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Character Case Study of Charlie Sheen
by
Jaime Silk, HBA, MACP (Candidate)
Faculty of Behavioral Sciences,
Yorkville University
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Abstract
In the following discussion the character profile of Charlie Harper (played by Charlie Sheen)
from the sit-com Two and a half men who will be outlined and dissected through the lens of three
major theoretical approaches to understanding personality. For each approach some background
theory and critical components will be provided before application to the character profile of
Charlie Sheen. Speculations on Charlie’s Jungian code type will be made.
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Discussion
Of all the controversial characters on television, which rumour has it represents a similar
character to which he is in real life, I choose to assess Charlie Harper from the sitcom Two and a
half men. This sitcom was first aired on CBS in September of 2003 and ran with Charlie Harper
as the main character until March of 2011. The sitcom is based on Charlie who lives as a
bachelor in Malibu, California, USA, in a waterfront beach house. Charlie is a jingle writer in his
forties who allows his younger brother Allan Harper and nephew Jake Harper to also live in his
beach house. Allan is a chiropractor and Jake attends school in the neighborhood. Their mother
Evelyn is a real estate agent who lives in Malibu and Charlie’s father passed away. Dreams and
visions of his father occur in some episodes.
The story line of the sitcom surround Charlie’s dating life which is a mix of casual sexual
interactions, his dating life and two marriages throughout the time the show aired. Other
characters, mainly family members, have supporting roles in which family and intimate
relationship dynamics are highlighted. Outside of the woman that come into Charlie and his
brother Allan’s life, his maid Berta plays a key role in the show.
Before outlining Charlie’s character profile from three major approaches to personality a
general character description could be beneficial, such that, he is known mainly as a ‘womanizer’
who drinks heavily with problematic gambling. Charlie is critical towards his brother and often
ridiculing him because he is living rent free in his home. Charlie is also open with his hatred
towards his mother for her neglectful and poor parenting skills.
Charlie’s character profile will now be analyzed through the lenses of the psychoanalytic,
cognitive and behavioural, and trait approaches. Under each specific perspective, some
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background theory will be provided and throughout the discussion major applicable terms will be
referenced.
Psychoanalytic
The psychoanalytic perspective on personality was founded by Freud in the early
nineteen hundreds. Freud had a natural approach to the idea of what it means to be human and
derived his theory through the understanding and speculation of a person unconscious
motivations and underlying desires (Friedman & Schustack, 2012). Freud focused on the
structure of the mind and investigated people’s personalities through introspective techniques
(Friedman & Schustack, 2012). The century old issue of hysteria, in which a person would be
partially, paralyzed with no physical issues present, being treated by Charcot and Janet through
hypnosis was an inspiration the Freud in the development of his theories (Friedman & Schustack,
2012). Treating a physical concern through an attempt to unlock issues existing in the mind
facilitated the ideas in psychoanalytic theory of how powerful the subconscious mind can be.
Friedman and Schustack (2012) outline the major concepts of psychoanalytic theory in
the text: Personality: Classic Theories and Modern Research. The first concept Freud used was
free association. This was the free flowing use of thoughts, ideas and feelings with his patients in
his psychiatric treatment. He discovered his patients were unaware of how their mental tensions
were affecting them physically. In conjunction with his free association work, Freud moved into
the use of dreams to understanding pieces of the unconscious mind. Freud believed dreams gave
hints to a person’s underlying motivations and desires. The manifest content of a dream was the
part of a dream that was consciously recalled. The latent content of a dream is the other aspects
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of the dreams events that showed underlying meaning to the manifest content. Dream analysis
was a frequent practice by Freud and other psychoanalytic theorists.
One major component to the theoretical backbone in psychoanalytic theory is explained
by Friedman and Schustack (2102) as humans, like other animals, being “born with a set of
instincts and motivations”. This concept was named by Freudian theory as the structure of the
mind. The structure of the mind is composed of three major parts: id, ego, and superego.
The id is the part of the mind that functions on basic motivations and reactions. The id is
unsociable and functions on what is called the pleasure principle (Friedman & Schustack, 2012).
Therefore, this part of the brain is drawn towards basic and impulsive motivations to do what
feels good without taking moral or social factors into the decision. The ego is the part of the
mind that factors in the reality of the world - of real struggle and difficulty. The ego functions on
the reality principle and behaves to solve the real problems it faces (Friedman & Schustack,
2012). The superego is the part of the brain that goes beyond basic motivations and beyond the
problems in its own world and considers interpersonal relationships and moral concepts when
functioning. Parts of the superego are unconscious making people not fully aware of their
internal forces. This is where the classic concept of the Freudian slip arose.
