Was Captain Janeway Bipolar?

[Luther Sloan]

As some folks have claimed: Janeway seemed like she would take extreme risks with the crew on one occasion and then play it safe with them in another situation. She also appeared to obey the Prime Directive with certain planets and ignore it with others. She also has given us the impression that she might be some kind of crazy woman who goes insane every time a Starfleet officer rebells against one of her decisions, too.

Now, personally, I may or may not believe all or even some this in regards to Janeway. That is up to you to decide. So please cast your vote and share your opinion.

~I am sure other inquiring Trek like minds would like to know.

 

[Akiraprise]

I don't think she was bipolar. Look at it this way. She was placed in an almost impossible situation. How do you get your ship and crew home in one piece sticking to a rule book crafted in a quadrant 75 years away? She stuck to Federation/Starfleet rules as much as she could. But I know if I was one of her crew and had broken some taboo rule on a planet we were visiting by accident and the alien species intended to imprison me for 20 years I'd want Captain Janeway to get me the hell out of dodge! How could she maintain crew morale in a situation like that?

Remember the old UPN promos? "One Ship. One Crew." You don't leave crew behind. Janeway's primary responsibility wasn't to explore, or make friends (nor make enemies if it could be helped), but to get Voyager and her crew home as quickly as possible. So she bent a few rules along the way. It was her discretion to do so.

P.S. I deleted your mistake thread.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Her crew was expendable to any greater cause ranging from saving a few innocents to saving unnumberable planets. That was her job. To preserve the status quo. Take only photos and leave only footprints. Her prime directive was to let people make up their own minds about the big picture and the little things because she is not a despot or a god.

It's odd that she was so bent on saving people/planets when that mostly was in violation of the noninterference directive?

There is no mental illness, okay it's rare, c'mon there's only one mental asylum in the entire federation, and in 2367 it only had 7 patient/inmates... Bashir in Future Tense said that there was medication which makes the simple mental deficiencies of the 21st century wholly manageable even in the 21st century...Human beings according to Beverly don't even have headaches any more.

To wit, Janeway cannot be Bipolar because such state of being is completely extinct in human beings.

However there doesn't seem to be a cure for dementia.

 

[Shazam!]

I think she was bi.

 

[T.D. Possum]

I voted "Maybe". Aren't people who are bipolar born that way? I'm not sure if Janeway would technically qualify, but she does show some of the symptoms.

I think that she was normal (well, normal for a starship captain) when Voyager started out, and then snapped somewhere around the time of Deadlock. As time wore on, the divergence in her old, by the book Starfleet personality and her ass kicking, devil may care DQ personality became more pronounced.

Janeway's craziness is one of my favorite aspects of the show, and a big part of why I like her character. Her instability is a good reflection of the stresses she had to face.

 

[Adm_Hawthorne]

I think she was single-minded and it clouded her judgment on certain aspects of what should have been Starfleet based decisions, but that does not make one bipolar.

She had no obvious symptoms. There were no manic versus depressed. There was depressed and "normal".

If anything, she was clinically depressed, but that is a far cry from bipolar. Really, I can't imagine why anyone in her situation wouldn't be at least slightly depressed.

 

[Udat]

Do any of you posters have bi-polar disorder or have dealt with bi-polar people? They are extremely difficult to deal with, there is no way a bi-polar would be capable to function as Captain in such difficult situation.

 

[DevilEyes]

No, she was just a victim of inconsistent writing.

 

[exodus]

I don't think she was bipolar. Look at it this way. She was placed in an almost impossible situation. How do you get your ship and crew home in one piece sticking to a rule book crafted in a quadrant 75 years away? She stuck to Federation/Starfleet rules as much as she could. But I know if I was one of her crew and had broken some taboo rule on a planet we were visiting by accident and the alien species intended to imprison me for 20 years I'd want Captain Janeway to get me the hell out of dodge! How could she maintain crew morale in a situation like that?

Remember the old UPN promos? "One Ship. One Crew." You don't leave crew behind. Janeway's primary responsibility wasn't to explore, or make friends (nor make enemies if it could be helped), but to get Voyager and her crew home as quickly as possible. So she bent a few rules along the way. It was her discretion to do so.

Bingo!

Folks are always saying how Janeway is inconsistant but people in general are inconsistant and have a change of heart or change of mind all the time. Ideas we had in our youth change upon getting older. Ideas we have in theory often change when actually applied. Janeway is no different.
She started out with ideas that she could get thru the Delta Quad. with certain rules & morals as if she were still in the Alpha Q.. Upon venturing through it, she discovered many things that worked in the AQ don't in the DQ. So like any good stratigist, she had to adjust her game plan and bend rules to keep as many of her crew as safe as she could. You could even notice her attitude change from season to season. From season 1. she was all wide eyed about discovering something new but by season 6, she just wanted to get the hell out of the DQ and cut back on exploring.

