Winnie the Pooh’s surprising mental health themes explored When Doctor Sarah Shea and a team of fellow paediatricians released their journal Pathology in the Hundred Acre Wood: a […]

When Doctor Sarah Shea and a team of fellow paediatricians released their journal Pathology in the Hundred Acre Wood: a neurodevelopmental perspective on A.A. Milne in 2000, they were “gobsmacked” by the international response.

The paper theorised that Winnie the Pooh, along with chums Eeyore, Tigger and Piglet, displayed symptoms typical of psychological illnesses or developmental disorders.

“I received some very cranky letters,” Dr Shea tells i. “Some people felt we were ‘wasting research money.’ Some people got angry that we were besmirching the beloved characters. Some thought it was pro medicating children.”

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A. A. Milne’s first collection of Winnie-the-Pooh stories was published in 1926. The hyphens of the title were dropped by Disney when they began adapting the stories into a hugely successful animation series, beginning in 1966.

Dr Shea insists that the paper was conceived to poke fun at “our own professional process wherein we sit in judgement as we diagnose and label others”.

However, with the new biopic ‘Goodbye Christopher Robin’ focusing on author A. A. Milne’s struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), there may be more truth to the paper than Dr Shea originally intended.

A disenchanted forest

Each of the characters in Winnie the Pooh are distinguished from one another with a defining mood.

Dr Shea noticed this from a young age.

“Long before I knew what ADHD was, I knew Tigger had behaviour that was unusually impulsive, that Piglet was very anxious, Pooh rather dreamy, and Rabbit officious.”

In Pathology in the Hundred Acre Wood, Shea and her colleagues took this a step further – assigning a mental illness to each character, and aligning their symptoms with DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) definitions of mental illnesses.

The following observations were made in Shea’s study:

Winnie the Pooh: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder “This unfortunate bear embodies the concept of comorbidity [the presence of more than one disorder]. “Most striking is his Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). As clinicians, we had some debate about whether Pooh might also demonstrate significant impulsivity, as witnessed, for example, by his poorly thought out attempt to get honey by disguising himself as a rain cloud.” Piglet: Generalised Anxiety Disorder “Had he been appropriately assessed and his condition diagnosed when he was young, he might have been placed on an anti-panic agent… and been saved from the emotional trauma he experienced while attempting to trap heffalumps.” Eeyore: Dysthymia – or ‘Persistent Depressive Disorder’ “We do not have sufficient history to diagnose this as an inherited, endogenous depression, or to know whether some early trauma contributed to his chronic negativism.” A bear living with ADHD and a donkey coping with depression? (Photo: Disney) Owl: Dyslexia “Obviously bright, but dyslexic. His poignant attempts to cover up for his phonological deficits are similar to what we see day in and day out in others so afflicted.” Tigger: recurring pattern of risk-taking behaviours “We acknowledge that Tigger is gregarious and affectionate, but he has a recurrent pattern of risk-taking behaviours. “Look, for example, at his impulsive sampling of unknown substances when he first comes to the Hundred Acre Wood. With the mildest of provocation he tries honey, haycorns and even thistles. “Tigger has no knowledge of the potential outcome of his experimentation.” Rabbit: possible narcissism



“We note his tendency to be extraordinarily self-important and his odd belief system that he has a great many relations and friends. “He seems to have an overriding need to organize others, often against their will, into new groupings, with himself always at the top of the reporting structure.”

Dr Shea’s tongue rests firmly in her cheek throughout the paper – at one point suggesting that Roo may resort to substance abuse.

Nonetheless, the doctor admits she was surprised at “how easily and quickly we could ‘diagnose’ everyone”.

A. A. Milne’s struggle with PTSD

When A. A. Milne returned from France after the First World War, he, like many survivors of the conflict, had changed.

“It is OK to be a Tigger, or a dreamer like Pooh.”

In upcoming film Goodbye Christopher Robin, the author is portrayed as someone blighted by visions of fallen comrades as he suffers from PTSD – even if the condition hadn’t been recognised in those days.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, actor Domnhall Gleeson – who plays Milne in the biopic – explained that Eeyore is like an extension of the writer’s real-life pain.

“He had his dark sides to him where he would go into himself. He could be quite a loner.

“He basically bundled all those bad feelings up and kind of gave them to the world in the form of Eeyore.”

In his autobiography It’s Too Late Now, Milne barely acknowledges the war, which played such a key part in his life.

Perhaps the books of Winnie the Pooh were his way of conveying an inner turmoil.

Perhaps Dr Shea and her team weren’t so far off the mark after all.

A ‘lovely example’ for children

Dr Shea admits that she knew nothing of A. A. Milne’s own battle with mental illness when she compiled her colleagues’ thoughts on his beloved characters.

But regardless of their neuroses and issues, she believes that the loving interaction between the characters of 100 Acre Wood can act as a positive example to children on how to treat others in spite of their “flaws”, be that hyperactivity, low mood or anxiety.

“More than anything, the key to the books are their tone of love and acceptance and unspoken forgiveness in the Hundred Acre Wood.

“The stories provide lovely examples of how humans should behave.”

Dr Shea believes that if a child living with a mental illness can identify with one of Milne’s characters this can only be “a good thing”.

“It can normalise the experience, especially because the characters do live in such harmony.

“It is OK to be a Tigger, or a dreamer like Pooh.”

Goodbye Christopher Robin is released in UK cinemas this Friday (29 September)