Let’s take a break from the theory to apply the concepts of dream analysis and the
structure of the mind to the character profile of Charlie Harper. Beginning with dreams, Charlie
has many dreams throughout the show that Freud would enjoy taking time to dissect. I will
provide two examples of Charlie’s dreams and explain the manifest and potential latent content.
The manifest content of the first dream is when Charlie takes a nap on the porch of his
home after running into a woman he was dating eight years ago. The woman had an eight year
old boy with her that looked shockingly like Charlie. Allan, Charlie’s brother, who also saw the
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child agreed that he looked an awful lot like Charlie. When Charlie dozed off the first was
dreaming of happy times if that was his son. He dreamt they would do fun things together and
have a good bond. However, the happy tone of the dream was shattered when Charlie returning
to his home found dozens of children calling him “Daddy”. The latent content of this dream may
be that the thought of having one child may be a happy thing for Charlie. He would like a son to
teach things to and spend time with. This may also reveal Charlie’s unconscious motivation to
have a family and be in a committed relationship. To extend on that thought, coming home to
dozens of children from the multitudes of women Charlie has been intimate with may reveal his
underlying desires to not have transient and non-committal relationships. (I must note that having
up to thirty children, in a practical sense, does not require any thought beyond the manifest
content. That part is obvious!)
A second example of a dream Charlie has when he goes unconscious while surfing
involves his mother and father. His father, who is passed away, comes to him and says “take care
of her”. Charlie is attempting to analyze what his father meant by his words because although it
seems obvious, Charlie refers to his father as being emasculated by his mother. Therefore, why
would his father then request him to care for her? Charlie through attempts at being over caring
for his mother – which is very out of character – comes to the conclusion he must have meant
“take care of her” as in “get rid of her”. Charlie himself then translates the latent content of this
dream being that he has underlying motivations to kill his mother (of course in a funny manner
not in the obvious morbid way this description could be taken as).
Now let’s apply the structure of the mind to the character profile of Charlie Harper. Since
Charlie has problems with promiscuity, drinking and gambling the id becomes of particular
interest when profiling Charlie such that, he fulfills his instinctual desires despite consequences
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socially and morally. Family and friends in Charlie’s life comment on the fact that he functions
on the pleasure principle to fulfill his instinctual desires far more than average person. They also
comment on the fact that his choices will lead to sever consequences, physically, emotionally
and relationally. Charlie has a powerful id structure of his mind.
Charlie’s ego becomes more of a joke in the sitcom. The ego, which faces real problems,
rarely gets challenged for Charlie. In one specific show Allan becomes concerned for Charlie’s
financial well being but Charlie – ignoring reality – does not seem to care. Allan extends himself
to every measure possible including taking experimental drugs in order to get money to ensure
their financial safety that month. In the end of the episode Charlie luckily has a great offer for his
jingle writing fall onto his lap. Charlie is content and tells Allan “See, there’s nothing to worry
about”. The ego of Charlie’s character more often than not seems to be ignored.
Charlie’s superego is a regular target of jokes from his friends and family because he
openly admits to disregarding morals in order to satisfy his needs. One of the best examples of
this is the fact that he illegally purchases the services of sex workers. Charlie frequents Las
Vegas and engages in intimate activities prostitutes and does not bother to keep it private. He
discusses – and seems to genuinely believe – that there is nothing wrong with supporting exotic
dancers and again, sex workers. To reiterate the point that Charlie largely ignores his superego,
he also talks about his rendezvous in front of his young nephew showing no regard for topics of
this nature to be discussed in front of children. Jake’s Mother (Allan’s ex-wife) often criticizes
Allan for exposing their child to Charlie’s lifestyle because he shows little to no respect for
common moral societal expectations. His ruthless gambling habits also give credit to the
argument that Charlie pays null attention to his superego. In addition to the gambling and
purchasing of prostitutes Charlie openly lies to the people in his life in order to get what he
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wants. It is very apparent in Charlie’s character that his ego and superego are satisfied at a very
distant second and third to his id.
Switching back to a theoretical discussion, psychosexual development is interesting to
put into context when outlining Charlie’s character profile. This is the process in which Freud
explained how children develop and during different stages may have issues present which can
manifest as concerns later in life. The psychoanalytic approach to development has five stages:
oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency period and the genital stage. Friedman and Schustack
(2012) outline the key elements of all of the stages of psychosexual development which I will
use as reference through describing each stage.
The oral stage is when infants learn to satisfy their desires of hunger and thirst and long
for their mother’s breast milk; it is outlined that they like to have satisfying objects in their
mouths. Freud outlines that children who develop psychological hold backs during this period
can have oral fixations later in life.
