Keep in mind that I am not a professional in psychology.

…

Part 1 covers Goku at ages 12 to 18.

…

In the original Dragon Ball is where we introduce to a 12-year old Goku. During our first meeting with him, we can tell several things about him. From the start, he does not understand technology. This will most likely due to isolation. But the way he reacts and what he refers to the car as is something very important. He does not trust what he does not know. He also uses phases a younger child would use to describe the world around him. Case in point, a vacuum cleaner for a child under 5 (or younger) would call a vacuum a monster. Loud noise, looks weird, and some would have lights. To a child, they would see faces due to their imagination and little knowledge of the world around him.

Also, the fact that Goku goes on the defense when Bulma crawls out of the “monster’s mouth” he doesn’t understand what she is. Nor comprehend what hit him. Bullets are also new to Goku, and he just assumes the monster was throwing something at him. It takes Bulma to inform him that she is “human” for him to slowly drop his defense. Another key point that he does not trust what he does not know. We also are given an example of how Goku determines and learns things about the world around him. Touch and sight. He hits the car and assumes it’s “dead”. He exams Bulma by looking and poking her. What she says is little importance, because he is trying to confirm that she is another “human”.

This gives us two main traits of how he grew up. Due to isolation, he does not understand anything outside the realm of the forest he grew up in. And we can also determine that his mental growth stopped between the ages of 7 and 11. This would be due to having some form of trauma during the concrete operational stage of his life. His logical processing is very slow, and abstract thinking is not as present here. But that can easily be due to that fact he should be starting this stage of development.

Now, after he exams Bulma does he drop his defense. He becomes happy. Another person has come along. Now, this is very important. Children are naturally curious and trusting, but the way he jumped from defensive to trust is a very trouble sign. Because it would indicate that he has a very black and white view of the world. This can cause many problems for him later on (which we do witness). He’s friendly, but it can also be read that he’s just overjoyed to have another person to interact with.

When we see how he reacts with his dragon ball he’s full of amazement. It’s something new, so he’s naturally drawn to it. Anything new excites him. This is a very good sign, but also bad. But the moment Bulma touches the ball, Goku, as a result, goes back to his defensive behavior. The way he speaks about the ball is very symbolic. Even the way he holds it and speaks with it. This is a tell-tell sign that something is deeply wrong. For him to associate objects with a person would show how his coping skills. He latches onto anything that gives him the reminds him of his adopted grandfather. He speaks with it, gives it a respected place. He treats it like another person. A sample of this behavior could be seen with a child who uses an object for emotional relief. Take for example a child and their blank (or teddy bear). During emotional stress, these objects are the only thing that they can depend on.

When Bulma shows him, her dragon balls his association with them comes out. His belief that an orange ball with stars is a “grandpa”. But when Bulma explains what they are he still wouldn’t let her touch “his”. Then when Bulma tries to bargain with Goku, it does not work. We even witness that he has no impulse control over what he says. Something else he was not taught, and give another marker on where he is mentally. He’s physically 12, but mentally he’s still 6 or 7 years old. Traumatic events can cause many mental and emotional issues that can have a huge impact on the child’s adult life.

Throughout his advantages with Bulma, on the first day, we come to see more examples of how he has the mindset of a doer. He has to see and then do to understand things. These are a very good sign that he’s incredibly smart. He just falls short of social and verbal cues. Then when he learns more about the female anatomy, he uses his own as a base. Simple compare and contrast. Another good thing. Socially this is bad behavior, hence the constant hitting by Bulma. This will eventually develop into a learned behavior. Don’t want to get smack across the head, make it important to learn whatever it is to avoid being hit. But he’ll eventually learn that Bulma hitting is just her having an outburst, and will later have no effect on him. Him letting her hit him as an adult is a case of learned behavior.

We also get a glimpse of his belief system of right and wrong. This would imply that this was heavily taught to him from an early age. So, he has no problem understand good and bad, and what to do during certain situations. Also, living in a forest and isolated he would have honed his creative skills to solve complex problems. Another case in point that he’s very intelligent. And even fear of danger is foreign to him. Physically he is ok, but his emotional growth is what stopped.

As he travels and meets more people and has more interactions, the more he “cheerful” he seems. He still has trust issues and can come off distant at moments. In part to his lack of vocabulary, his understanding of what people say also fall shorts. But he can understand concepts very welcome if simplified. Like a child definition to the word “definition”. Meaning of a word. He also shows signs that he can’t stay still for too long.

