Squid Game Characters and Their Personality Disorders
Updated: Oct 17, 2022
Squid Game, a popular Netflix show, has intriguing characters with remarkable personality traits. We can uncover what mental illness the characters are suffering from by analyzing their behaviors.
In this article, we'll speculate what personality disorders the squid game characters suffer from. If you identify with some of the characteristics or traits, I encourage you to see a licensed mental health professional and get help.
This page contains major spoilers if you haven't watched the show yet.
A 90-minute to two-hour interview is usually required to acquire a diagnosis, during which the psychiatrist asks between 40 and 100 questions. There's a lot of specificity and carefulness that goes into a diagnosis. For educational purposes, we're presuming that the individuals are suffering from some form of mental illness.
Squid Game is a work of fiction. Everything is blown out of proportion, everything is more severe, there are absurd settings, and the show exaggerates personality features. If you recognize yourself in some of the characteristics, that does not mean that person is you.
Seong Gi-Hun
Seong Gi-Hun is the main character in the show. Gi-Hun is a kind of anti-hero. He's broke, and the first time we see him in episode one, he steals his mother's credit card, withdraws cash, and spends it on horse racing. He loses some money, bets again, and finally wins, displaying an emotional outburst.
Gi-Hun is divorced and makes big promises to his daughter. She isn't surprised when he fails to deliver on his promises because she knows her dad is unreliable. Gi-Hun joins the Squid Game out of desperation for money. (Warning: major spoilers ahead!) He proceeds through the Squid Game and wins it all. He now has a large sum of money as a result of his victory. In theory, his problems should be solved. However, he feels awful for the next year, consumes alcohol, and dyes his hair. He appears to be at a loss for what to do with himself.
Finally, he is headed to the airport to catch a flight to see his daughter. He appears to be on his way to living a regular life. On the verge of boarding the airplane, he turns around and decides to walk away. The presumption is that he's going to join the next round of the Squid Games.
Diagnosis Seong Gi-Hun from Squid Game
Gi-Hun is one of the more stable characters compared to the others in this article. Gi-Hun is suffering from a Gambling addiction. Part of the reason he's broke is that he appears to have worked multiple jobs without being able to store away money.
Even though he has often failed to show up for his daughter and has a crippling gambling addiction, we're still rooting for him. His daughter still loves and cares about him. She understands that it's not his fault and that he's a good person who can't stop gambling.
''People with addictions aren't bad people.''
Impulsivity and future discounting are common traits of gambling, pathologic gambling, and behavioral addictions. People with behavioral addictions have a hard time controlling their impulses and making plans for the future. They prefer short-term gain over long-term gain. Experiments uncovered that someone with a behavioral addiction will take one dollar today rather than ten dollars tomorrow.
Kang Sae-Byeok
She escaped from North Korea, and her brother is in an orphanage. She's trying to figure out a way to get her mom smuggled out of North Korea. She doesn't smile much, and she doesn't seem to relate to other people. She's a bit of a loner who distrusts others.
She's quiet and reserved, except for a few occasions. She became agitated after learning that someone couldn't assist her in smuggling her mother out of North Korea, which resulted in her burning him with boiling tea. We witness that pattern throughout the show, where she is calm and reserved and appears to have control of her emotions until there is an emotional outburst.
Diagnosis Kang Sae-Byeok from Squid Game