During her hospital reconnaissance with Andrew in the "End of Days" (final  season of Buffy), Anya vocalizes her observations of humans and human  interaction: "Well...I guess I was...kinda new to bein' around humans before.  But now I've... seen a lot more, gotten to know people... seen what they're  capable of, and... (shrugs) I guess I just realized...how amazingly screwed-up  they all are. I mean really, really screwed-up in a monumental fashion." In  her usually eloquent fashion, Anya highlights an aspect of the series that has  become so obvious it sits subliminally behind the text and the action. If we  reexamine the series for textual and theatrical evidence of how 'screwed-up'  the characters are we discover a cornucopia of abnormal psychological  behaviors. My paper highlights the manner in which the characters introduce  us to a variety of mental disorders, and through their behaviors we become  familiar with, and begin to accept the abnormal as part of an 'eccentric' normal.

Examples of the ‘abnormally’ normal behaviors highlighted in the paper  include Angel's suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on his return  from the hell dimension, and his suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder  (DID) (formerly known as multiple personality disorder) with two clear and  separate identities of Angel and Angelus. Anya displays the symptoms of  depressive thinking after Xander cancels the wedding, and the issue of suicide  is raised with the character of Cassie in "Help" (season 7). As well,  Willow's experience with magic is representative of a physical process of  addiction and she follows the stages of this addiction to an almost fatal and  catastrophic end. Cordelia and Anya perform in manners symptomatic of  Histrionic Personality Disorder, while Faith epitomizes the Antisocial  Personality and Tara’s displays symptoms indicative of the Avoidant  Personality. By the end of the final episode the continued familiarity with  these abnormal behaviors causes us to view the behavior as merely  idiosyncratic and the stigma usually attached to these mental disorders  dissipates. By the end of the final season, looking back through Anya's  (abnormal in itself) perspective, we begin to understand that in this  environment normal behavior becomes isolated thereby reconstituting it as  abnormal while, conversely, abnormal behavior becomes understood, expected, anticipated and, above all, accepted as normal.