MovieChat Forums > Doc Martin (2004) Discussion > Is Doc Martin Autistic?

Is Doc Martin Autistic?

posted 8 years ago by boomer-kris
13 replies | jump to latest

Or more appropriately put, is Doc on the spectrum? He does have a few of the traits, it seems to me. I just started watching so if his behavior is explained after the first season (or series) maybe someone could enlighten me.

I watch on both Amazon and Acorn and I'm curious about why Martin Clunes is so revered. I can say though, I've watched him in several shows and movies and he's a very good actor. He's always paired with attractive, intelligent women too.

[–] duke-verity 8 years ago

Possible spoilers below....

No he's not autistic. In Series Seven he goes into therapy to save his marriage and deal with his long-term hangups. His therapist diagnoses attachment disorder.

As you continue to watch the series you discover that his problems mainly developed from his loveless and lonely childhood; specifically from his dreadful, irredeemably cold and selfish parents (played by John Woodvine and Claire Bloom) who sent him away to boarding school when he was seven because they couldn't be bothered with him.

Martin has a genius IQ and first rate medical skills, but as a result of his childhood grew up with subnormal social skills, inability (or unwillingness) to engage in even basic smalltalk, and an almost total inability to form and sustain inter-personal or intimate relationships. That might sound rather like some of the traits of autism, but Martin's disorder is psychological rather than neurological.

The only long-term relationship he actually cherished was the familial one he formed with his auntie Joan (and later on with his aunt Ruth). The only significant sexual relationship in his life (before Louisa) was with the comically ghastly ice queen Edith (played by Lia Williams), who you will encounter in Series Four!

[–] boomer-kris 8 years ago

Thanks for setting me straight. I'm pleased that they addressed his issues.

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

personally, i think it would have been better if they had let him be mildly autistic rather than blaming the way he is on his parents, which seems rather unconvincing to me.

[–] number9-4 8 years ago

i think it would have been better if they had let him be mildly autistic rather than blaming the way he is on his parents, which seems rather unconvincing to me.

You must be very fortunate in the parent department, then...

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

i don't believe the way your parents treat you can affect your entire personality to such an extent. martin after all was exposed to other influences growing up - his aunt Joan for instance. And he went to school, medical school etc, where he must have had other influences. His total lack of people skills can't be explained away by harsh parenting. it seems more likely to be something he was born with, like aspergers. Blaming it entirely on how his parents treated him seems far fetched to me.

[–] number9-4 8 years ago

Don't get me wrong -- Martin past Season 2 or so is pretty ridiculously awkward, in a way that could potentially suggest his problem is mental or neurological, not psychological.

But parents are huge. I mean, he saw Joan, what, a month out of every year? At most? Plus, he went to boarding school, so that was probably a pretty strict environment that would only worsen the emotional problems his parents caused. As far as we can tell, Joan was probably the ONLY positive adult influence in his life, and he saw her a few weeks every summer.

[–] duke-verity 8 years ago

Yes he's very socially awkward; brusque, rude, tactless, abrupt and inept at basic human interaction. He's a walking disaster area when it comes to the everyday, oil-wheeling banalities of modern life.

That's the way the character is written and played. However he's not autistic or afflicted with Aspergers. That's just not what Martin Clunes or the writers intended. Autism and Aspergers are specific neurological conditions. Martin Ellingham doesn't have either. His therapist finds attachment disorder and related control issues to be at the core of his problems. A trauma-based behavioral disorder, and potentially treatable through psychotherapy.

He's incredibly awkward because this creates situations that are both dramatic and comic. That's what the writers wanted for him - to make the show and this chronically stiff man hilarious, while making the audience feel very sorry for him in sad moments of pathos. Sometimes Martin is a victim of his own flaws. That (arguably - depending on your taste) makes the show at times rather more than simply slapstick farce, taking it into the territory of tragi-comedy.

