The Powerpuff Theory

The Powerpuff Girls, from the popular 1990’s cartoon show The Powerpuff Girls, suffer

from five mental disorders; Multiple-Personality Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,

Paranoia Schizophrenia, Paranoid Personality Disorder and Depersonality.

The three Girls—Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup—are actually all fractions of one host

personality, whose name is unknown to the audience, but for conveniences sake we will

call her Brenda. The cause for the development of Multiple-Personality Disorder in

Brenda originates from bullying in early childhood by her older brother, whose actual

character is unknown to the audience, but is manifested in Brenda’s hallucinations as

Mojo Jojo, the Girls’ greatest nemesis.

The three personalities are:

· Bubbles: She is the “cute” little girl. She has large blue eyes and blond hair tied into

small pigtails. She symbolizes the innocence and playfulness of Brenda as a child. She is

naïve and submissive, and also tends to cry a lot. However, at rare times, she will become

uncontrollably aggressive; symbolizing Brenda’s pent up frustrations of wanting to retaliate

back at her brother. However, the majority of those frustrations are manifested in Buttercup.

· Blossom: She is the “smart and stable” girl. She has brown eyes and long orange

hair. She symbolizes the girl that Brenda wanted to be; mature, level-headed, and witty.

She acts as an “ego” by trying to find compromises in situations by mediating between the

desires of Brenda’s id and superego, which are not manifested in Brenda’s world.

· Buttercup: She is the “tough” girl. She has green eyes and short black hair. She

symbolizes Brenda’s thoughts of retaliation against her brother. Buttercup is violent,

reckless and stubborn. She is also very sharp with her tongue. However, there is another

side of her that is deeply caring for those she loves (the other two personalities), but the

majority of those feelings are manifested in Bubbles.

The three personalities of the Girls and Brenda are all parts of the same person; the

Girls are Brenda, and Brenda is the girls. They all experience the same hallucinations,

but the Girls do much of the actual action, and Brenda is more of a watcher (an effect

of Depersonalization, which I will talk about later).

Mojo Jojo takes the form of a black monkey with a hat over the dome of his

skull, in which the brain is visible. Mojo Jojo was created first by Professor Utonium,

the father figure in the hallucinations. The Powerpuff Girls were created afterwards.

Mojo Jojo and the Powerpuff Girls are related; they share one “creator”. In reality,

their “creator”, “Professor Utonium”, is their father. The relationship between the Girls

and Mojo Jojo is, in fact, siblinghood. In The Powerpuff Girls, the Girls are constantly

battling Mojo Jojo. Brenda experiences hallucinations of battling “Mojo Jojo” as a result

of the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that developed from being bullied by her older

brother. The trauma of always having to fight or defend herself from her brother

manifests itself in this way. Mojo Jojo later reveals that he is jealous of the love that

Professor Utonium gives the Powerpuff Girls, implying that Brenda was abused by her

older brother because of his jealousy. All the other villains shown in the show are

manifestations of the abuse Brenda suffered, becoming her “inner demons”.

Paranoia Schizophrenia is characterized by auditory, tactile, olfactory and visual

hallucinations. In this case, all three personalities of Brenda suffer severely from

these hallucinations; they have completely detached from reality. (All of the

hallucinations also point to a clue that Brenda was very young when the bullying

happened. The Powerpuff Girls are all stuck in the body of young girls, and all the

villains they come across look like animated dolls or toys). In addition to this, there

does not seem to be a day in the life of the Powerpuff Girls that there is not somebody

attacking or plotting to destroy the city. The Mayor constantly calls the Girls to save

the “city” (a manifestation of Brenda’s mind). The Mayor is actually the manifestation

of Brenda’s feelings of danger whenever her older brother is nearby, which calls out

the three Girls’ personalities to defend Brenda’s fragile self. The Girls are not

necessarily always consciously worried about someone or something attacking their

“city”, but the fact that the “Mayor” calls nearly every single day shows the underlying

anxiety that Brenda feels. Most of the hallucinations that Brenda/the Girls experience

take their essence from flashbacks of the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which are

incredibly and horrifically mutated to form the entirely new world inside her head.

Sufferers of Paranoia Schizophrenia also experience delusions; in this case, Brenda/the Girls

are all superheroes in their city. This allows Brenda to feel as if she is worth something in

her world, because the constant emotional/physical abuse her brother dealt her must have

severely cracked her self-esteem so that she was no able to function in real life (and possibly

suffer from some sort of social phobia).

