Thanks to the work of French researchers, we now have a detailed diagnosis of the mental health challenges faced by Star Wars' (evidently misunderstood) arch baddie Darth Vader.

In a letter entitled "Is Anakin Skywalker suffering from borderline personality disorder?", soon to be published in the journal Psychiatry Research, Eric Bui, a psychiatrist at Toulouse University Hospital, and his colleagues, will set out why Anakin (later to be known across that galaxy far, far away as Darth Vader) matches six out of the nine borderline personality disorder criteria as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

"I had watched the two prequel movies [Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith], and it was during my residency in psychiatry, while trying to explain borderline personality disorder to medical students, that I thought of Anakin," says Bui, displaying an unnerving lack of awareness that his study subject is, in fact, a fictional character.

"I believe that psychotherapy would have helped Anakin and might have prevented him from turning to the dark side," adds Bui. "Using the dark side of the Force could be considered as similar to drug use: it feels really good when you use it, it alters your consciousness and you know you shouldn't do it."

So the universe's baddest, maddest evildoer just needed some time on the couch and a willingness to accept the 12-steps programme.

The warning signs were there for all to see, laments Bui. We should have detected the obvious "impulsivity and anger-management issues" when Anakin was an excitable, lovelorn Jedi trainee. And the "identity disturbance" when he changed his name to Darth Vader and turned to the Dark Side. Personally, I knew he was trouble the moment he throttled a colleague by the windpipe and calmly told him: "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

But one truism remains constant no matter where you are in the universe: don't trust a man overly reliant on phallic weaponry.