On Yasmin being more fucked up than Harper
A few days ago I said that I thought Yasmin was more traumatized and screwed up than Harper. Now, I have no hard empirical evidence to "prove" this because it's a purely vibes-based assessment. But! I just wanted to outline why I think Yasmin is more of... a case... than Harper.
The first reason I think Yasmin is more screwed up than Harper is because Harper is rather cognizant of the fact that she's really fucked up and how it manifests in her life. Her conversation with her brother in season 2 and her admissions to Eric in season 4 sort of outline that she's aware she's a hot mess of a person morally and psychologically. Yasmin, on the other hand, seems to buy her own bullshit and believe her own delusions. Yasmin seems to have constructed something of a personal mythology about her power and value and genuinely buys the lies she tells herself. I just feel as if Yasmin hasn't really admitted her own problem(s) to herself. It's very Freudian.
The second reason I think Yasmin is more engrained in her own trauma is because Harper has arguably extracted herself from the source and place of her trauma: her mother and her brother. Like, don't get me wrong, Harper swims in her own toxicity, but she also moved continents and separated herself from the family hurting her. Yasmin, however, is still completely buried in the milieu of her father's world, business, and peers, and this has drifted her into Henry's world. She's never reinvented herself the way Harper tried to.
Finally, I think Yasmin is more screwed up than Harper because, like, Harper's "sociopathy" is generally confined to the industry, to finance, to capitalism. Harper is not really that different to the average American white guy in finance! Like it's toxic as fuck but, I mean, that's private equity and hedge funds for ya. Harper wants undeniable success in finance, and that's the basis of her desire for power. Yasmin, on the other hand, wants power in that sort of interpersonal, psychosexual way because she gets a pure kick out of dominance for dominance's sake. She hurts people even when it's of no clear material benefit to herself because of the feeling it gives her... something clearly the product of her father being a sicko. That's super dangerous, but hey, that's Ghislaine Maxwell, I guess.