Now when he meets Chichi, he shows very interesting behavior. Up to this point, he still doesn’t get social interactions, nor understands facial ques. But during his interactions with Chichi, it’s very different than his interactions with everyone else. She does not use words the people he travels with uses. Words like idiot or stupid were never spoken from Chichi. She used the word silly and goof. Nor did she hit him while saying these words. He also learns her hits are reaction and not because of something he said. Also, Chichi is the only other person he met that can ride nimbus. This is another symbolic moment. If you could ride my cloud then you too are a good person. This is a good thing. His limited interaction with Chichi has left a very lasting impression on him. Even the fact that she apologizes for hunting him, and shows that she means no harm. All his “friends” up to this point have harmed him in some form of way.

After the wish-making, Goku becomes upset but quickly masks it. Almost like a twitch. Another bad sign of his emotional state. He is not open and shows that in fact, he is not trusting at all. Friendly but never truly trusting. When he goes to Master Roshi for training, we see two major things. 1) No impulse control and 2) general social manners are also no present. I keep referring to the social aspect of his personality because due to his isolation and evidence he lost a parental figure at an early age, where these skills would have been developing.

During his training, his training partner Krillin would be the first counterpart that is his age. The need to socialize with children (people) that are the same age range as you is beneficial. This is where he goes through a rapid change of characteristics. They do everything together. Goku learns most of his social skills and understandings through Krillin. Both are curious minds. While Goku is more adventurist, Krillin is more realist. So, he unintentionally becomes Goku mentor in social interactions. He helps Goku with his understanding of speech and phrases. They talk a lot and bounce ideas off each other. Hence why their friendship is a strongly positive one.

We can see how this truly affects Goku by seeing his interactions in his first tournament. He’s able to understand certain facial cues and body language, compared to when we first meet him. He’s even able to tell the difference between female and male slightly better, with just touching as a way of reassurance. “Oh, so you are a boy. I wasn’t sure.” (This quote is after the tournament, but points out my case.) We even see his fast reaction time to events of cause and effect. He’s able to piece together that he used too much strength, but that it seems like a simple touch.

By this point, I can easily conclude that Goku has some form of ADHD. The symptoms that he strongly presents are:

• Fidgety
• Impulsive/lack of restraint
• Difficulty focusing
• Short attention span
• Boredom
• Excitement
• Noticeable mood swings
• Learning disability.

After the tournament, he is quick to abandon his “friends” in search of the dragon balls. This we see he has little emotional attachment to people. Again, he brings up his emotional state. He’s very distant with people, but not in an obvious way. For him to not have a problem to just leave his friends behind and go exploring is both good and bad. Good that he wants to expand his view of the world, and let curiosity be his main source of reasoning. Bad because he is avoiding attachment. He has learned that attaching would bring pain. He is avoiding anything that would affect him emotionally.

Now, during this time he will be facing the Red Ribbon army. Here we see his strong belief system being the driving force to his action. Also, when he faces death, he feels guilt and at fault. He’s able to understand these concepts immediately due to them not being foreign to him. Thus, he takes full responsibility and wants to correct his mistake. This is where we see his full mental, emotional, and psychological state of mind. Mentally he’s still a child. Emotionally he bounces between older and younger, depending on the situation at hand. Psychologically he’s much older. This brings to question what is his true emotion when no one is looking. It also gives signs that he suffers some form of depression, or is leading into that realm.

The signs he has some form of depression also could be read as another mental disorder, bipolar. Symptoms are anxiety, guilt, general discontent, mood swings, irritability, difficulties with sleep, and slowness inactivity. Signs it could be depression would be social isolation. But leans more to bipolar due to: hyperactivity, impulsivity, and restlessness.

While he’s dealing with the army, he’s in constant motion. He does not rest or is not allowing himself to prosses these events. Another sign of ADHD. He can’t sit still for a certain amount of time. But it is interesting to note the second time he meets Chichi during these events. We witness he is unusually calm around her. We have found that he is typically very jumpy around his normal “friends”, but with Chichi, he sits still. This is extremely important. He even openly falls asleep around her. This is a level of calmness he has yet to displace around other people. This will later translate into his adult life.

