Belinda from Georgette Heyer's The Foundling. Belinda (a foundling) is startlingly naive and gullible, and will go with nearly anyone who says "if you come with me, I will buy you a diamond ring!" or some similar bribe. She also has a short attention span and a poor memory.
(Is this the sort of thing you're thinking of? Belinda came to mind because I was trying to diagnose Belinda while reading this book, and came up with some theories. I'm curious if yours match mine, if you've read this book. I picked up Heyer because of Jo Walton's post about her, here: http://papersky.livejournal.com/27014.html ... I can definitely see the influences on Bujold, having read Bujold, when reading Heyer.)
That is exactly the sort of thing I was thinking of, but alas, I have not read The Foundling. I will let you know what I think when I do read it, though!
Heyer's books are filled with characters who invite speculative diagnosis, FYI. Cotillion has a character, Dolphinton, who has some sort of developmental delay (maybe; no one's quite sure what's up, they're just all quite sure there is SOMETHING off about him). The one I am reading now, The Nonesuch, has a teenage girl who is almost uncontrollable by her relatives and also startlingly selfish (even by teenage standards).
I believe this meme was made for Heero Yuy. If you feel you've spent too many days of your life trying to analyze him already, I can come up with someone else, or you can choose a Gundam cast member that appeals.
I'm not sure how to describe Lymond without couching it in terms that amount to me armchair-diagnosing him myself -- but yeah, he was the first character I thought of.
Also Howl, of Howl's Moving Castle (book, not movie). He's massively talented at magic, but also obsessed with dressing nicely and getting his toilette perfectly right, and serially picks up and then dumps girls once he's romanced them into falling in love with him. He slithers out of every kind of responsibility, and even lies to himself sometimes. He's really quite heartless, you know . . . .
Tsuzuki, from Yami no Matsuei! Suicide attempts, major depressive episodes, possibly with PTSD flashbacks, either extreme emotional highs or pretending to have extreme emotional highs, use of food to deal with stress... and probably more I'm forgetting!
No, not at all, I think you're spot-on. Because you're absolutely right that trying to diagnose real people is No Good when you're starting out, but also that you need practice thinking about three-dimensional, complex people and figuring out how they go with assessments and diagnoses and so forth.
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(Is this the sort of thing you're thinking of? Belinda came to mind because I was trying to diagnose Belinda while reading this book, and came up with some theories. I'm curious if yours match mine, if you've read this book. I picked up Heyer because of Jo Walton's post about her, here: http://papersky.livejournal.com/27014.html ... I can definitely see the influences on Bujold, having read Bujold, when reading Heyer.)
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Lymond, my God. Remind me of some of his high/low points? There's so much to work with, and I haven't re-read recently.
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Are his migraines solely opium-related, or did he always have them?
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I need an Axis VI for fantasy characters: Condition occurring as a result of magic.
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Rachel, I am totally behind this exercise, as it is an excellent way to practice. Grin, yay.
Also fun: giving personality tests to fictional characters. Harry Potter did reasonably well on the MMPI...
Character suggestions...okay, you seem to have lots, and they're great, so I think I will leave it there. But yay!
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Also, yay.
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