Personality In Moby Dick

Herman Melville’s Moby Dick presents a deep inside-look into the minds of psychologically disturbed individuals. A character study is brought forth to light as Melville makes use of dysfunctional characters. There are many examples of mental duress in this story such as Pip’s plunge into insanity after being cast-away from the Pequod. This is a result of an environmental factor. The pivotal mentally disordered individual in question is Captain Ahab, who lacks any brakes over his obsessive actions, leading into the fateful demise of his crew and the Pequod. As with Pip, Ahab is plagued by a traumatic event which leads to extreme manifestations of counterproductive traits. There are multiple signs that there is an underlying problem with the captain. By contemporary medical standards, such as the DSM-V and the Dark Triad of Personality, Captain Ahab’s mental deterioration can be traced to his psychopathic tendencies—his impulsive behavior, lack of self-control, and self-destructive actions.

Captain Ahab is plagued by psychological abnormalities by evidence of his demeanor and personality throughout the novel. He demonstrates coping mechanisms that are counterproductive. What must there be present in order to be diagnosed with a mental disorder? According to Ronald J. Comer, Director of Clinical Psychology Studies in Princeton University, there must be “four Ds: deviance, distress, dysfunction, and danger” in order to diagnose an individual with a severe mental disorder (2). He states:

Patterns of psychological abnormality are typically deviant

(different, extreme, unusual, perhaps even bizarre), distressing

(unpleasant and upsetting to the person), dysfunctional (interfering with the person’s ability to conduct daily activitie...

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...d does require instant action and impulsivity, but Ahab takes it to the dangerous extreme. The whole crew is aware that a sailor’s life is full of unpredictability and near-death experiences. Even though, the life of a sailor demands incredible danger, Ahab refuses to accept his losses. As he is about to meet his fateful end to Moby Dick, Ahab remarks, “to the last I grapple with; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee” (538).

Captain Ahab is a tormented individual who is plagued by his impulsivity and thrill for the dangerous. In adherence to the Dark Triad of Personality, he is high on psychopathic traits. Though he is not high on all the traits of psychopathy, he is disturbed enough to fit the definition based on his self-destructive nature. He fits the contemporary medical definition for a mentally disordered individual.