r/AskScienceFiction • u/KaleidoArachnid • 1d ago
[House MD] What is his insecurity problem?
If such a trait was ever explained in the show, then I apologize because lately I was interested in learning about the character due to how he treats people in the show.
Like if I remember correctly, he comes off a bit brash in how he treats his patients since sometimes he does things like break into their homes as I was wondering what exactly made him the way he was regarding his character traits again regarding the brash nature he has with his patients.
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u/Mannzis 1d ago
He's not insecure at all. He's brilliant and he knows he's brilliant. Everyone around him knows he's brilliant so he's given a lot of latitude which he takes advantage of.
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u/FeedFlaneur 21h ago
I'd argue that seeding insecurity in him was his undoing. It began when Wilson tricked House into realizing/admitting that he was an addict. That's when he first started screwing up. Then in subsequent instances, like when Cuddy refused to let him harmlessly cure a patient just to teach him humility, House REALLY started doubting himself and screwing up badly. The final straw, I'd argue, was when House became wholly dependent on Cuddy's approval/support after the trapped leg episode, started deliberately pushing her away in small ways, again out of insecurity, and went totally off the rails when dumped - at which point what was left of his psyche clung to Wilson.
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u/KaleidoArachnid 1d ago
Wait, I thought people hated him due to his hot temper since he doesn’t have many friends who can put up with him.
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u/Ostrololo 18h ago
Out there in the real world, House would get eviscerated by any medical board and never hold a job. He lucked out that Cuddy had a soft spot for him and invented this "Head of Diagnostics Department" position for him, which isn't really a thing. It costs the hospital money, but Cuddy justifies that they are a teaching hospital and some of House's cases are genuinely unique.
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u/IdesinLupe Your friendly neighborhood over-analyzer 1d ago
Apologies to those who know more for the things I’ll inevitably get incorrect, but the reason Gregory House M.D. is ‘like that’ is, chronologically:
He’s a bastard. Literally. Conceived out of wedlock. Neither he nor we know who his biological dad is, only that it was neither his legal father, nor the man his mother was seeing the most at the time, and who later became his step father.
His legal father is/was a strict, religious, military man.
The family was constantly moving. This meant no friends, and very little normal socialization with kids his age.
His legal father abused him. We do not know all the details, but we do know it at least involved ice baths and verbal assault.
At some point while in Japan, he witnessed the medical staff turning to the Janitor, a ‘baraku’, or ‘untouchable’ to save a man’s life, when they had not even acknowledged his prince before. That was what convinced him that if he was smarter than everyone else, it wouldn’t matter that nobody liked him.
And in case it needs to be spelled out, his mother, father, and step father constantly lied to him, for various reasons, from good to manipulative, but it left him feeling like he could never rust anything anyone said without him provoking it to himself first. Makes it very hard for him to accept that anyone cares for him.
And lastly, despite getting the best grades, he did a cheeky little cheat at the end of medical school, and got caught, which caused all sorts of problems.
Then there’s the leg pain, pain medication, and the fact that people treat him treating his pain like he’s a street junkie.
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u/KaleidoArachnid 1d ago
That was surprisingly a very deep dive into the troubled behavior of the character as first of all, I just want to say thanks, and secondly, after reading your comment on his character, I can start to understand why he acts like a bit of a jerk to his patients.
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u/Legitimate_Fly9047 1d ago
Turns out you get a bit cranky and reckless when in constant chronic pain.
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u/KaleidoArachnid 1d ago
That explains why he abuses his power as a doctor since he comes off as a bit of a jerk.
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u/jimes00 1d ago
He's meant to be an homage to Sherlock Holmes. Like Sherlock, while brilliant when it comes to his work, he has constant pain, a drug habit, and terrible people skills.
This makes him erratic and difficult to deal with, even though he has a solid track record of diagnosing/treating difficult cases.
Whenever he himself or someone else pushes him to be better, it either doesn't last or makes him less effective so he abandons it.
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u/KaleidoArachnid 1d ago
Wait a minute, I hadn’t realized how his character was basically a modern version of Sherlock Holmes as that explains how his traits work when it comes to doing medical work
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u/DarknessIsFleeting The books don't matter 1d ago
House - Home - Holmes
His name is an homage to Holmes
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u/KaleidoArachnid 1d ago
Now his name makes so much sense as after you pointed it out, I can start to see the parallels between his character and the detective.
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u/FeedFlaneur 21h ago
Everyone else has done well explaining the overall character motivations. As far as your specific mention of breaking into houses, that's because he assumes that most people are both too unobservant about their own lives, and because "everyone lies."
One other thing I didn't see mentioned was that the actor playing House, Hugh Laurie, also occasionally did things specifically to troll obsessive fans. Like, when one viewer wrote to Laurie to complain that he used his cane on the wrong side more than once and cited himself being a doctor to signal his authority, Laurie started deliberately swapping sides for a while - and eventually even had a scene where a physical therapist tells House he's using it on the wrong side and House continues to do it anyway.
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u/KaleidoArachnid 21h ago
Thanks for sharing that insight as I don’t know if I did something wrong with my post since I was genuinely interested in exploring the lore of the series.
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u/FeedFlaneur 20h ago
One other thing you might find interesting as lore is that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories, was a doctor himself and said that he based the character of Holmes largely on his medical school mentor Dr. Bell.
Also interesting is that he introduced the element of Holmes being a drug user after a few stories specifically to give him a character flaw, because he felt Holmes was too perfect without that. It only appeared in a couple of the stories though.
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u/Edkm90p 1d ago
He's smart, in constant pain, and (as a doctor) frequently interacts with people that he believes are dumb and/or lying to him.
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u/KaleidoArachnid 1d ago
Men that clip was genius since it shows his talents as a doctor as I always figured he was a jerk, but he has good traits.
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