Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical | Middle-earth Psychology: Case Study #1

Tolkien wrote his legendarium from the 1930s to the 1970s, and while he was ahead of his time in many aspects, he could not have anticipated modern understanding of mental health. He experienced significant childhood trauma and two world wars, which are known to cause mental health disabilities. This installment will not speculate on the state of Tolkien’s mental health and its potential effect on his work. Instead, I will study the text as if it was written by in-universe characters describing themselves and those they know. This will serve as the basis for case studies reviewing explicitly stated symptoms along with the history behind the diagnosis.

This is not a medical blog, and I am not a professional psychologist. However, I do have significant knowledge about the modern fields of disability and mental health through my work as a Disability Circle Employee Resource Group leader at my job, and as the historian-in-residence at the National Museum of Mental Health Project. Both Tolkien scholars and medical professionals have already discussed the psychology of Tolkien characters and even conducted serious studies. Dorothy Matthews used Jungian theory to discuss “The Psychological Journey of Bilbo Baggins” while a group of medical students from University College London conducted a case study to diagnose Gollum. However, I have yet to find another serious paper that discusses what modern psychologists might consider widespread neurodivergence or atypical brain development among the people in Tolkien’s texts, which go beyond the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that affected several characters due to the multigenerational world war in Arda.

A Brief History of Diagnostic Tools

The practice of diagnosis related to psychiatry began in the United States in 1844 with the founding of the American Institutions for the Insane, which fortunately changed its name to American Psychiatric Association (APA), although this happened seventy-seven years later in 1921. Around this time, APA produced its first diagnostic tool Statistical Manual for the Use of Institutions for the Insane (SMUII), which once again had a problematic name and the additional problem that professionals did not want to use it. Prisons and branches of the military had their own systems, none of which matched up. Finally, in 1952, APA came out with the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual, Mental Disorders (DSM). While the title could use an update, the controversial fifth edition is currently in use, with a sixth edition slated to come out at some point within the next few years.

As for the rest of the globe, World Health Organization (WHO) uses the International Classification of Disease (ICD), which includes any malady that could affect humans and makes for a depressing read. Unliked the paywalled DSM, ICD is available to view online. Gripes about American Big Pharma aside, the earliest iteration of ICD arrived in 1891 during a meeting of the International Statistical Institute in Vienna, Austria. Meeting chair Jacques Bertillon put his name on the list, calling it Bertillon Classification of Causes of Death, clearly another happy read. The list was dragged through revisions and committees, becoming absorbed by WHO in 1946 for the sixth revision and receiving its modern name in 1955 for the seventh revision. The current eleventh revision was broadly released in 2024, so a new update cannot be expected any time soon.

Case Study #1: Bilbo Baggins

Returning to the text, Tolkien’s legendarium was filled with characters who might charitably be called quirky, and Bilbo Baggins’ family was no exception. Bilbo was the oldest son from a line of oldest sons from a reputable family. His father had architectural skills and a keen business sense, while his mother was the daughter of the Thain, similar to a princess in the Shire. Bilbo was an only child and had a close relationship to his parents, who were implied to have provided for him in excess. While somewhat spoiled, he supported those less fortunate in his community. Hamfast Gamgee lauded his generosity, especially when educating his son, Sam (The Fellowship of the Ring, 25).

Bilbo was considered to be an honest hobbit by his friends, and yet his memoir The Hobbit was canonically biased in his favor. He wrote two versions of “Chapter 5 Riddles in the Dark” detailing his taking of the Ring from Gollum, yet neither seemed to be the complete answer. The dwarves of Bilbo’s tale seemed argumentative, incompetent, greedy, and almost clownish. While dwarf culture was implied to support regular grumbling as part of healthy communication and encouraged collecting or hoarding resources, they were portrayed as brave, generous, articulate, polite, educated, and fashionable elsewhere in the legendarium.

As for previous literature on the mental health profile of Bilbo, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) is a popular diagnosis by fans who also have the condition. ADHD diagnosis are at an all-time high in the United States with 7 million children receiving this label by 2022, or 11.4% of the under eighteen population. Critics believe the condition is over-diagnosed, perhaps with psychologists receiving kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies who create mood controlling medications. Others point to modern technology like television and social media for shrinking attention spans.