Another disorder that Brenda/the Girls suffer from is Paranoid Personality Disorder. As

stated before, the feelings of anxiety that Brenda feels about being attacked by her older

brother are not always conscious. The paranoia that the Girls feel is also not immediately

obvious to the audience, but is in a deeper issue. Brenda/the Girls are always, constantly,

stuck in their world. Brenda is too afraid of the real world to come out of her fantasy world,

where she and her other personalities are heroes in her town, where she has special powers

to effectively beat down and wipe out all enemies who try to oppose her. Not only is she

afraid of reality but she is afraid of what adults will do to her. She does not and can not take

the idea of being locked into a hospital for the rest of her life, so she created the imaginary

world to shield her from reality. This is an extreme form of Paranoid Personality Disorder,

and is so severe because of her other mental disorders.

The last disorder that Brenda suffers from is Depersonalization. During the entire duration

of the show, you do not see Brenda. You only see the three personalities. This is because

the entire Powerpuff Girls series is from Brenda’s point of view. She is showing the audience

what she sees; she sees “herself”, manifested in the three personalities of the Powerpuff Girls.

It is herself that feels all the bliss, joy, rage and sadness that the Girls experience, but she

cannot actually feel it for herself. Depersonalization is the feeling that one is watching themselves

on a movie screen. Brenda feels as if she is watching herself on a movie screen, and that is

how the story of the three girls is shown to us.

The true story of the Powerpuff Girls is a much more cruel reality than what children can take.

The story of Brenda tells the audience of her childhood trauma and her insane delusions/hallucinations.

It shows the world what it is like to be inside the head of one suffering from severe schizophrenia,

split-personality disorder, as well as other mental disorders. It is truly a great series and should be

seen by other age groups for analyzing, not just the young children of America.

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O_O

lol... and they always say the English majors are overanalyzing things............

welcome to the party nerds!

ahahah, that was like the pokemon analysis.

i really enjoy watching powerpuff girls though.

Good thing this wasn't as long as the Pokemon one. Very good I must they are far more creative than I am.

Lol omg, this just brought back memories of this Abnormal Psychology course I took last year.

Awesome. And very... interesting, haha.

...my childhood...is gone~~~~

lol kidding..

but it all makes sense now...just like the pokemon one :P

Wow... please, no. Over-analysis can ruin things!

By the way, where is this Pokemon analysis I hear of?!

I don't care if this is somewhat shorter than that ridiculous Pokemon analysis... sparknotes please.

Leave the damn children's shows aloneeee, jeeeeeeez!! Ignorance is bliss. :P

:) Can't believe I read through that!

The pokemon was longer though haha

Woww

The Powerpuff Girls is srs bznz.

LOL i learned about this.

wow, it just might be true.

better than the pokemon one..

none the less... too much thinking

wow this is so interesting i never knew about this...

lol funny stuff

and wonder who has the spare time to write these things

not to mention an entire outlook on the PPgirls :P

So easy to pick on the powerpuff girls ): it has a good/twisting plot. Although I have to say I'm impressed with the whole "stuck in girl body" stage. And some episodes... don't really go along with the analysis.

i thought the pokemon one was better;;

this had no... foundation, i guess? i dunno how to describe it. but it sounds like it really came out of the blue... unlike the pokemon one.

Was never really interested in the PowerPuff Girls so I didn't read through the whole thing, but the Pokemon analysis was better, even though THAT killed my childhood.

Um, couldn't you technically apply that analysis to just about anything, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

The four turtles represent 4 different personalities of one person, who imagines himself as turtles because he sees himself as slow and weak, but wishes to break free from his shell and be active in society. But, you never see this guy because it's from his point of view and he suffers from depersonalization. His troubles stem from a troubled relationship with an abusive older sister, whom you never see throughout the show. Shredder is actually the manifestation of his feelings of danger whenever his older sister is nearby....blah blah blah.

So, the problem with the "Powerpuff Theory" is that it bases its entire argument on several assumptions that have no basis whatsoever: an abusive older brother that you never see? 3 personalities that belong to a single girl that you never see? Kind of lame, if you ask me. A truly engaging theory should start with REAL evidence from the show, not made up ones.

where can i find the Pokemon analysis?

ooo wow :0

never thought of it that way :X