THE PEOPLE (one person, hi and thank you @lesbianwithchainsaws <3) HAVE SPOKEN I'M GOING TO JUSTIFY MYSELF
I'm going to do this one by one, going down the diagnostic criteria from the DSM-V, for legibility:
Is uncomfortable in situations in which he or she is not the centre of attention - this is a reoccurring pattern for shawn, every time lassie and jules have their own case or he doesn't have his own case to investigate. He inserts himself in situations where he is unwanted or uninvited, and acts in the most over the top way possible to make people pay all their attention to him. Even outside of detective scenarios, he consistently circles conversations back to himself, his appearance, or his interests, with little patience for others.
Interaction with others is often characterized by inappropriate sexually seductive or provocative behaviour - he hits on EVERYONE, even when it's glaringly obvious that it's an inappropriate time to do so. Lassie and jules when they're working, criminal suspects, bereaved family members and friends, and random people who're just working. It would be quicker to list characters he hasn't flirted with at a bad time at one point or another than those he has.
Displays rapidly shifting and shallow expressions of emotion - he's very easily distracted, including from his own emotions. When he finds dead bodies, even if initially disgusted or horrified, he quickly goes back to joking and appearing not to care. He becomes petulant and annoyed when someone slights him at all, and then just as quickly forgets it. Even when he's really serious and something terrible happens (yinyang episodes), the emotions he feels during these times don't stick around. I get that's the nature of episodic sitcoms, but THAT CAN'T STOP ME.
Consistently uses physical appearance to bring attention to self - shawn is constantly preoccupied with his appearance, particularly his hair, and points it out all the time. He talks about his appearance with everyone he meets, pretty blatantly fishing for compliments from them.
Has a style of speech that is excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail - again, nature of the show, but that's exactly what a whole lot of his psychic visions are. He knows loads of detail about what happened, why, and how, but instead of explaining any of that (even while still saying it's revealed to him by the spirits), he sidesteps around the actual answer for a while before giving a vague direction or clue. Very rarely does he elaborate on anything at all.
Shows self-dramatization, theatricality, and exaggerated expressions of emotion - watch the show. I don't think I have to explain this one at all, the man is a live-action cartoon character.
Is suggestible (i.e. easily influenced by others or circumstances) - this isn't really applicable, rip 💔
Considers relationships to be more intimate than they actually are - when he meets someone, Shawn immediately acts overfamiliar and as if they're already close friends. This may be a tactic for getting more information from suspects, but it also happens when he meets people outside of the context of an investigation, like lassie and jules when they first meet. He almost immediately starts joking around with lassie like they're old friends, even though the guy obviously hates him at that point.
All of that plus a childhood characterized by emotional neglect and a lack of attention outside of highly specific context (Henry Spencer when I catch you.....), I am SO sure shawn is a hpd king. The dsm only needs five traits for a diagnosis to be considered, seven out of eight is dead on
Anyway I'm insane and I read the dsm for fun <3<3 I've done this for so many characters over the years, I think I've probably got a list somewhere
2087
blakekathryn
andulkaphoto
origamiaround
amandla
izzy806
prguitarman