The anal stage of psychosexual development occurs during the time in which a child is
being potty trained. This period ranges from when a child is using diapers at the age of one up
until the age of three when they are using the toilet. Since parents need to exercise control over
when and where their child goes to the bathroom, conflicts may arise in a child lacking
understanding when they desire the release of defecating. Freud believes that passive aggressive
behavioural patterns may come forth in one’s personality if there are difficult processes
associated with this time of development. A traumatic experience during this time may also lead
to behavioural patterns involving someone being stingy, neat and stubborn.
The third stage of development is the phallic stage. During this stage children focus their
attention on their genitals and explore their sexual organs. Children begin to understand the
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differences between male and female sex organs. Masturbation – which is not an acceptable
topic of conversation or behaviour – is discovered during this stage. During this stage is where
Freud outlines someone’s development of a phobia, which Friedman and Schustack (2012) claim
to be “an excessive or incapacitating fear”. Freud further explains a phobia arising from an
unconscious sexual conflict during this stage. During the phallic stage of development is where
the Electra and Oedipus complex come forth. This concept is where a child has a sexual longing
for their opposite gender parent, such that, a boy or girl envy’s his father and mother
respectively, and wants to replace them in order to be the focus of their attention.
The latency period is when an individual reaches puberty and has sexual drives, however,
the attention and motivations of this energy is focused towards other things such as school and
making friends. Freud outlines that this period of development is not dormant for sexuality
however the development of self concept is the focus.
The fifth and final stage of psychosexual development is the genital stage. This stage is
where an individual aims to be, such that, they have no become ‘stuck’ in a previous stage.
According to Freud a fully developed individual will reach this stage and remain in it for the
remained of their life where they have healthy heterosexual relationships and have a family. If a
child participates or has forced deviant experiences during previous stages of development than
later in life various personality conflicts are likely to arise.
So where does Charlie Harper fit into this explanation of psychosexual development?
Clearly, through his arguably obsessive nature towards breasts, cigars, and alcoholic beverages
Charlie did not surpass the oral stage of development. Again, Freud outlines that an infant
becoming stuck at this stage results in a fixation surrounding interesting and stimulating
substances entering the mouth. There are multitudes of references to Charlie having childhood
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issues related to sex because of the way his parents were. Most notably, the way his mother was
unconventionally open about her personal life with partners. Charlie expresses his hatred for his
mother which clearly shows he did not reach the phallic stage of development where he would
want to be the eye of his mother’s affections. He describes that he never felt this way towards his
mother.
Before applying the cognitive and behavioural perspectives on Charlie’s character, lastly,
the psychoanalytic concept of defense mechanisms will be discussed. Defense mechanisms are a
commonly noted concept in modern day psychology. To name a few they include repression,
projection, denial and rationalization. Friedman and Schustack (2012) provide the follow
information concerning defense mechanisms.
Repression is where the ego portion of the mind pushes difficult to handle thoughts back
into the subconscious of the mind. Difficult and uncomfortable thoughts or occurrences, instead
of being addressed, are attempted to be deleted from the mind.
Projection is where uncomfortable impulses are put onto others opposed to someone
taking responsibility for the way they feel and/or would like to behave. This may include
someone insulting someone for a particular behaviour that they themselves partake in or truly
envy and wish they could without dealing with the internal or external consequences.
Denial – arguably the most commonly referenced defense mechanism – includes turning
a blind eye to situation. Friedman and Schustack (2012) describe denial as “Simply refusing to
acknowledge anxiety-provoking stimuli”.
Rationalization is a defense mechanism involving someone retrospectively attempting to
make sense of a situation or behaviour. This is the process of someone not being proud of
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something they did but trying to justify their mistakes to themselves in order to alleviate their
guilt or shame surrounding the situation.
These four defense mechanisms were chosen to reference because Charlie demonstrates
them throughout the show. Allan often highlights Charlie’s use of these mechanisms which
creates a humorous perspective. When Charlie does not have money coming in and they are in
trouble in terms of paying the mortgage, he pretends that everything is fine and there are no
problems. This is an example of him exercising denial. Charlie often has a make shift
explanation for why he did ‘questionable’ things – such as gamble a lot of money away –
through rationalization. He also often projects his feelings towards himself and his situation onto
others. Him being a jingle writer and often not doing much when he is not working on a project
leaves him to have an abundance of free time. During this time in which he parties and losses
track of days he references his laziness and lack of work ethic. He projects this guilt onto his
brother Allan of being useless. Repression is one of Charlie’s main defense mechanisms.