While these concerns have merit, they do not take into account that about 30% of people with ADHD choose to remain unmedicated, and that this condition was first recorded by Scottish doctor Sir Alexander Crichton in 1768, much before the internet and screen time but during another crucial shift in Western history. Crichton’s main concern was that the condition “renders [the patient] incapable of attending with constancy to any one object of education”. In modern English, the child cannot sit still in school. The timing of this discovery should come as no surprise, as the concept of modern school had arisen during the European Age of Enlightenment, which started during the late 17^th century after the Renaissance and ended during the late 18^th century with political revolutions. Additionally, the First Industrial Revolution began around this time in Britain, transforming a mainly agrarian economy to one reliant on factories. While a person with ADHD may have previously enjoyed working energetically in a field while singing and chatting with their neighbors as a source of entertainment, they now worked inside loud, enclosed buildings with industrial equipment for up to fourteen hours a day. Their difference in brain activity was not a problem until society changed.

Since the Shire apparently reached protoindustrialization during Bilbo’s lifetime, his behaviors that would have previously been regarded as excusably quirky were viewed as deviation from social norm. Referring to symptoms listed in ICD-11, Bilbo canonically “is forgetful in daily activities”, has “difficulty sustaining attention”, and is “easily distracted”, but he compensates for these lapses by writing them “down on his Engagement Tablet” (The Hobbit, 7). He tends to “blurt out” and make “impulsive decisions”, which is shown “across multiple situations or settings”, such as finding a person living in a cave, immediately nicknaming him Gollum, and then having a riddle contest with him (Hobbit, 73-84); or deciding to disappear in front of his entire community during his 111st birthday (Fellowship, 32). While he does experience “the effects of a substance” through his heavy “tobacco” or pipe-weed use, which could be another cause of these symptoms and would negate an ADHD diagnosis, modern research has shown that substances like nicotine aid concentration in people with ADHD and is still used as self-medication for those without access to safer medicine.

As mentioned during my essay on “Prologue, 2 Concerning Pipe-weed”, tobacco usage rose steeply during World War I since the trench warfare combined the anxiety of waiting for an unseen enemy to strike with the tedium of having not much else to do. American General John Pershing thought that soldiers needed “tobacco as much as bullets” in order to win the war, and pipe smoking was already a trendy and “masculine” activity. Since pipes were one more thing to get lost or broken, pocket sized cigarette boxes were sent to soldiers by unexpected groups including the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross.

Americans were not the only smokers of the war; official military estimates indicate that 96% of British troops developed a smoking habit, including young Tolkien and many of his friends. French, Austro-German, Russian, and Bulgarian soldiers were all given tobacco rations along with their food and drink. The leading British medical journal The Lancet even declared smoking “a source of comfort… a real solace and joy” for young men in “a ceaseless state of tension” in the short article “The Rôle of Tobacco in the War”. (The circumflex above the o in role was a reminder that the word originally came from French and entered English around 1600.) At the time, smoking was considered at worst a dirty habit, “nothing compared with an abuse of alcohol”, as lung cancer and emphysema were not yet fully understood.

Besides his heavy smoking, Bilbo also drank large amounts of tea, which seemed to settle him down. He never specifies what type of tea he is drinking, and the amount of caffeine in a cup varies widely, with up to 40 mg per 6 oz in green tea and 50 mg per 6 oz in black tea. In comparison, the same amount of Dr Pepper has about 20 mg of caffeine and an average black coffee has 75 mg, making his consumption not so different from a modern man. Caffeine intake produces a calming effect in some people with ADHD, contrasting most people’s experience with caffeine. While some people with ADHD may using caffeinated beverages as a form of self-medication, similar to stimulant medications like methylphenidate or the brand Ritalin, medical experts are not sure how useful this drug actually is.

As for how Bilbo was getting his tea, it must have been brought to Middle-earth from the east by Asian-coded Easterlings many centuries earlier. In the Real World, tea has been grown in China as a medicine from around 2700 BC and as a drink around 200 AD. Our old friends the Verenigde Oostindische Compangie (VOC) or the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company brought tea to Europe in the 1600s and introduced the drink throughout their colonies until the early 1900s. Perhaps Dúnedain colonial rulers of Middle-earth loved the newly acquired drink and spread their taste to their subjects, including never satiated hobbits.

