Case Analysis on Eren Jaeger

Case Analysis on Eren Jaeger Imtiage Ahamed Osbourn Park High School AP Psychology Mr. Geroe May 18, 2025 Introduction Attack on Titan, also known as AOT, is a Japanese manga series that has been adapted into an anime and aired from 2013 to 2023, garnering a massive global audience. The story involves a fictional world where humanity has caved itself inside a massive wall structure to protect itself from massive creatures known as Titans. The story follows our protagonist Eren Jaeger along with his childhood friend as the wall is breached by massive titans, and their aim is to join the military to fight against the titans that destroyed their home. It’s a bittersweet story about friendship, revenge, and the cycle of violence. This paper aims to deduce the diagnosis of Eren Jaeger, as he’s an interesting case study of how nurture can lead someone on a path of destruction. He perfectly exemplifies the quote, “Villains are made, not born,” as a naïve boy ended up killing 80 percent of the world population. After looking through his development from a psychological perspective, this paper establishes an argument that he could be diagnosed with PostTraumatic Stress Disorder and Delusional Disorder (Grandiose Type), shaped by his traumatic experiences as a kid and his titan power. Character Background Eren Jaeger was brought up in a lovely family with his parents and adopted sister. He did have one notable event where he killed 3 kidnappers in cold blood in Season 1 Episode 6. It was to save his sister, but a six- year-old (a guess) killing three adult men without even any shred of remorse or fear might exhibit his tendency towards violence. But when we get to see his present self, he is presented as a kid with an optimistic view of the world, who wants to free the human race from its shackles. Though it all comes soon crashing down when a big titan breaks the wall close to their home, and the titans breach their section/home. It’s here where the first major shift happens, as he watched his mother get eaten alive by a titan. Now, afterwards, all he can think about is killing titans, and he joins the military to pursue that goal. After completing some missions in the military, it is revealed that he has the ability to transform into a titan, which he uses as an advantage to spearhead major operations to eradicate the titans. Later, it was revealed that the Titans were creations of another human nation to keep their race under control, as they had an innate power to turn into Titans. As more and more revelations stacked up to challenge Eren’s view of the world but he held up pretty well until his future was revealed to him. He, more than anything, wanted his friend to have a happy life, but they were under the threat of eradication from the other human nation for their abilities. His future guided him to a solution where he would eradicate the other human nation in order for his people, and more than that, the people he knew, could lead to a happy life without having to constantly worry about whether they would survive to see the next day. So we slowly see him get detached from all his friends as he focuses his effort towards pursuing this possibility, ultimately culminating in the rumbling, where he sets thousands of wall titans to smash all humans other than his people under their feet. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) According to Lancaster et al. (2016), “PTSD is a chronic psychological disorder that can develop after exposure to a traumatic event.” This is a major disorder that is seen in soldiers following their return from the warzone and is described as having flashbacks, avoidance, and heightened arousal due to experiencing traumatic events. Traumatic events are described as events that expose someone to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence (Lancaster et al., 2016). To clinically screen for PTSD inducing trauma exposure, the Brief Traumatic Questionnaire can be used, which includes 10 questionnaire items (Schnurr et al., 2002). After reviewing the diagnostic events that count as traumatic, Eren seems to meet event criteria 1, 8, and 10. For event 1, which is described as being exposed to war-related casualties, along with having your life in danger or being injured while it happened. For Eren, this event did take place all throughout seasons 13, where we can see major characters dying trying to fight the Titans. In episode one, we could see the Titans eating humans right in front of his eyes, and he was in danger of being eaten too. This clearly proves that his time fighting against the Titans exposed him to traumatic events. For event 8, it is described as a situation where they thought they could be severely injured or killed. In episode five of season one, Eren is eaten by one of the titans he was facing, and was on the verge of dying if not for his transformation powers. This means he was at risk of losing his life and met event criteria eight. Lastly, for event criteria 10, it asks if they witnessed some getting killed. In episode one of season one, it is shown clearly that Eren witnessed his mom getting eaten by the titan, which meets event criteria 10, and holds more impact than any other events previously described. Based on these criteria for diagnosing exposure to traumatic events, Eren was certainly exposed to such traumatic events from an early age. Now, to look at the other part of the diagnosis, which is if he shows symptoms of PTSD. For this, the Trauma Screening Questionnaire (TSQ) was used