I really appreciate this post, because it focuses on two characters that I really love and, to be more specific, I love them especally when they are together. I feel like Suzuya and Mutsuki have been created in a specular way, in which shadows and lights alternate their influence, blurring boundaries and complicating already difficult situations.
Let’s begin from this: Suzuya was abused just like Mutsuki, but he developed towards Big Madam a completely different disposition than the one mutsuki harbored against his father (and family in general, as we can guess?). Suzuya suffered a kind of Stockholm syndrome which prompted him to think he have to love Big Madam, despite her daily tortures; indeed, one could also say that, during the period of slavery, Juuzou learned to love the pain itself. His body and mind adapted to that twisted environment in the direction of accepting it and survive. Big Madam, for her part, adopted ambiguous attitudes, dosing raw violence and sweetness in order to intensify the psychological dependency of his human pet (it could also be argued that she, in the end, felt a little of affection for Juuzou, but we don’t have to deal with this matter now.)
As for Tooru, adaptation and submission to the violent parent were only a facade. Tooru never really yielded to the abuses: the fierce and savage sparkle in his eyes, the same that would enrage Torso years later, was already a clear sign of the boy’s temperament during his family days, a temperament that his frustrated father could not bear.
At this point, it’s easy to draw a dividing line, although really slim: Juuzou would’ve never rebelled against big Madam and would’ve never killed her of his own free will. When forced to chase her, he claims that he doesn’t retain any grudge against her and that he’s simply doing his job. Tooru, instead, hated the monster(s) in his house and did nothing but dream of running away. Tooru lied through his teeth every time he flattered his father, but he couldn’t help it because, at that time, he was only a child and he didn’t have any other weapon to protect himself against further beatings and sexual brutalities (however, we’ve seen the use of this same “technique” also with Torso). Tooru spent the first twelve years of his life feeling completely helpless, forced to swallow rivers of contempt and frustration without being able to do anything to change his so miserable condition of life. At a certain point, some barriers in his psyche collapsed (which is why I find quite appropriate the definition of psychopathy as a “suffering of the psyche” for Tooru’s mental state, although not completely) and he was no longer able to control the violent instincts, developed during the repeated abuses, that previously were locked and had no way out. Now It seems clear that Tooru’s triggers are all the particularly stressful situations, such as: acclimating into the Academy (change of environment, new people to meet, gain acceptance etc …), facing the imminent danger during the auction (in that circumstance, he had already been attacked and was left completely alone in a hostile environment) and no doubt having to suffer, once again, abuses and violence from a man. Torso’s action were definetly the last step towards the abyss of psychological breakdown in which Tooru is now isolated.
That being said, we can draw a further dividing line: while Tooru’s reactions are strongly influenced by the external environment, Suzuya constantly lives in his own reality and he’s not much affected by the consequences of interacting with other people, except in certain specific cases. Suzuya is almost the “perfect model” of a sociopath, since he can’t functionally interact with normal context because of the special setting, based on cruelty, his mind had received when he was a child. For him there are no clear distinctions between “right and wrong”, let alone social conventions to be subjected to. He reacts mechanically when he feels threatened or when he perceives hostility from someone, then his emotions are extremely elementary and based on the moment, almost like those of animals. This particular condition, as it may seem desperate, actually makes Suzuya a subject more “manageable” than Tooru, because as we have seen, prolonged contact with people genuinely interested in his welfare is gradually changing his thought patterns, leading him to understand things that his “wild-self” could never achieve alone.
A subject like Tooru, instead, is much more tricky. The particular which I find myself more at odds with, when it comes to define Tooru as a “canonical” psychopath, is the total lack of empathy. Psychopaths, just like lots of people have already pointed out, can not in any way (or at least they can, but very slightly) perceive emotions and understand those of others - in fact, this condition is often caused by biochemical changes in the brain, occured in various ways (drug abuse, schizofrenia, incidents, coma, loss of oxigen, genetic disorders etc..). However, since they are forced to adapt to social contexts and “regular” life routines everyday, this people tend to set up masks that make them more acceptable and, in many cases, even enjoyable. Here seems to lie the main watershed between Suzuya - who is not in the least interested in his appearance in society - and manipulative psychopaths, frequently marked by a distinct chameleonic attitude.
Tooru’s massacres are undoubtedly characterized by rituals typically found in psychopathic tendencies, but he can not be portrayed in the generic conventions of psychopathy because he is an highly empathetic person. His sensibility and susceptibility to external influences are real, not artifacts processed by a cold and impenetrable mind. Accorfing to this assumption, I think the character closest to the popular imaginary of the psychopath is Furuta Nimura, above anyone else. Although Tooru’s profile seems scarred by the same main elements, Furuta encloses and completely represents the sense of unease transmitted by those individuals who seem to have no qualms or remorse for their actions. All of his behaviors are perfectly calculated, his moves are methodical and studied in detail. His colleagues recognize him more often as a subject a bit ‘quirky but reliable and they always believe in his “tears” (remember the scene during the raid against the Tsukiyama family: Furuta kills an inconvenient witness in cold blood and beats himself up to throw off the other ccg members). However, I’m not making an analysis about Furuta, please don’t mind these last lines too much…
In order to find a definition that approaches better and more widely Tooru’s mental state, we must actually forget the classic distinctions between sociopathy and psychopathy, extending our spectrum of research to a class of more heterogeneous disorders, the DID = Dissociative Identity Disorders:
“ Dissociative identity disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder (MPD), is a mental disorder on the dissociative spectrum characterized by the appearance of at least two distinct and relatively enduring identities or dissociated personality states that alternately show in a person’s behavior, accompanied by memory impairment for important information not explained by ordinary forgetfulness. Other symptoms include loss referring to time, sense of self and consciousness and dissociative amnesia. Dissociative disorders have been attributed to disruptions in memory caused by trauma and other forms of stress: The majority of patients with DID report childhood sexual and/or physical abuse. Identities may be unaware of each other and compartmentalize knowledge and memories, resulting in chaotic personal lives. Individuals with DID may be reluctant to discuss symptoms due to associations with abuse, shame, and fear. Some terms have been proposed regarding dissociation: psychiatrist Ellert Nijenhuis and colleagues suggest a distinction between personalities responsible for day-to-day functioning (associated with blunted physiological responses, referred to as the “apparently normal part of the personality” or ANP) and those emerging in survival situations (involving fight-or-flight responses, vivid traumatic memories and strong, painful emotions, the “emotional part of the personality” or EP). “
This is just an extract of the wiki page, extensively enriched with additional data, that you can banally find clicking this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder.
I find very amusing that a manga can push so many people to become interested in serious and delicate issues like these. I hope my meta managed to capture your interest, but I want to specify that it has no claim to be a professional analysis on the discussed topics (at least not yet XD), so take it as a light reading…
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