Throughout the show’s development Charlie often has a thought or memory pop back into his
mind that he claims to have repressed. Charlie also goes to see a therapist from time to time
where she suggests that maybe some of his issues are related to his multitude of repressed
memories. He talks about his realization that his mothers sexual behaviour with partners was
traumatizing for him and he has consciously and unconsciously suppressed the things he saw as a
child.
Charlie’s character profile is an interesting one under the light of a psychoanalytic
perspective. Freud’s theories and concepts played an important role in the shaping of his
behaviours and facilitated many of the jokes made in the span of the show.
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Cognitive and Behavioural
The behavioural perspective and influences of cognitive psychology are critical in
the study of personality, such that, someone’s environment inevitably has an effect on how they
develop. Although behavioural theorists believe there is no such thing as personality, they bring
specific merit to how a person interacts with the world around them. This portion of the
discussion will be theoretically outlined as done through a psychoanalytic perspective, and then
referred to Charlie’s character; because Charlie has brother in the show that is the secondary
character, the role of a child’s environment and how they perceive it becomes particularly
relevant.
Classical conditioning is a concept termed by behavioural theorist that associates
neutral stimuli with a naturally desired stimulus (Friedman & Schustack, 2012). People learn to
discriminate between stimuli through a learning process as they also generalize stimuli in order
to understand it. Friedman and Schutsack (2012) discuss that the behaviourist perspective arose
as a result of rejecting the notion of introspection. Because previous theories in psychology were
based on speculation and assumption, behaviourist tried to make the discipline of psychology
more measureable and scientifically based. Cognitively speaking, the application of measured
thought opposed to making retrospective analysis of what the mind produces tied into the period
in which behaviouralism came into theoretical dominance. Phobias are a key concept in the study
of behaviour when understanding someone’s development. Conditioning principles can be
applied to the acquisition and treatment of phobias. Negative associations made through
cognitive processes and learned experiences can remain with someone throughout their life if
they are associated strongly enough. Behavioural theorist believed that phobias are learned and
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can therefore be unlearned. The process of unlearning is known as systematic desensitization.
They believe that associating or disassociating objects with someone’s emotional responses
alters one’s personality.
Charlie, because of his excessive dating and womanizing behaviours, uses the
behavioural theories to his advantage, such that, he claims his negative behaviours are not his
fault but rather a product of his environment. His mother Evelyn demonstrated similar
interactions with the opposite sex that Charlie does. After his father passed away his mothers
approach to dating was very non-committal nor sacred. Charlie claims to have a fear of
commitment and blames what he has learned on his mother.
Operant conditioning is the process of changing behaviour over time (Friedman &
Schustack, 2012). According to B.F. Skinner “personality is meaningless”. He believed this
because he conducted experiments that he claimed shaped what was a known as a personality.
He focused on the individual nature of a person or animals experience to highlight his point that
people are different as a result of the specifically unique learning experiences they go through.
Skinner conducted testing on people who had Type A personality traits and through rewarding
certain behaviours showed that when behaviours are reinforced, they are demonstrated more
frequently. Therefore, since people are reinforced for different and sometimes opposing
behaviours, people’s characteristics develop accordingly (Friedman and Schustack, 2012).
Modeling is another key concept in behaviour theory that is relevant to how a child
will develop. Modeling is the idea that a child sees certain behaviours and then tries to reproduce
them. Sometime it is reproduced because of the outcome, however sometimes it is seemingly just
reproduced instinctually.
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Charlie grew up in an environment that is presented on the show as highly confusing.
His behaviours and cognitive processes are sometimes conflicting. For example, he critizes his
mother for being selfish because he understands that she puts her needs first, however, he then in
turn models her behaviour. In referencing the process in which Charlie was reinforced growing
up, he was told to be open and free by his mother but at the same time society was negatively
reinforcing him through judgment. Behavioural reinforcement has multiple layers when it comes
to cognitively processing what reinforcement means though because one could make the
argument that a multitude of woman wanting to be intimate with Charlie was positive
reinforcement for him where people’s perspective on him would be negative reinforcement (the
absence of a positive construct). Measuring reinforcement in this way boils down to what a
person prioritizes and often is conflicting.
Behavioural theories have a much easier time explaining the isolated experiments of
animals that do not have to cognitively process the complexities of society and morality. Social
learning theory suggests that behaviours can be predicted based on a hierarchy of drives. Primary
drives are fundamental urges surrounding hunger, thirst, sex and pain. Secondary drives are
learned in association through satisfying one’s primary urges (Friedman & Schustack, 2012).