as it is short and clinically used (Brewin et al., 2002). For Eren, he meets criteria 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 10, which means he met 6 out of the 10 criteria, diagnosing him for PTSD. Here is a table of each criterion and where it happened in the anime: Figure 1 A Table describing Eren’s symptoms from the questionnaire Item Description (Brewin et al., 2002) Eren’s Experience Upsetting thoughts or memories about the event that have come into In episode two of season one, Eren can be seen visibly shaken from his your mind against your will mom’s death Upsetting dreams about the event In episode two of season one, Eren is dreaming about the event when he killed his father In episode twelve of season two, he had a breakdown as he saw Acting or feeling as through event someone he care about getting eaten by the titan. He had the same were happening again feeling of hopelessness as he did when his mom was eaten. Feeling upset by the reminder of the event In episode of three of season one, he can been seen visibly upset when talking about the events that happened. Irritability or outburst of anger In episode two of season one, he had a outburst on how its unfair that they have to live inside the wall as “cattle’s” Being jumpy or being startles at something unexpected It’s hard to pinpoint but he can be seen as having strong emotional response to shocking responses such as when it was revealed in episode nine of season two that one of his friend was the titan that attacked him hometown. As described in Figure 1, Eren demonstrates symptoms of having experienced traumatic events, and thus could be diagnosed with PTSD. Delusional Disorder (Grandiose Type) According to Joseph & Siddiqui (2023), “delusion is a fixed false belief based on an inaccurate interpretation of an external reality despite evidence to the contrary.” This means the individual perceives reality as they make it up to be. There are several types of delusional disorder, but the Grandiose type is described as having a conviction of “great talent, discovery, inflated self-worth, power, knowledge, or relationship with someone famous or a deity” (Joseph & Siddiqui, 2023). In the final season, part two, episode five, Eren declares to the whole world that he himself will set the Eldia (his race) free from the oppression through rumbling. This demonstrates a symptom of inflated power as he refused to converse with any of his friends before following through with such a consequential undertaking. Another point in the story where he demonstrated delusional behavior was in the final season, part two, episode twelve, when he thinks he’s “free” as he’s committing genocide by killing millions of people. This shows his delusion with the concept of “freedom,” suggesting a distorted view of mobility. Lastly, when he saw his future in episode twelve of part two of season three, he accepted that he was always meant to commit genocide to save his friend. He did not think critically or consult his friends. This shows his conviction of power, leading him to have a false sense of reality. Treatment Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) could be used to treat PTSD and some aspects of Delusional Disorder. According to Mendes et al. (2008), CBT can help by challenging established thought patterns and creating new ones that are healthier. For Eren, it would mean identifying through patterns such as “kill or be killed” and suggesting less violent thoughts, such as diplomatic options for his cause. Also, it can help reduce symptoms of past events by reframing them. Clinically, it has been shown to be effective in the treatment of PTSD (Mendes et al., 2008). Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psycho therapy that involves bilateral eye movement as the patient recalls traumatic events (Shapiro, 1989). It’s been shown to be effective at desensitizing the individual from the traumatic event and altering their cognitive assessment of the memory. This can be used to treat Eren’s PTSD. Lastly, to target his Delusional Disorder, he could take an antipsychotic drug, such as Aripiprazole. This can be taken for a period of six weeks for a trial, after which the effectiveness can be measured; the starting dose is low and should be increased gradually (Joseph & Siddiqui, 2023). This will help Eren control his impulsive thoughts and increase the effectiveness of CBT. These treatments aim to change his pattern of thoughts, as it is the culprit behind his connection between survival and genocide. But his resistant, aggressive, and radical ideology would make him a difficult client to work with. But with low-dose anti-psychotic and cognitive therapies, it can be expected that he would have less intense reactions to his traumatic events. Furthermore, he would have less rigid thinking as cognitive behavior therapy would expose him to different thought patterns, overall making him a less destructive person. Also, he will be better at regulating PTSD triggers due to EMDR treatment. Overall, the end goal would be for him to recognize the flaws in his choices and develop ways to recollect his traumatic memories. Conclusion This paper presented claims regarding Eren Jaeger having PTSD and Delusional Disorder based on the experiences he had leading up to the rumbling. These conditions do not justify his actions but rather provide us with reasons as to why he might have been predisposed to choosing the option that he did. References Appendix A Brief Traumatic Questionnaire Appendix B Trauma Screening Questionnaire