Alan Wake 2: Does Alan have a personality disorder?

Alan Wake 2 has been one of the biggest hits of 2023. Both franchise fans, as well as newer players, have praised Remedy Entertainment for what they crafted in the new entry. While players get to explore a new mystery and set of secrets in the title, the game seems to be leaving more questions for many than providing answers.

One such question is the curiosity about the titular character's personality as community members are led to feel that Alan Wake likely has a personality disorder. Compared to Saga, Alan’s base nature and mannerisms come off as odd, and it’s not surprising why, from the first game itself, many theorized that Alan perhaps is schizophrenic.

Unfortunately, it’s not clearly stated in the game or by the developers, and what players have to go by is a lot of fan theory.

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Alan Wake 2: Is Alan Schizophrenic?

Alan Wake Theory byu/badreligion23 inxboxone

According to the fan theory by a Redditor based on the initial game, Alan Wake is very likely a character with schizophrenia and an unreliable narrator of events.

The Redditor points out that while Alan wrote Thomas Zane, he did it as a sort of cover-up for the fact that it was he who started the events of the story. The fan theory suggests:

“Wake sits and rots away in an asylum and he has to relive all of the violence he committed against his friends, family, and people of Bright Falls. He does this to play out events to help himself deal with what he has done, and he assigns roles to each character to help calm his deranged mind and give himself a more favorable outcome to the crimes he actually committed. but the darkness he encounters is the disorder (schizophrenia) and he will not let himself have a happy ending instead forcing him to live out the events over and over again as punishment.”

Alan, as a writer, needs to create an ambiguous story that is as unreliable as the narrator himself. Much of this seems to be evident in his mannerisms in both games. He is an incredibly complicated protagonist, his personality is seen ranging from sudden bursts of melancholia to an excessive show of aggression, anger, and even resentment.

According to some of his backstory, the novelist has had troubles with substance abuse, often struggling with alcoholism.

At one instance, during some recollection scenes with Barry Wheeler, players get a bit of backdrop into Alan Wake’s childhood and how he was always seen as a troublemaker.

Growing up, Alan was diagnosed with a rare disease that made him sensitive to light. It is here where his acute fear of the dark stems and his need for recognition stems from.

The more his fame grew, the more narcissistic and arrogant he became. Alan’s behavior has led him to conflicts with those who were close to him, and it’s not all that surprising why many feel that he does have behavioral issues and why he is one of the most unreliable narrators of his own story.