I don’t like to diagnose characters but I’m curious how do you think Chase’s childhood trauma manifests in his personality, coping mechanisms and how he reacts to situations. I know we can all agree that he never really unpacked what happened to him so I think he detaches himself from memories and he tries distancing himself (unsuccessfully) from others. Do you think he might have some physical symptoms like headaches or shortness of breath (I get those but Chase doesn’t strike me as an anxious person) I’d love to read your thoughts on this
I mean, I think we already see plenty of it in his personality. Not all "symptoms" are physical.
Chase is pretty sensitive to the needs of children. He likes kids, sure, but we see in Cursed, The Socratic Method, Cane and Able, and The C-Word that Chase in particular is very quick to put himself between a child and an abusive (or difficult) parent. In Cane and Able, he actually tells the parents off for not supporting their son, which is pretty unusual for Chase — he tends to mind his business. In Cursed and The C-Word, he moves to completely remove the kid from their parent, and in The Socratic Method he tries to tell Luke not to burn himself out and destroy himself for his mother.
In The Socratic Method, we learn that Chase was himself parentified, even if not the specifics: he immediately understands and relates to Luke's situation ("enough organization, enough lists…" "I'd do it just like you"). This is later confirmed in Cursed, and elaborated on with his retcon sister in Better Half. Chase is very clear about it! He burnt himself out, he obsessed, he hated both his parents — mother for putting him through it , father for leaving them in that situation.
As you say, his "apathy" (in quotes because he's bad at it) is explicitly a coping mechanism: he tells House that he has learned it's better not to care or expect things. We can see this too, I think, in his very real habit of minding his own business: Chase doesn't often get that interested in the specifics or judgement calls of others in the way Cameron, Foreman, and House do: so what if a patient is having an affair? Why care about House's parents? He doesn't get worked up about drug use or patient histories, less because he's just Such A Nice And Accepting Guy, and more because he minds his business. He's the same about himself: he gets incredibly riled up when people pry into his life and business, and tends to completely shut it down. The one very telling exception, of course, is when "someone else's business" involves how they treat their children.
Chase also very very much has the habit of trying to handle everything himself. He gets stabbed? He'll deal on his own. His dad dies? He tells no one. He killed a guy and is having some PTSD in the aftermath? Well, obviously he can sort that out on his own; no need to involve his wife. Chase, as noted, has a real Thing about Being A Burden: where do we think that came from?
Chase isn't an anxious person. He's pretty self-confident, actually: I wouldn't exactly call him arrogant, but he's self assured. He's socially adept and has good self-esteem (we make fun of him for thinking women were drawn to his personality, not looks, but!). He knows, on some level, that he's able to get away with things, that he's privileged, that he can afford to be a rat and asskisser without it really affecting his career or life as it would if Foreman did it: Chase has no particular inferiority complexes that we see, unlike Foreman and House and Cameron. He's often fairly thin-skinned, but he doesn't act as though he has anything to prove, you know what I mean?
He actually tends to be pretty emotionally clear-eyed. While he definitely has Stuff To Unpack ("being locked away made me a good doctor!"), he's pretty clear that his mother and father failed him, that he was in a shitty situation he shouldn't have been in, and that It Wasn't Okay. That isn't to say you can't both be self-aware and anxious, but where we see, for example, how Cameron's (and House's!) trauma manifests and informs almost all of her actions… we really don't get that from Chase. Yes, he's protective of kids. But where Cameron is terrified of loss and commitment, is a bit of a control freak, and uses ethics and morality as shields from a world that scares and hurts her… we really don't get anything like that from Chase. He knows his childhood was fucked up, and he's angry about it… but he's okay. It does clearly all affect him and inform his actions, but it didn't "break" him either.
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