Why Miu Iruma Has Borderline Personality Disorder: My (Very Professional) Essay
Warning for self harm, trauma, mentions of blood, and substance abuse.
Most info taken here is only from canon material in DRV3 and the official Wiki, while italicized text is pure speculation. Nothing is taken from UTDP, Love Suite, DR:S, or the anthology. I have researched very thoroughly on BPD, but I am not an expert! Don't treat this as a one-size-fits-all thing because I only listed the sympyoms that fit her :D
BPD: INTRO
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a long-term pattern of unstable interpersonal relationships, distorted sense of self, and strong emotional reactions. Those affected often engage in self-harm and other dangerous behaviors, often due to their difficulty with returning their emotional level to a healthy or normal baseline. While there is no consensus on the causes for BPD, many agree that it is a trauma-related disorder, possibly influenced by genetics, stress, and relationships in early childhood.[1]
SYMPTOMS
1. HYPERSEXUALITY: Miu Iruma is a character created to be "the naughtiest character in the series' history". [2] Known for being inappropriate and making crass remarks about others, it is a general consensus that she is hypersexual. Not much needs to be elaborated on here... but it's worth noting hypersexuality is linked to splitting (See: #9)
2. FEAR OF ABANDONMENT: Miu shows signs of having been abandoned in the past. She offers Shuichi a pie with her hair in it (much to his disgust), saying she just wants the person she likes to eat her. [3] It's possible this is the only way she knows how to convince people to 'stay with her', other than acting inappropriate. Shuichi could also become her FP* if you take her FTE route.
*extra: an 'FP' (meaning 'favorite person', though the acronym is usually reserved for people with BPD only) is a person someone clings to for almost all emotional support. They split with this person often, going from idolization to disgust and vice versa. It's also common for someone with BPD to have even more extreme reactions to perceived/real abandonment from their FP, going so far where some people describe the world to be falling apart if they feel rejected. While not all relationships with FP's are romantic, it's easy to confuse them for one. [16]
3. UNSTABLE RELATIONSHIPS: The only characters that are ever willing to give her a second chance are Kaede Akamatsu, Keebo Idabashi, and Gonta Gokuhara. [4] Even then, she insults them anyway, leading to people getting tired of talking to her. [5] She often gets confused as to why her insults aren't taken very well.
EXTRA: People with BPD are usually noted to be extra sensitive to rejection ...and Miu is! (although I hc her with adhd so it might be closer to just being RSD & comorbidity) She almost (if not) always acts very hurt and apologetic whenever someone even talks back to her in a passive tone or disregards her. [6]
4. DISTORTED SELF IMAGE: Distorted self image is described to be ‘not having a good sense of who you are as a person’. [7] Although this description sounds negative, it can work the other way around! Miu thinks of herself as someone the entire world would mourn after death. [2] She believes she’ll change the world with her inventions, so much that she’s willing to kill Kokichi and escape just to prove it. It's unknown whether or not she's just lying to make herself look good, but Kokichi states she truly attempted to murder him regardless. [4]
EXTRA: While lesser known, paranoia & dissociative symptoms are also symptoms of BPD. Miu strongly believes she became an augmented human after falling into a coma, which explains her 'genius brain'. [8] She seriously tries to dissect herself on multiple occasions, and Shuichi has to stop her from doing so. [9]
5. IMPULSIVE & SELF DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR: Common examples of this behavior are related to risky sexual situations, and drugs. [10] At least 2 times [11] [12] Miu searches for drugs in the warehouse. More subtle examples include changing yourself to please others and engaging in alienating behavior that drives people away. [13] While earlier stated Miu acts the way she does (Dirty jokes, bad mouth, etc.) thinking its what people likes, its possible she's still aware it drives people away anyways. (Hence: lines like “My genius can't be constrained by the wisdom of the masses...”) [6]
6. CHRONIC FEELINGS OF EMPTINESS: This can also be linked to impulsive behavior because Miu may just be taking drugs to help ease feelings of emptiness, and chronic emptiness is already commonly linked with self destructive behavior. [14] It's also possible she has such a high opinion of herself because she's trying to look for a sense of identity/
purpose.
7. INAPPROPRIATE ANGER: Miu can come off as very arrogant and loud, having explosive anger outbursts quite often. [2] Usually, she gets mad at her fellow classmates, and insulting them. Many characters dislike her for this, since she shows anger to even minuscule situations.
8. MOOD SWINGS: Most symptoms of BPD are linked with one another, especially this one (since along with impulsivity it's like the 'trademark' symptom of BPD). I believe Miu's mood swings are heavily linked to her fear of rejection and inappropriate anger (See: #3 & #7). She often thanks characters (usually Kaede and Shuichi) right before reprimanding them. Vice versa also applies, where she returns to a confident mood right after appearing timid.
9. SPLITTING: Often linked with hypersexuality (See #1), splitting is described as a defense mechanism where people view situations in only black-and-white. [15] Of the accompanying symptoms listed, Miu goes through acting out (See #5), denial (of the killing game & the inability to escape without murder), and omnipotence (the belief that you possess superior intelligence and/or power). In chapter 4, when she attempts to kill Kokichi, she sees it as an 'all-or-nothing' situation, where she has to kill him or she'll definitely die in the academy. Though not the type of person to kill so easily, she makes a plan and tries to carry it out anyway because of her belief.
Thats it!!!!! If you still dont think she has BPD I'm fucking slapping you. I worked countless hours making this
Sources
(in website format)
1: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderline_personality_disorder
2: https://danganronpa.fandom.com/wiki/Miu_Iruma#Personality
3: https://youtu.be/euXcEDKx6JM?t=24m23s *
4: https://danganronpa.fandom.com/wiki/Miu_Iruma#Relationships
5: https://youtu.be/RdSGIVqBRQU?t=09m50s
6: https://youtu.be/exnyhZN98PM?t=01m55s *
7: https://www.heretohelp.bc.ca/infosheet/borderline-personality-disorder
8: https://youtu.be/euXcEDKx6JM?t=14m33s *
9: https://youtu.be/euXcEDKx6JM?t=16m31s *
10: https://www.verywellmind.com/impulsive-behavior-and-bpd-425483
11: https://youtu.be/exnyhZN98PM?t=01m43s *
12: https://youtu.be/euXcEDKx6JM?t=22m40s *
13: https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/self-destructive-behavior#definition
14: https://bpded.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40479-021-00164-8
15: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-splitting-425210
16: https://themighty.com/2017/09/borderline-personality-disorder-favorite-person-best-friend/
*note: many sources come from the same videos, such as 3, 8, 9 and 12