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ssa_gideon
The Mother Figures: Professors Diane Reid and Jason Gideon
The way I see it is, while Reid might have compared the way Gideon left him to the way his father left him (even though the circumstances actually were different), Gideon was NOT Reid's father figure, from what we have seen of Reid's parents, Gideon's personality was more similar to Diane's.
Consciously or not, the very haunted Gideon was Reid's substitute or second chance to make up for the mentally unsounded mother that Reid had committed to an institution. Even though she was unwell, Diane was the dominant personality of the household even before Will left, and she was the one who enriched Reid's intellectual development even though she couldn't be emotionally stable for son. Diane was also the one astute enough to notice Gary Michael's predatory interest in her child, and did something about it by informing a neighbour (I think she might have known what the neighbour was going to do too...). When she's lucid, she looked out for Spencer in everyway, but when she's having an episode, she doesn't even notice that Spencer is gone because she probably doesn't even know the passage of time (Spencer asked his mother what day it was when he was having her committed, she couldn't answer).
Spencer was the emotional caretaker for his mother, and for Gideon. Spencer doesn't shatter his mother's illusion of still being a professor about to go on a lecture and goes to lunch with her instead at the end of the Fisher King arc. Spencer was the one tailing Gideon like a golden retriever while Gideon on medical leave - no doubt to remind him to sleep and eat, and Spencer was the one who finally went to check on Gidoen at his cabin. While Diane and Gideon were Spencer's intellectual/cultural guidance and companion, Spencer was always the caretaker, of two people who should have been the caretakers but weren't because they couldn't even take care of themselves.
Jason Gideon rarely lives in the now, visualization is a great skill that makes him a great detective, but I think his graphic recreation of a crime event, and of who the victims might have been and their feelings, are a part of traumatic flashback part of his Complex-PSTD, something from Boston AND 30 years of BAU nightmares AND probably an attack on his person before he even joined the BAU.
The Footpath Killer, he won in the end, but the crisis still started with him zoning out, being in shock for sometime before he got back up and bossed the hell out of the unsub with words words words. Then there was the time Morgan had to manhandle Gideon kicking and screaming all the way out of a burning building.
Reid holds confidence in that he was his mother's favored student, that he was Gideon's favored student. While their emotional disturbances was a source of instability and stress for Reid, I think Diane's dependency on her son when he was so young have created in him a need to be needed, to justify his place in the lives of people important to him, to secure his place in their lives because they need and depend on him.
Gideon's departure robbed Reid of that source of confidence. Some people thought Gideon was a jerk for leaving, but in addition to it was either the letter or his corpse, Gideon didn't take responsibility for Reid and then abandoned him - Reid was the one who took responsibility for Gideon, and Gideon accepted that comfort until he couldn't bear it after other people he relied on were killed by Frank.
Consciously or not, the very haunted Gideon was Reid's substitute or second chance to make up for the mentally unsounded mother that Reid had committed to an institution. Even though she was unwell, Diane was the dominant personality of the household even before Will left, and she was the one who enriched Reid's intellectual development even though she couldn't be emotionally stable for son. Diane was also the one astute enough to notice Gary Michael's predatory interest in her child, and did something about it by informing a neighbour (I think she might have known what the neighbour was going to do too...). When she's lucid, she looked out for Spencer in everyway, but when she's having an episode, she doesn't even notice that Spencer is gone because she probably doesn't even know the passage of time (Spencer asked his mother what day it was when he was having her committed, she couldn't answer).
Spencer was the emotional caretaker for his mother, and for Gideon. Spencer doesn't shatter his mother's illusion of still being a professor about to go on a lecture and goes to lunch with her instead at the end of the Fisher King arc. Spencer was the one tailing Gideon like a golden retriever while Gideon on medical leave - no doubt to remind him to sleep and eat, and Spencer was the one who finally went to check on Gidoen at his cabin. While Diane and Gideon were Spencer's intellectual/cultural guidance and companion, Spencer was always the caretaker, of two people who should have been the caretakers but weren't because they couldn't even take care of themselves.
Jason Gideon rarely lives in the now, visualization is a great skill that makes him a great detective, but I think his graphic recreation of a crime event, and of who the victims might have been and their feelings, are a part of traumatic flashback part of his Complex-PSTD, something from Boston AND 30 years of BAU nightmares AND probably an attack on his person before he even joined the BAU.
The Footpath Killer, he won in the end, but the crisis still started with him zoning out, being in shock for sometime before he got back up and bossed the hell out of the unsub with words words words. Then there was the time Morgan had to manhandle Gideon kicking and screaming all the way out of a burning building.
Reid holds confidence in that he was his mother's favored student, that he was Gideon's favored student. While their emotional disturbances was a source of instability and stress for Reid, I think Diane's dependency on her son when he was so young have created in him a need to be needed, to justify his place in the lives of people important to him, to secure his place in their lives because they need and depend on him.
Gideon's departure robbed Reid of that source of confidence. Some people thought Gideon was a jerk for leaving, but in addition to it was either the letter or his corpse, Gideon didn't take responsibility for Reid and then abandoned him - Reid was the one who took responsibility for Gideon, and Gideon accepted that comfort until he couldn't bear it after other people he relied on were killed by Frank.