes him think about how many germs live on him constantly at all times. Kyle doesn't do anything that i would personally consider a compulsion in this episode, but he is clearly disturbed by the fact that he has organisms on him at all times. the thought of it causes him to be anxious of normal biomes. this theme is what people typically think of automatically with OCD. (contamination OCD source)
the last episode i'm going to talk about is The Worldwide Privacy Tour. i like this episode because of Kyles personality explored, and i think it also highlights his self esteem issues. i talked about OCD and self esteem, and i want to dive deeper into that. Kyle undergoes a personality change and identity change in this episode, because he often feels like he's too much. this ties back to him becoming more quiet as the seasons progress, giving less speeches because he keeps getting silenced. i feel that since Kyle cares about how people perceive him to a high degree, he tries to change himself along the way.
2nd part of the rant: how Kyles parents instilled anxiety in him
Kyles parents are largely responsible for Kyles anxiety about the world, and some of his self image issues, especially Kyles father. Kyles father explains things to him in a very simple and condensed way, such as telling him the tooth fairy isn't real simply, and in The Return Of The Fellowship of the Ring to The Two Towers, telling him a topic that requires more explanation in the most simple way possible. He was also very harsh to him in Not Funny. This feels more direct than what his mother does, since she ruins things for every child that enjoys them. Kyles parents do a bit of 'shielding' him in my personal opinion, and due to this, i feel it has manifested as anxiety in him. (source) Kyles mother is not less innocent, she shelters him from things in the world in a more extreme way, by going as far to shut down things that she feels are 'corrupting' her son. i can only imagine that the fear of your mother finding out things about you that you like causes you to be anxious. i also think that their parenting style (simply explaining things, sheltering, freaking out about their kids possibly knowing things like Shelia did in The End Of Serialization As We Know It), has caused Kyle to develop this disorder.
thanks for listening to my convoluted rant lul! i hope that this was concise enough, this is my first rant on this app but if you guys want more lmk! i'm VERY passionate, especially about Kyle and i'm down to explain my hcs.
i'm tired so ima play roblox and eat chips now, i appreciate you hearing me out
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