 

[Galekarens]

Being Bi-polar is a serious disease, with sometimes extreme symptoms, and at times the person can barely function. (KJ was depressed in Night, but she snapped out of it when her ship was in danger.) Otherwise, she seemed to act pretty normal, if once in awhile inconsistent or different. That does not make one bipolar, just human. Comparing any of her quirks to an actual mental problem kind of negates the really horrid difficulties a person actually suffering that problematic disorder experiences. GS.

 

[Edinburgh]

My wife said this not me, OK




Was Captain Janeway Bipolar, Her Answer, NO


Her reason..... She's a typical woman.


Makes you wonder if any woman should have responsibilities like having command of a starship ?

 

[Adm_Hawthorne]

Given the cycles of "WTF" decision making I've seen men make, it makes me wonder if anyone should be in charge of anything.

 

[exodus]

Given the cycles of "WTF" decision making I've seen men make, it makes me wonder if anyone should be in charge of anything.

OUCH!!!

Put the claws away, girl.

 

[Luther Sloan]

I don't think she was bipolar. Look at it this way. She was placed in an almost impossible situation. How do you get your ship and crew home in one piece sticking to a rule book crafted in a quadrant 75 years away? She stuck to Federation/Starfleet rules as much as she could. But I know if I was one of her crew and had broken some taboo rule on a planet we were visiting by accident and the alien species intended to imprison me for 20 years I'd want Captain Janeway to get me the hell out of dodge! How could she maintain crew morale in a situation like that?

Remember the old UPN promos? "One Ship. One Crew." You don't leave crew behind. Janeway's primary responsibility wasn't to explore, or make friends (nor make enemies if it could be helped), but to get Voyager and her crew home as quickly as possible. So she bent a few rules along the way. It was her discretion to do so.

Akiraprise:

Yeah, personally, I don't think she was bipolar either. So I totally agree with you on that. The only time I think she stepped out over the line a little is when she was willing to allow that one Starfleet crew member get tortured or possibly killed by those flying creatures in Equinox.

P.S. I deleted your mistake thread.

Thanks man. I appreciate that.

No, she was just a victim of inconsistent writing.

DE:

Yeah, but she didn't know that she is a character within a story, though.

I think the only character within Trek who figured that one out was Sisko.

Folks are always saying how Janeway is inconsistant but people in general are inconsistant and have a change of heart or change of mind all the time. Ideas we had in our youth change upon getting older. Ideas we have in theory often change when actually applied. Janeway is no different.

Exodus:

Well said.

 

[exodus]

^^I try.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Surely the writers making her do thngs are the voices in her head telling her what to do. DiFFerent voices every week with completely different ethics and agendas trying to define Capatin Janeway after their own image of her.

 

[john titor]

Absolutely. Shes the last person you would want to be stuck with in a survival situation as she was so controlling. As it turns out she nearly got the crew killed on several occasions and if weren't for the deus ex properties of Voyagers universe they would almost have certainly died several times over.

 

[Zameaze]

Let's let Janeway speak for herself. Oh, she's too depressed right now? Maybe after a cup of coffee? And tomorrow she'll be hopping from one thing to another with way too much to do? I understand--she has a ship to run here!

 

[doubleohfive]

Personally, I don't think so; likewise I do not think this was a characteristic the writers ever intentionally wrote to when writing episodes.

That said, I'll say what I said over in the "Was Kirk Bisexual?" thread ... it would make for an interesting experiment to re-watch the series through the prism of this -- Janeway being bi-polar.

However, I've known some bipolar people in my life, and if Janeway were to be written that way -- either realistically or in some television-trope over-the-top manner, either way I think it's a little insensitive to those people who actually do suffer from the disorder to just assume that inconsistent writing/plotting/hypocrisy/whatever you want to call it is retconned away by saying Janeway was bi-polar.

Maybe there's a case for it; but it's more of an academic discussion and I just don't think throwing out a sentence like

she might be some kind of crazy woman who goes insane every time a Starfleet officer rebells against one her decisions

...is very much in the vein of a cultured, academic discussion, particularly when there's a very good chance someone with bi-polar disorder might read this thread.

 

[Zameaze]

she might be some kind of crazy woman who goes insane every time a Starfleet officer rebells against one her decisions

...is very much in the vein of a cultured, academic discussion, particularly when there's a very good chance someone with bi-polar disorder might read this thread.

But we have all kinds of crazy woman here who read these threads and periodically go insane--don't they also deserve some consideration?