London Tipton, Research Paper Example

The television show, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, is a situation comedy, targeted to older children and younger adolescents. It follows the fictional adventures of real life identical twins, Dylan and Cole Sprouse. The show is named for their characters. Zack is the more impulsive of the two, while Cody uses his brain to think things through. Their single mother’s name is Carey, played by Kim Rhodes. She is an entertainer in one of Boston’s finer hotels, The Tipton, where she performs nightly. Because of her job, she and the boys live in the hotel. Another major player in the show is the actress, Ashley Tisdale, who is Maddie, the Candy Counter Girl, in the show. She also serves as a kind of baby sitter for the boys from time to time. Mr. Moseby is the hotel manager, and he is played by Phill Lewis. The remaining character, London Tipton, the daughter of the hotel owner, is by far the most fascinating of all the regular actors, and is played by Brenda Song. The show was co-created by Danny Kallis and Jim Geoghan. The show premiered in March of 2005 on the Disney Channel.

The show features the schemes of the two brothers at the hotel and at their public school and at their friends’ private school. Two story lines usually accompany each episode. One involves the boys while the other is devoted to the girls (Maddie and London). The show is known for its guest appearances by noted celebrities. Some of them who have starred in an episode are The Cheetah Girls, Miley Cyrus, Chris Brown, Zac Efron, Jesse McCartney, and Raven- Symone.

The Suite Life on Deck is a sequel show to the original one. In this spinoff, the same characters are on a cruise ship and going to school simultaneously. London gets a roommate onboard, which insults her dignity. The character, Bailey Pickett, played by Debby Ryan, is added to the regular cast as the roommate for London and the romantic crush for Cody. Now, this show is its own series and has been since 2008.

London Tipton, performed by the actress, Brenda Song, suffers from histrionic personality disorder (HPD). As a sufferer with this disorder, London wears only designer clothes. She never wears the same outfit twice. She had her own private suite in the hotel. She is spoiled and dim-witted. When she is very happy, she claps her hands and squeals, “Yay, me!” To her way of thinking, she is the center of the universe. She does not have much adult supervision. It is obvious that her role is patterned after Paris Hilton, the wealthy hotel heiress and party sensation. London is privileged and buys clothes in an attempt to cover the emptiness in her heart from never seeing her parents. She is a superficial snob.

Her dog is treated like royalty. She hosts her own web show. She likes to work out and like to sing (but she can’t).

There are several evidences that support such a diagnosis for London. In one episode, she is found singing, to the tune of London Bridge is Falling Down, the lyrics, “London Tipton is really great, really great. London Tipton is really great and deserves the opposite of hate.” She is quite serious when she sings

this. She has a series of closets in her suite in the hotel. She even has a talking mirror that interacts with her much like the one in Snow White of “mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all” fame. She has a show on the web called The Yay Me – Starring London Tipton. She gets irate in one episode because she has to share a room while onboard a ship (her father has enrolled her in Sea School).

London is completely self absorbed. Her emotional responses to situations are over the top. She treats Maddie, her closest friend, like her personal servant. London is the comic relief to most every situation in the show. She is air-headed and vain. She is prone to wide swings of mood, and mood disturbances are a frequent complaint of a person who lives with a HPD diagnosis (Shaher, Scotti, Rudd, Joiner).

London Tipton, as a wealthy daughter of an absent father, lives in the hotel. As a person with a diagnosis of histrionic personality disorder, she is a drama queen. She loves attention. Everything is all about her. She thinks of no other person’s needs or wants except her own. She is a clotheshorse.

Histrionic personality disorder is an official diagnosis as defined by the American Psychiatric Association. Sufferers of this illness seek an inordinate amount of attention, even to the point of being seductive to get it. Theories persist that HPD patients suffer from high levels of implicit, or unconscious, behavior, meaning they do what they do the way they do, without even thinking about it as a scheme (Bornstein). They react to things and situations in ways that

are extremely dramatic. Some people label them as flirts. They lack backbone and are heavily swayed by others. Their focus on self gets in the way of their relationships with others. Their feelings bruise easily. They are always trying to manipulate people around them.

The diagnosis’ name comes from the Latin word histionicus, and pertains to drama- acting. The diagnosis is based on the patient’s outward appearance, their behavior, and their personal history. Subjective criteria are used to make the diagnosis of histrionic personality disorder. The problem usually surfaces when a person seeks treatment for depression following a broken relationship. Prescribed drugs do little do combat the disorder itself, although they do help with the depression that accompanies it. Some HPD patients are helped by psychotherapy sessions (Kellett). Other illnesses that align closely with HPD are anxiety, panic, and anorexia.

Many HPD patients function in society with great success. Many have very refined social skills that they use to coerce people to do things that they do not want to do. When failure comes to these patients and failure comes to all of us from time to time, they are devastated. This is particularly true when they have a marriage or a relationship fall apart. They have a different sense of reality than do other people. They dramatize and exaggerate situations that they encounter in real life. Many move through frequent changes in jobs or careers and cite boredom as the reason. They are easily frustrated. They live for thrills and for out-of-the-ordinary experiences. Such desires can sometimes place them in less than safe situations. Their exhibitionism can get out of control. When they are criticized, they feel the sting of that acutely. They often get sick as a means of getting more attention. HPDs want instant gratification. They make impulsive decisions. At times, many HPDs are known to laugh or cry or smile uncontrollably.

While the exact cause of this diagnosis is unknown, it is possible that negative childhood events such as death, divorce, or anxiety may be involved. Psychoanalytic theories lay frequent blame on authoritative or absent parent extremes as a cause for HPD. Such parenting styles forces the some children to feel that they, or their parents, can never measure up to their need to be loved. Any therapy that involves a group approach to HPD needs to be monitored closely, because a sufferer of HPD can play to the audience.

Works Cited

Bornstein, Robert. “Implicit and Self-Attributed Dependency Needs in Dependent and Histrionic Personality Disorders.” Journal of Personality Assessment 7, 1 (1998): 1-14.

Kellett, Stephen. “A Time Series Evaluation of the Treatment of Histrionic Personality Disorder With Cognitive Analytic Therapy.” Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice 80 (2007): 389-405.

Shaher, Golan, Scotti, Margaret, Rudd, David, & Joiner, Thomas. “Hyptomatic Symptoms Predict an Increase in Narcissistic and Histrionic Personality Disorder Features in Suicidal Young Adults.” Depression & Anxiety 25    (2009): 892-898.