The Hunger Games books and films have become cultural juggernauts, and despite the glamor of the Hollywood treatment and the beautiful people populating the films, the subject matter is quite dark. The heroine of the series, Katniss Everdeen, is placed involuntarily in life-or-death / kill-or-be-killed situations in every installment, and afterward she bears the emotional scars one would expect in real life. In a fascinating article for Wired, the psychiatrists of Broadcast Thought, Dr. Vasilis K. Pozios and Dr. Praveen R. Kambam, review Katniss’ symptoms to determine whether they meet the conditions of a PTSD diagnosis. Where Katniss is a fictional character, there is something refreshing in seeing a character react to trauma with a degree of realism. It’s also valuable to see the hero depicted with apparent PTSD in hit films and books, de-stigmatizing (and perhaps demystifying) something veterans, refugees and other survivors of trauma live with every day. We invite you to read this excerpt from the article, and if you’d like to click the link below for the full article, you’ll be rewarded with an engaging read.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 opens with a very telling scene. Katniss Everdeen is on the verge of tears and hiding in the bowels of District 13 reciting the most basic facts of her existence: Her name, her age, the fact that she was twice thrown into the Hunger Games arena to fight for her life. It’s a reminder that for all of her resilience and heroism, Katniss is still just a teenage girl who has been in kill-or-be-killed situations far too often.
Psychological trauma is pervasive for Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence). She is haunted by the sheer brutality and life-threatening nature of the Games. In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, she grapples with processing the emotional scars of her first Games and returning home to her loved ones. Then, in Mockingjay—Part 1, she struggles with her identity as she endures the psychological trauma of her second time in the arena and the knowledge that her friend Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) has been captured by the Capitol that put them in the Games in the first place.
So, Does Katniss Meet the Criteria to Be Diagnosed with PTSD?
Although it’s become fashionable to use psychiatric terms such as “PTSD” in a colloquial sort of way, post-traumatic stress disorder is actually a strictly defined mental disorder that can be severely debilitating. There are five groups of criteria that must be met in order for the diagnosis of PTSD to be made. So, does Katniss meet those criteria?