Pathologizing the unlikable in fictional characters is an almost Pavlovian response.
In her essay collection "Bad Feminist," Roxane Gay addresses the tendency to label unlikable characters with psychological disorders. She argues that this reaction reveals societal habits of pathologizing traits that don't conform to our ideals of likability, especially in female characters. The expectation for these characters to be relatable often leads to a critical misinterpretation of their complexities and flaws.
Gay suggests that this phenomenon is a reflexive response, akin to Pavlov's conditioning, where audiences conditioned to favor likable protagonists struggle to accept complexity in characterization. Instead of embracing the imperfections that make characters multidimensional, there tends to be an urge to seek faults through a psychological lens, which oversimplifies their narratives and diminishes meaningful storytelling.
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All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.
Race of Cain, ascend to heaven, And cast God down upon the earth!
