What is actually wrong with Jesse?
I think his character is great but I never actually remember hearing what is wrong with him. I didn't want to jump to conclusions so can anyone who knows about mental illness give me the right answer?
shareHis character is somewhere in the high-functioning autistic-Ausberger spectrum. Although this is dealt with and studied in psychiatry, I am of the opinion that these type of developmental disorders should not be classified as a mental illness. The limitations are imposed by non-typical development of brain connections and we, as yet, do not know what environmental factors are involved. However, children who are on this spectrum are very sensitive to their environments, so there likely is a strong interactions between parenting and genes.
Most of the attention on these developmental disorders is directed toward children and their parents -- leaving adults who struggle with these issues ignored and misunderstood.
In my post doctoral training as a research psychologist and in university teaching I have encountered a few people who are in this range. They often chafe at the dependency situations, and sometimes display the type of wit that Jesse uses to sort out perplexing contradictions. Ned's portrayal of not knowing how much to help, and over helping was spot on.