One of the most remarkable parts about this scene for me is that Dean had already been talking on the phone. This wasn’t the first time that Dean had spoken in this conversation. But it was the first time that Dean spoke and sounded more like himself…the first time he spoke and it wasn’t all business.
Cas made the remark about the honor bar and Dean couldn’t help but respond with his snarky “everything” and then Cas smiles like… “Oh there you are, that’s my Dean…that’s the Dean that I fell in love with.” And you can see that love written on his face…see that love written in his sweet smile.
They’ve already been talking to each other but Cas chooses now to ask Dean how he is. Dean, never one to be honest about how he’s actually doing, replies with his standard answer of “okay” or “fine” or “I’m alright” but you can see on his face that he’s not okay. He’s tired. He’s worn out. He’s fighting battles inside and out.
How long has it been since we last saw Dean truly smile? And yet when he asks Cas how he’s doing and Cas responds and is being all Cas-like, we see this small but beautifully real smile from Dean.
These two weary warriors that are battling heaven and hell and their own inner demons, that are tired and down-trodden, and yet they can still smile like this because of each other. And if that isn’t love, then I don’t know what is.
“It’s almost like The Hurt Locker, when Jeremy Renner’s character comes back from war and he’s sitting there looking at a cereal box aisle, and it’s just so foreign to him,” Ackles continued. “But what isn’t foreign is being on the ground, fighting. I think Dean is feeling a sense of that. It’s a year that he spent down in Purgatory, so he was down there for a whole year doing this. Fighting and battling non-stop, covered in blood, covered in mud, covered in dirt for twelve months.” [x]
Projection as a self-defense mechanism of the psyche is a feature of Borderline personality disorder, so we should explore the possibility that Dean’s on-going trauma might have triggered it in him. There appears to be a connection between Borderline personality and PTSD, a childhood trauma and loss of caregivers in early childhood serving as contributing factors in the development of the disorder (“There is a strong correlation between child abuse, especially child sexual abuse, and development of BPD. Many individuals with BPD report a history of abuse and neglect as young children”).
Symptoms of BPD feature a pattern of impulsivity and instability of behaviours (“Impulsive behavior is common, including substance or alcohol abuse, eating disorders, unprotected sex or indiscriminate sex with multiple partners, reckless spending, and reckless driving”), interpersonal relationships and self-image (“difficulty knowing what they value, believe, prefer, and enjoy”), intense fear of abadonment, anger and irritability, both idealization (”He doesn’t have relationships. He has applications for sainthood”) and devalution of other people, sensitivity to rejection and criticism, all of which is classic Dean. Substance abuse is also commonly found in association with the condition.
Interesting is also that problem solving, using the brain’s executive functions (working cases) seems to alleviate the symptoms.
“Specifically, those with borderline personality disorder are more likely to exhibit greater sexual preoccupation, have earlier sexual exposure, engage in casual sexual relationships, report a greater number of different sexual partners as well as promiscuity, and engage in homosexual experiences.”
“these authors emphasized the phenomenon of “pan-sexuality” (i.e.,
all-embracing sexuality), which encompassed promiscuity, “polymorphous
perverse sexual practices,” and heterosexual/homosexual vacillation.“
Subjects with BPD were significantly more likely than comparison
subjects to report homosexual or bisexual orientation and intimate
same-sex relationships. There were no significant differences between
male and female borderline subjects in prevalence of reported homosexual
or bisexual orientation or in prevalence of reported same-sex
relationships. … Results of this study suggest that same-gender
attraction and/or intimate relationship choice may be an important
interpersonal issue for approximately one-third of both men and women
with BPD.
“Though it hasn’t been studied, there is a sense among doctors that many
patients tend to be attractive, which can trigger a vicious cycle. Being beautiful induces the world
to treat you like an object, which naturally gives rise to questions
about whether you are loveable, which in turn makes you long for
confirmation.“
Granted, Dean Winchester is a character, and a composite of many authors at that, but all in all his characterization seems to offer us a rather holistic picture of someone suffering from borderline personality due to childhood trauma. Also, Dean is bisexual. It’s science.
I haven’t written anything for Queer Dean Month yet, which is a crying shame. So I thought I’d talk about the tilt scan, which many have noted with regard to the famous shot in A Little Slice of Kevin, in a little more detail.
The tilt is a technique in cinematography that is instantly recognizable to most consumers of visual media whether they consciously know it or not. In a tilting shot the camera remains stationary while rotating on a vertical axis called the tilting plane. It is often used to indicate the sexiness of the female body as an object. The first gif in Google image search for a ‘sexy body’ is a tilting scan of a half-naked female body.
Dean Winchester is not a germ freak. He said so. He said so himself. There is no way that Dean Winchester could have a phobia of germs. The proof is right there.
Dean Winchester actually thinks of himself as not a germ freak.
#isn’t this a gorgeous post #I’M NOT IN LOVE WITH GERMS SAMMY I DON’T EVEN LIKE THEM THAT WAY WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT #I DO NOT CHECK OUT GERMS’ ASSES OKAY #WOULD YOU SHUT UP ABOUT THE GERMS I DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT THEM THAT MUCH OR THINK THEY HAVE BEAUTIFUL EYES OR SOFT LIPS OR SEX HAIR OR OR #I DON’T CARE ABOUT GERMS SAMMY #dean #dean is bisexual #meta #q (via livebloggingmydescentintomadness)
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