How Joe Goldberg’s Supposed Mental Illness Ultimately Led to His Downfall
Netflix breakout series You, starring Penn Badgley, has finally come to a pretty rewarding end in Season 5. But before it did, there was a long and pretty gnarly ride fans went in with Joe, the serial killer at the center of the story, whom people still related to somehow. It’s hard to explain.
The show, based on the novel by Caroline Kepnes, follows a man who becomes infatuated with various women and wrestles with his violent tendencies, finally succumbing to them over and over again. In fact, the trail of bodies Joel leaves behind is pretty extensive. Which had people wondering from the beginning: why does Joe do the thing he does? What’s behind his need for control? He puts a lot of his victims in a cage, after all. There are repeated literary references. It seems like there’s more going on with Joe Goldberg than meets the eye.
But was Joe ever diagnosed with any particular mental illness? What mental illness was Joe Goldberg diagnosed with, and what do we know about it?
What Mental Illness Is Joe Goldberg Diagnosed With in You?
Joel Goldberg has not officially been diagnosed with any mental illness in You. He’s not exactly the type of guy to admit he’s got a problem and seek help, so a formal diagnosis never really seemed in the cards. However, experts watching the show have suggested he exhibits signs of erotomania, as well as antisocial personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.
Sera Gamble, showrunner of You, didn’t want the answer to be just want thing. “It depends who you ask,” she explained to Elle. “If you sit down with a psychiatrist, they will probably have a really strong opinion about [Joe’s mental state]. But I am not a doctor and the writers’ room is not full of doctors.” The team behind You has researched a plethora of conditions, but when it comes to what’s going on in Joe’s head, Gamble says, “We are not writing a show to perfectly dramatize any particular syndrome. We’re inspired by those things. But to us, Joe is one of one, and we’re telling the story of his particular psyche.”
Of those disorders, perhaps the one that fits the most clearly with Joe Goldberg, and yet the most uncommon, is erotomania. This disorder is one of delusion, which makes the person believe someone—often a celebrity, or someone unattainable—is in love with them. This leads to a persistent pursuit, stalking, and sometimes even violence, which is all justified by the idea that the other person wants it.
But Joe also exhibits clear signs of antisocial personality disorder, which involves a disregard for social norms and roles, on top of a lack of empathy and manipulative behavior. Sound familiar? Then there’s narcissistic personality disorder, which involves an exaggerated sense of self-importance, a great need for admiration from other people, even sometimes people you don’t know, and a lack of empathy—again, sounds like someone we know?
It all ties to Joe’s ending in You, which sees him end up in jail after being shot in the groin, ouch. And yet he’s still receiving fan mail. Some people are still enamored by him. But he is lonely, and that never changes. For Badgley, that’s poetic justice. “You have to saddle them with that kind of a traumatic experience, especially because it would have been Bronte probably, or a woman,” who would have had to kill him, he told Today. “So I think he needed to end up alive in some kind of circumstance where he would have to contend with what he’s done — and to do it without his treasured genitalia… That’s a twist.”
