The Hundred Acre Wood & Sherlock

The Hundred Acre Wood

How does a pediatrician draw some much-needed attention to psychological and neurodevelopmental issues and how often they go unrecognized? Why - write an article for the holiday issue of a medical journal about the undiagnosed psychological conditions of well-loved characters from a favourite childhood series of course! Or at least that is what Dr. Sarah Shea et al. (2000) of Dalhousie University decided to do. 

So, what does Pooh struggle with, according to these experts? ADHD - inattentive subtype 

Piglet? Generalized anxiety disorder

Eeyeore? Chronic dysthymia

Owl? Dyslexia

Rabbit? Narcissistic personality disorder

Tigger? ADHD - hyperactivity-impulsivity subtype

No wonder these characters are so well-loved! Even children are fascinated by complex characters with notable flaws. Speaking of complex characters with notable flaws...

Sherlock

The BBC aired a series in the Summer of 2010 that I have just had the pleasure of watching. Sherlock is a modern take on the well-loved 19th century stories, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of Sherlock Holmes and his faithful partner Dr. John Watson. The tools of Sherlock's trade (detective work) have been updated to include smart phones and, of course, the internet, which, happily, does nothing to take away from his powers deductive reasoning. Benedict Cumberbatch plays a Sherlock who is true to that represented in Doyle's stories - fascinating, infuriating (particularly for Watson), and not entirely likeable. Martin Freeman, of Shaun of the Dead and Love Actually fame, plays a likeable, intelligent Dr. Watson, who tolerates Sherlock's insensitive behaviours without being a total pushover. I particularly enjoyed certain stylistic additions to the show; the viewer sees words appear on the screen as Sherlock reads them or is occasionally given a running dialogue of Sherlock's thought process during his detecting. The DVD/Blu-Ray of Series One has been released and Season 2 is expected to air in 2012. Each Season is only 3 episodes long but each episode is near movie-length (~90 minutes).  Netflix.ca has Season 1 available for subscribers.