Why do most characters in soaps have built in severe personality disorders?
Lots of reasons, but the main one being the soaps would be dull to watch otherwise. Granted, most villages don’t have such a high concentration in one place, however, they do try to portray a mix of realistic characters, and people like those (and much worse) do really exist, so it gives the watcher either somehting to identify with or a way of congratulating ourselves that we don’t know anyone as warped as that!
I believe that soap opera characters having endemic and severe personality disorders as the rule helps to make the soap opera what it is — a dramatic exhibition about why treachery and retaliation rarely ever succeed in the long run. In the current episodes of »All My Children«, there is one plotline involving the sociopathic/ psychopathic exconvict Richard Novak who sees his leukemia as a license to retaliate against his sister Annie for testifying against him for an armed robbery in the hope of getting him help. Richard (Richie) pulls various stunts to cause Annie all kinds of trouble but also spreads his vendetta to the other denizens of Pine Valley (the Pennsylvania setting of »All My Children«) Exempli gratia, in his haste to retaliate against somebody, Richie steals J.R.’s car and barrels over Zach Slater. Deciding at first to leave Zach Slater for dead but then changing his mind, Richie transports Zach a short distance before pushing him out of the car in the middle of nowhere.
