And Then There Were None Psychological Analysis

Ten little soldier boys went to a mysterious island and they all died within two days. Some may say these ten strangers were crazy, or at least not the poster-children for mental health, and that accusation which is borderline insensitive to anyone with a mental disorder could not be any more right. In Agatha Christie’s mystery novel And Then There Were None, there are different mental disorders are represented in characters such as: depression, panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. General Macarthur, an old war veteran from the first world war, is shown to be depressed soon after the recording accuses him of killing his wife’s lover by sending him on a suicide mission during the war. General Macarthur seems to give up

Vera Claythorne, a young woman who is hired to be Mrs. Owen’s secretary on the island, is the least stable of the ten prisoners; she repeatedly breaks down and someone else is inevitably forced to snap her out of a panic attack. Starting immediately after the butler’s brutal murder when she figured out that the killings paralleled a poem framed in all of their rooms. She ran out to where a majority of the other guests were and started laughing before “She cried out in a high shrill voice... They stared at her uncomprehendingly. It was as though the sane well- balanced girl had gone mad before their eyes...She began laughing wildly again” and she immediately went back to her regular self as soon as the doctor slapped her (Christie 296). A panic disorder, or an anxiety neurosis, is defined ‘characterized by anxious over-concern extending to panic’ which is clearly what Vera is experiencing during her time on the island (DSM-II 39). Though Vera has a perfectly reasonable reason to be driven to madness after witnessing four murders in a period of less than twenty-four hours, the fact she instantly snaps back to her old self in a matter of seconds, and has more similar attacks, suggests a panic