Some people just don't like the writer's approach to this character and find it far-fetched/unconvincing. They don't buy into the writer's backstory explanation for Martin's issues. That's fair enough. Everyone is entitled to their likes or dislikes. Horses for courses etc.

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

Well, i'm not sure how old exactly his character is meant to be. Martin Clunes wass born in 1961, so if the character is meant to be the same age as the actor, he would have been at boarding school in the late 60s-1970s - schools weren't really frightfully strict by that time. And boarding schools have housemasters, who are supposed to act as sort of surrogate parents to the children in their care, so he should have encountered some human warmth. And he's been an adult for quite a long time by the time he comes to be a GP - long enough I would have thought for him to have experienced normal human interaction, and to have some idea of how to relate to other people. Since he would have been in his early 40s when he became a GP, he should have had over 20 years since leaving school to gather some experience of normal human life.

[–] duke-verity 8 years ago

Yes he is old enough to have to have witnessed normal human interaction (in others), and old enough to have established a pathological pattern of deliberately avoiding it himself.

His established backstory is that he was a brilliant prodigy of a young surgeon who was fast-tracked towards the top of his profession before he was thirty. In London he was an authoritarian specialist and leader in his field who could bark orders at nurses and junior doctors and be instantly obeyed.

Empathy, gentleness, bedside manner, normal human social interaction?.... These he left to the 'wets' in his profession. Martin got by for years purely on the strength of sheer medical excellence. He was feared and respected, but not liked - but he was oblivious and indifferent to that side of things.

He wasn't in the business of being liked, he was in the business of saving lives. To a large extent that remains true of the Portwenn-based Martin we encounter in the series. It was of course his hors de combat breakdown during a routine operation which brought about his blood phobia and led to all his long-repressed angst and hangups effectively ending his surgical career. Thus the only recently recovered Martin we meet at the beginning of Series One.

His disorder comes ultimately from problems established in childhood, carried into adult life, and brought to the fore because for the first time in his career he couldn't help seeing his patients as real human beings (rather than as objective case studies). Martin is afraid of empathy, closeness, intimacy, vulnerabilty, his own personal weaknesses and "losing control" (as his therapist later puts it). He's aggressive and defensive in social situations where he feels awkward and out of place, and therefore does his best to avoid them.

That's what the writers establish about their central character. That backstory and pathology might not be to every viewer's personal taste, but that's how the writing team and their lead actor see that character.

[–] bpollen 8 years ago

I agree. I think it's also normal for people to suffer all their lives from psychological problems resulting from their childhood environment. Probably also coupled with their normal personality. I've known people who were what I call anti-social. They're excellent in their fields, but very awkward socially. They don't have a medical condition. Very shy people fall into this category, as well. They're insecure and find it difficult to express their joy or love, fearing, I guess, being rejected or laughed at.

He spent time with his aunt, then the visits to her stopped suddenly when his parents put a stop to it, but didn't tell him why. He thought throughout his life until he moved to this village that the aunt hadn't wanted him to come visit her any more, because that's what his father had led him to believe. His aunt explained to him what really happened and told him that she had enjoyed his visits and that he had always been welcome at her house.

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

he visited his aunt when he was a medical student, because in series 4 she meets up with his old girlfriend who he took to stay there. So he can't have been estranged from his aunt for that long.

The way Doc martin behaves certainly suggests to me that he is mildly autistic.

[–] amorehl-93-99338 8 years ago

Boarding school strictness wasn't the problem. The problem was that he was sent off to school at the tender age of 6, was shy, a bed-wetter, tall and gawky, and very smart. He was teased incessantly, causing him to further close down, compounding the years of emotional abuse from his parents. He also was never allowed to visit Joan after his 12th birthday, so his one bit of emotion support was denied him. It amazes me anyone would think all this wasn't sufficient to damage him for life.

[–] liscarkat (18373) 8 years ago

It's interesting, that many people assume that someone who has little patience for silly small talk and doesn't suffer fools mush have some sort of mental disorder.