Back to our case study, another possibility or cooccurring diagnosis, which I have not seen explored, is an antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) such as psychopathy. A diagnosis of such disorders requires more than avoiding social situations, although Bilbo clearly demonstrates this with his avoidance of relatives by putting on the Ring to turn invisible. These neurodivergent conditions have been demonized by the media, causing the public to believe psychopathy and its “cousin” sociopathy are synonymous with criminality. The three main tools used for diagnosing psychopathy are the aforementioned DSM-5 and ICD-11 along with the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Named for its creator Dr. Robert D. Hare, a forensic psychologist from Canada, this test was created during the 1970s, debuted in 1980, and has since been revised and updated.

The misuse of the PCL-R began in the early 1980s when the Canadian criminal justice system requested copies from Dr. Hare, but he refused, believing that officers were not trained psychologists and would not be able to properly administer the test. Officers still managed to obtain a version of the test and gave it to prisoners, which likely caused many to be misdiagnosed. To this day, those diagnosed as psychopaths continue to be unfairly denied parole because of their congenital neurological condition. Dr. Hare added to popular misconceptions with his books Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us from 1993 and Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work in 2006. While rooted in academic research, the sensationalized titles and language within the books treat people with a neurological condition like a dangerous subspecies of human. Understanding of psychopathy is still extremely new and will likely become more nuanced over time.

What does PCL-R look like when applied to our beloved children’s book character? Throughout his own book, Bilbo exhibited “superficial charm”, “egocentricity”, “prone to boredom & low frustration tolerance”, and “pathological lying and deception”. He showed great skill at “conning” when stealing the Arkenstone and using it as a bargaining piece, and arguably a “parasitic lifestyle” while living in the Elvenking’s house for two weeks and Elrond’s house for three separate, extended periods. Other traits include “short-tempered & poor behavioral control”, “lack of realistic, long-term plans”, “impulsivity”, “irresponsible behavior”, and “failure to accept responsibility for own actions”. He even shows “many types of offense”, also known as criminal versatility, when one considers stealing the Ring (Hobbit, 68) and the Arkenstone (Hobbit, 237), breaking and entering both the Elvenking’s house (Hobbit, 174) and Smaug’s lair (Hobbit, 214), murdering the giant sentient spiders (Hobbit, 155-160), and assisting in multiple prison escapes (Hobbit, 175-185). He knows he is widely considered to be a burglar or thief and brags about the label.

Those who do not support this interpretation of the character would likely point out the traits that Bilbo does not show. Being a Tolkien character, he has no “history of promiscuous sexual relations” or “frequent marital relationships”. Additionally, Bilbo does not deeply describe his childhood besides a few references to family members, making it impossible to assess “history of early behavior problems” or “history of juvenile delinquency”. His tendency to share secrets only with his foster child Frodo, such as allowing Frodo to read his book (Fellowship, 34), is not part of the diagnostic criteria, but it does indicate a problematic relationship with a minor.

Conclusion

Different neurotypes or forms of brain development have likely existed throughout human history, but the timeline of scientific research is relatively short. The earliest reports date from the mid-18^th century, suggesting that the definition of these personality types as disorders only arose as a byproduct of the Industrial Revolution. Instead of being viewed as energetic workers or brave explorers, people with ADHD and ASPD were more likely to be imprisoned. The first meta-analysis study, or one that combined the results from many scientific papers, on these personality types in prison populations dates to 2015 and found that an average of 1 in 4 prisoners globally met ADHD criteria and about 1 in 2 met ASPD criteria, with most not having access to appropriate medication and therapy.

A screenshot from an animation. Bilbo sits in his yellow chair wearing a three-piece green suit. He looks over his shoulder as he calls for Frodo. His desk is covered with papers, books, tankards, and ink pots. Behind him is a bookshelf stuffed with books. Hung on the round door to his office is a dartboard with Tengwar numbers.

The remarkable fact that Bilbo has never been in the criminal justice system points to two cultural factors: the Shire had only a handful of shirriffs and rarely used “lockholes” in the capital Michel Delving for law enforcement, while a person of Bilbo’s wealth and status could easily buy his way out of prosecution. Instead of locking him away, locals resorted to referring to him as “mad” and “queer”, a sign that they understood how his mental state deviated from the norm but did not have the language to describe a specific condition. While Bilbo Baggins cannot be confirmed as having ADHD or an ASPD, his self-described personality traits align with diagnostic criteria as presented in ICD-11. Despite the flaws and controversy of modern diagnostic tools, their presence marks a step forward for understanding of mental health both for medical practitioners and members of the general public. I hope that this case study, and future case studies, will help to destigmatize these conditions and bring broader awareness to the history and research behind diagnostic criteria.

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