The learned hierarchy of what social learning theory calls habit hierarchy, refers to the likelihood
someone will produce a particular behaviour in a particular circumstance.
Applying habit hierarchy to Charlie’s character profile is fairly strait forward. He
seems to understand right from the beginning of the show what means to ends he requires in
order to satisfy his primary drives and basic urges. Since he has impulses around sex, alcohol and
gambling, he requires money to do these things. Charlie therefore, discovered it is crucial for him
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to make money so he can lure woman. Charlie understands that having a nice car and a big beach
house increases the likelihood of his ability to get woman to be intimate with him.
Trait
The Big Five is a key model in the study of personality and the most noteworthy in
discussing personality from trait perspective. It was explained by Frideman and Schustack
(2012) to be the “most remarkable but controversial developments in the trait approach to
personality”. Recent decades of research have culminated to agree with the idea that five main
dimensions capture the composition of personality. The model was developed through wideranging factor analysis of personality traits and scales (Friedman & Schustack, 2012). The Big
Five traits are explained by Frideman and Schustack (2012) and are namely: extroversion,
agreeableness, contentiousness, neuroticism, and, openness. Extroversion refers to individuals
who have their mental energy turned to the external world and are usually energetic, social and
outgoing individuals; this also called surgency. Agreeableness refers to a person’s level of
cooperation and if they are friendly and trustworthy. People scoring low on this dimension can
come off as cold. Contentiousness refers to a person being dependable and responsible. This
dimension also is understood as measuring impulsivity. People scoring low on this score can be
disorganized and unreliable. Neuroticism – also called emotional instability – refers to someone
who is nervous, unstable and moody. Someone scoring low on this dimension would be calm,
cool and collected. Lastly, openness refers to someone who is creative, interesting and artistic.
Alternatively, people may seem plain and ordinary with a low score on this dimension.
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When applying the big five to Charlie’s character profile it is speculated that he would
score high on the extroversion scale. He is very outgoing and does not have a problem talking to
people. Charlie easily meets people and comes off as inviting and friendly. In terms of
agreeableness, it is touch to say how Charlie would rate. To his family he seems to not be
agreeable. During one episode, Allan buys a bowl and puts it on the coffee table. Charlie
explains he does not like the bowl. Allan does not contribute to their living space very much so
kindly requests that Charlie respects his desire to keep the bowl on the table but Charlie
ruthlessly refuses to do so. With girlfriends he also tries to manipulate his way out of situations
he does not want to be in. In an episode with his fiancée Chelsea he goes so far as to book a
colonoscopy just to avoid meeting her parents. I would say that although when he meets people
he is very agreeable, he would truthfully score low on agreeableness. Charlie would score low on
the contentiousness scale. He is not reliable or dependable. His drinking habits contribute to this
very strongly. Nevertheless, Charlie does not conform to social norms and is very selfish. He
does not consider what people think of him as he makes it clear he does not care. Charlie,
although self-centered, would score low on the neuroticism scale. He is not an anxious person
and seems to go through life with fairly little worry. From time to time there would be an episode
of Charlie losing sleep over something but it is usually surrounding a superficial issue. Charlie
presents himself as a very open person. He may score high on this level. But under a closer
analysis he may only be open to the level he himself is comfortable with. He openly talks about
things, however, because of his psychological issues; he does not open up very deeply to himself
or others.
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Now that the theory and application of psychoanalytic, cognitive, behavioural and trait
perfectives have been associated with Charlie Harper’s character, lastly I will make comments on
the Jungian code type I believe Charlie to have before concluding our discussion.
I would predict Charlie to have a code type of extroverted sensing, thinking and
judgement (ESTJ) according to the Myers-brig code type. Charlie is extroverted and friendly
with people. Charlie also senses things in his environment and in his relationships. Charlie is
definitely a thinker and not a feeler. He is not an emotional person and in the show you often see
him deep in thought. He would be categorized as judgemental opposed to perceptive because he
tends to evaluate things more than being open to the input of others.
In terms of personality disorders or abnormal behaviour, Charlie would fit into one
category of diagnosis and that would be his addictive tendencies. He clearly abuses alcohol and
excessively gambles to a level that would not be deemed normal.
Charlie Harper, played by Charlie sheen, in two and a half men is an interesting character
to say the least. He represents stereotype of a womanizing male in a superficial culture. Applying
the theoretical knowledge to Charlie demonstrates the importance of personality research and
understanding in television character development.
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References
Friedamn, H.S., & Schustack, M. W., (2012). Personality. Classic Theories and Modern
Research, 4th Edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMCEQxgAndM