Cheryl Tunt Character Analysis

The patient of observation is Cheryl Tunt--from the animated show Archer--who walked into our office at the odd time of 8:30 on March 5, 2017. Appearing to be aged between 28 to 32, Cheryl is of average height and build with blue eyes and auburn hair. Cheryl’s appearance resembles an ordinary office worker, consisting of a pencil skirt, v-neck sweater, pearl necklace, and her hair pulled back into a bun. Her profession is Malory Archer's secretary, working for the International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS), an illegal intelligence agency headquartered in New York City, where Cheryl takes Malory’s various phone calls, screens visitors, and fulfills Malory’s needs at the moment: from cleaning up after Malory’s fits of destructive rage to fetching and opening her Cobb salads. Cheryl is dedicated to her work and highly values her position at ISIS, going to the extent of missing her parent’s funeral for the job. Coming from an extremely wealthy family, Cheryl grew up in extravagant luxury and riches. However, the patient and her brother Cecil are the only remaining members in the Tunt family, and thus, the only two receivers of the $1 billion inheritance. Her mother and father died when their chauffeur had a stroke and drove their car into a tree. Furthermore, Cheryl has two parental ancestors, both deceased and their names

were Cornelius Tunt and George Washington Tunt who were part of the thriving railroads industry. This lack of family connections, closeness, or familiarity could be a cause or origin for a mental illness of any sort in Cheryl. Specifically, mental illness may run in the Tunt Family. Cheryl during numerous sessions has described her past relatives to have odd behaviour, including the creation of secret tunnels to tap into the Underground Railroad because they believed it to be an actual railroad and they tried to capture escaped slaves in 1890. There are also multiple instances of relatives dressing up as ghosts and of her grandfather using “secret tunnels” in the Tunt Mansion to “look in on the children” which could refer to her being sexually molested by him, leading to a traumatic childhood. In addition, major events in Cheryl’s have been her short, but substantial career as a country singer, her multiple changes in personality, and her inclination for abusive sex. In addition, after several years of working at ISIS, Cheryl took on a new career as country singer Cherlene. In the episode "House Call", a mind control microchip was implanted in her brain by ISIS’ scientist Krieger to relieve her of her performance anxiety. Following this, she becomes more confident, outspoken, vain, and overall a hillbilly starlet. After she ends her career, Cheryl seemingly has no memory of her time as Cherlene whatsoever. Lasly, Cheryl has gone through multiple personality changes throughout the years, including becoming more childlike and being able to unconsciously mindread. Thus, she transitions from her airhead, manipulative, and deceitful personality to someone who becomes more sadistic and mentally unstable to the point where she can break the fourth wall and hear the show’s music like in the episode "Fugue and Riffs."

Diagnosis
From Cheryl’s excessive, pervasive tendency to seek attention and her excessive display of emotions, we strongly feel that she is suffering from histrionic personality disorder (HPD).

Histrionic personality disorder is defined by someone who is excessively over dramatic, emotional, and theatrical. This person will often feel uncomfortable when not the center of other’s attention and at times act inappropriately seductive or provocative. Lastly, histrionic personality disorder is characterized by speech that is highly vague and dramatic, causing for emotions to be shallow and constantly changing (Histrionic personality disorder,

2006).
Furthermore, histrionic personality disorder is more frequently diagnosed in females than males. However, the prevalence among men and women are approximately the same when “structured assessments are used to diagnose HPD” by clinicians (Fleming, 2010). Thus, gender roles or stereotypes surrounding men and women can greatly influence the behavioral and emotional display of HPD that could influence symptoms. In addition, the prevalence of histrionic personality disorder is estimated to be around 2-3% among the general population. People at higher risk are those who have experiences some kind of substantial trauma during their childhood. This condition has a major impact on the social and occupational areas of the patient’s lives, and influences their relationships with others.