Barnabus “Barney” Stinson: A Legen….Wait for It…Dary but Brief Character Analysis
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Barnabus “Barney” Stinson: A Legen….Wait for It…Dary but Brief Character Analysis

Barnabus “Barney” Stinson is one of the main characters of the show “How I Met Your Mother”, portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris. “How I Met Your Mother” is a comedy sitcom on CBS about five friends living in New York, which centers on Ted Mosby and his quest to find true love. The series is narrated by the future Ted Mosby telling his children an extremely long and elaborate story about how he met their mother. Barney Stinson is one of Ted’s best friends, and a great source of comedy for the show. Barney is a serial womanizer with father issues and questionable actions. He has a unique personality and uses crazy and elaborate tactics to seduce women. His single mother raised Barney and his older brother James. Barney and James both asked about their fathers but their mother would either lie to them or change the subject. Throughout his childhood, Barney was constantly lied to by his mother to protect his feelings. For example, Barneys mother told him he could not play on the basketball team because he was to good and it would be unfair to the other players, when in reality the coach did not want him on the team. Barney was an unpopular child and was picked on and bullied by other kids his age. One major thing that happened in Barneys adulthood that helped shape his character as it is today, was when Barney was a young adult he and his high school sweetheart were going to join the Peace Corps together and lose their virginity to each other after they were married. The day they were supposed to leave Barney’s girlfriend did not show up. When he went to find her he discovered she was cheating on him with a guy who had earlier told Barney that the key to picking up women was money and suits. Barney made a video singing a song to try to win his girlfriend back but when he ran into his ex girlfriend and the man she was cheating on him with, they both laughed and made fun of Barney. Barney was made a fool of and decided to change his look and be more like the guy that stole his girlfriend. Barney lost his virginity to his mother promiscuous friend, changed his style of clothing and personality radically, and quit his job. These are just some of the defenses Barney used to protect himself from his feelings. Looking at Barney’s personality from a Psychodynamic perspective you can see the use of defense mechanisms. Defense mechanisms are thought to safeguard the mind against feelings and thoughts that are too difficult for the conscious mind to cope with. In some instances, defense mechanisms are thought to keep inappropriate or unwanted thoughts and impulses from entering the conscious mind. There are six main defenses that the ego uses to help protect the mind with the most primitive being denial. Repression, projection, displacement, regression, and sublimation are the other remaining of the main defenses (McLeod, 2008). Barney uses denial in many situations within the show. He accepts the lies that his mother tells him because the truth is to hard for him to believe. Barney’s mother told him that Bob Barker from “The Price is Right” was his father and Barney accepted it as truth even though it was very far-fetched and unbelievable. Barney’s mother told him several unbelievable lies similar to that and he accepted them as truth all the way into his adulthood. Displacement is another defense Barney uses for his real desire to get married and have a family with the girl he loves, Robin but because of his fears of commitment he sleeps around with several different women. A Freudian psychologist would most definitely say that Barney is going through the phallic stage. The phallic stage occurs from the age’s three to six. A Freudian psychologist would say that he is going through the phallic stage because he finds pleasure using his genitals; which would transfer into why he always wants to have sex with random girls. He consistently cares about one thing, which is having sexual intercourse. In Freud’s theory it says there is a conflict within each stage and also a fixation (Krueger, 2013). Barney does not know his father. Throughout the episodes flashbacks show Barneys wish of having a father. During his childhood he often sees older men who look good to him, and every time he asked his mother if each of those men were his father. She always said yes because it was easier. Freudian psychologist would call this a father/Oedipus complex, which occurs during the phallic stage. For boys it very important to have a father since Barney was mostly raised by his mother he had no male role model to identify with in the development of his personality. By looking at the Five-Factor Model of personality we can look closer at Barney’s personality. The Five-Factor Model of personality, also known as the “Big Five”, is five broad dimensions of personality that are used to describe a person’s personality. The Big Five dimensions are openness to experiences, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (Krueger, 2013). Barney is definitely an extravert person. He is very outgoing and always looking to meet new people especially women. He loves the bar life, drinking, and new experiences. Extraversion is dominant in being social and outgoing, which Barney displays in every episode with his strong personality. The next dimension would be openness to experience, which includes adventure, imagination, and unusual ideas. Barney fits this dimension well because he creates these outrageous customs and characters to trick women into sleeping with him. He likes adventure and new experiences as he takes comments such as "No one can do this" as a challenge, announcing "Challenge Accepted". He will even take an entire year to fulfill a challenge even if the person who "challenged" him doesn't even remember, as seen when Barney took a year to get Ted to grow a mustache in the episode called Ten Sessions (Bays, Harris, 2008). The next dimension would be agreeableness, which includes compassion, friendliness, and altruism. Although, Barney would not agree with this trait because he would like people to think of he is not softhearted or compassionate especially with the way he treats women. Barney cares deeply for his friends, mother, and brother. He would do anything for them and has helped them out on several occasions without them having knowledge of it. He would say he has compassion and helps out the community by sleeping with ugly girls and chunky girls. The last dimensions are conscientiousness and neuroticism. Barney has some traits of the conscientious because of the achievement factor and organization. Barney is, unknowingly too most, very smart and has achieved a lot in his career even though no one actually knows what Barney does. His apartment is very organized, and some of his skims he comes up with to get women to sleep with him are actually well thought out and organized. Barney is not neurotic because that involves being anxious and moody. Barney is always outgoing, fun, and energetic. It may be a mask for what he really feels sometimes but he would never be described as neurotic. If I were to diagnose Barney with a personality disorder, it would be narcissistic personality disorder. Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by dramatic, emotional behavior, which is in the same category as antisocial and borderline personality disorders. Narcissistic personality disorder symptoms may include: believing that you're better than others, fantasizing about power, success and attractiveness, expecting constant praise and admiration, believing that you're special and acting accordingly, failing to recognize other people's emotions and feelings, and expecting others to go along with your ideas and plans, trouble keeping healthy relationships. People that have narcissistic personality disorder, they often monopolize conversations, and may belittle or look down on people they perceive as inferior. They may also have a sense of entitlement, but underneath all this behavior often lays a fragile self-esteem. They have trouble handling anything that may be perceived as criticism, and may have a sense of secret shame and humiliation. And in order to make themselves feel better, they may react with rage or contempt and efforts to belittle the other person to make themselves appear better (2012). Barney is in everyway narcissistic. In the first episode of the show Barney told Ted a fake story about this being the first time he took his deaf brother out since their mother died and how he puts his dreams on hold to take care of him. Ted believed the story, which surprised Barney and admitted that he made up the story while peeing. Barney asked Ted for his name and before leaving the bathroom he told Ted that he likes him. Fifteen minutes later, Barney sat down next to Ted and told him that he's going to teach him how to live. Barney then told Ted to lose his goatee, get a suit, and to not even think about getting married until he's 30 years old. Barney believes the way he lives is the way others should live and is passing his knowledge to another guy so he can have a wingman to help him pick up women. Barney comes up with these crazy and outrageous ideas constantly and expects the rest of the gang to go along with him. His ideas are always the best and he has to have the best of everything. Barney is also unaware and uncaring about the women he hurts by lying to them just to get them in bed. Barney has a hard time recognizing other people’s emotions and doesn’t understand why someone is upset with him when he does something to hurt their feelings. When Barney and Robin end their relationship but decide to remain friends, he does see that Robin is hurt by him talking about other women he slept with and doesn’t think about how it makes her feel, he had to be told by Td and Lily that Robin was upset with the way he was acting. Barney said in one episode that he has a shrink for narcissism, a mental illness where you are physically or sexually in love with your appearance. Barney could benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy. In general, cognitive behavioral therapy helps you identify unhealthy, negative beliefs and behaviors and replace them with healthy, positive ones. The goal of treatment is to alter distorted thoughts and create a more realistic self-image. A specific form of cognitive behavioral therapy, called schema-focused therapy, centers around repairing narcissistic schemas and the defective moods and coping styles associated with them. This very active and work-intensive form of treatment encourages patients to confront narcissistic cognitive distortions, such as black and white thinking and perfectionism, and has been shown to have promising results for the treatment of narcissistic personality disorder (Ambardar, Bienenfeld, 2013). Treating narcissistic personality disorder is a long term process and can not be treated with medication but continually therapy. In conclusion, Barney is fun loving character that keeps people laughing and shaking their heads at the next crazy skim he comes up with. He unconsciously utilizes the defense mechanisms to protect himself from feelings of abandonment from not having a father and the lies his mother told him to protect his feelings. He also utilizes the defense mechanisms for his fear of commitment and getting hurt. Barney is an extravert person and enjoys being in social situations. He loves the bar life, drinking, hitting on women, and new experiences. He is open to experiences and accepts new challenges. Barney is also a narcissistic person, and wants the best of everything. He thinks very highly of himself and believes everyone should live the way he does and is shocked when others don’t feel the same way he does. He could benefit from therapy to help him with his narcissist ways and to get past his father issues. Barney is a constant entertainment source for the show. Who knew watching a womanizing narcissist with daddy issues would be so entertaining.

References

Bays, C. (Writer), Harris, C. (Writer), & Hsueh, B. (Producer), Kang, K. (Producer). (2008). Ten Sessions [Television series episode]. In Thomas, C. (Executive Producer), How I Met Your Mother. Los Angeles, CA: Netflix.

Krueger, J. (2013). How I Met Your Mother, Personalitywise. Psychology Today. Retrieved December 1, 2013, from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/one-among-many/201302/how-i-met-your-mother-personalitywise

McLeod, S. (2008). Defense Mechanisms. Simply Psychology. Retrieved December 1, 2013, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/defense-mechanisms.html

Narcissistic Personality Disorder. (2012). WebMD: Mental Health Center. Retrieved December 1, 2013, from http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/narcissistic-personality-disorder?page=2

Ambardar, S. & Bienenfeld, D. (2013). Narcissistic Personality Disorder Treatment & Management. Medscape. Retrieved December 1, 2013, from http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1519417-treatment