Now as he finishes fighting the army, he will then face something that has him momently open to the world. He is reunited with his grandfather. This is where he openly shows his emotions, and truly shows happiness. Up to this point, we have seen him smile and laugh, but never to this level of joy. When he comes face-to-face with his grandfather, is where he expresses a genuine joy and deep sadness. “Where did you go? I’ve looked everywhere for you.” This can be taken in two ways. Literally or figuratively. Literal would mean he was never able to find his grandfather’s body and assume he is gone. Or figuratively, Goku knew his grandpa was no longer part of the living. Thus, we come back to the dragon ball. It would make sense if grandpa isn’t in his body then he’s in the ball. This would come close to the frame of thought if he meant figuratively, and make sense why he’s attached to such an object.

This is also the first time we see him showing a deep sense of pain and remorse. The loss of someone important to him has come back. Even if it’s just for a moment, it’s the only time he ever got to truly feel again. This is truly important. He genially would need this to emotionally move on. This would be the reason why he seemed more upbeat till we meet again, during the 22^nd tournament. Between this event and the tournament, he also becomes more mature for his age, when dealing with different situations. He’s more reasonable, and not as reactive to his environment. This all in 3 years. His mental and emotional state of mind is catching up to how old he is psychological. A prime example is how he deals with Tien Shinhan. This is keeping in mind that Goku is physically turning 15 soon.

Physically we could say he’s a late bloomer, from a human standpoint. But actually, he’s developing at a normal rate. He’s slightly taller, and his voice is slowly changing. Now when we get to the event of King Piccolo, this is where Goku has another emotional hit. Death of a friend. I put friends in parentheses because the word can be associated with different meanings at different points for Goku. But here the word takes on its literal meaning and we can see the depth of how this affects Goku. Goku is outraged. There is no longer logical thought going into his actions, just a pure rush of anger and pain.

Then throughout the whole event, we witness the level of calmness he presents to everyone. His easy-going nature and just doing whatever works for this situation. He prefers actions than having to dwell on emotions. This will be things that will later affect his life. He’s just constantly going through the motions and getting past everything. I would like to note another moment out of behavior for him. We have established that he would have some form of ADHD and might be deeply suffering from a form of depression. During this whole stressing and emotionally charged situation, he instantly relaxes when seeing Chichi. During their interaction, the situation with the soldiers had momently been forgotten. It took a soldier to bring them back to the current reality of what’s going on around them.

During this age is when boys are going through puberty, and it is evidence that Goku has changed biologically. He is showing interest in females, but not the way typical boys show it. At face value, he’s just interacting with another person. But when he comments that she had grown, the way his eyes move is a huge sign of this. He first recognizes her by above the shoulders. But he looks down and scans her. His head raises before his eyes. His eyes linger just a split second longer on her legs and hip area. Even a second time on her chest. He may not understand his action, due to no one to speak about these changes. This is also would indicate that there are other biological stages he’s slowly getting into, but being in constant motion it’s not noticeable. Emotional and mentally he’s past teenage years. Biologically he’s aging a slower pace, but he still showing signs that hitting the stages.

During his fight with Piccolo, we see another part of Goku. His eyes are more focus, there’s nothing else in his focus. Everything around him doesn’t matter. The tunnel version is both bad and good. Good because that’s what the fight calls for. But bad because this is a sign, he had an emotional shutdown. The only mental function that is available at the moment is his training and knowledge of how to physically react. This is different than how he behaved during the tournaments. In the tournaments, his good nature demeanor is at the forefront and doesn’t leave throughout his fights. But during King Piccolo, the mask falls and this is where we see how he feels inside.

This is where we see how he handles a high level of stress. His happy persona drops and the inner rage comes out. We get a glimpse into the bottle up rage he’s been hiding from everyone. This is something he’s been dealing with during his travels, but not many things trigger this. But he is developing a tempt issue, is not taking care of will later become dangerous. He’s becoming a ticking time bomb.

After his fight with the king, Goku finally returns. He’s no longer in a fight or flight mode, and this is when the physical pain sets in. Also, exhaustion should be setting in but it doesn’t come. Instead, he shows the opposite response. He shows signs of having more energy than he started. The adrenaline is still kicking and he can’t calm down. This is bad. Then he gets thrown into another situation. There’s no break in between each event. This will manifest in very poisonous ways. If no breaks are taken between stressful events, he doesn’t get moments to destress. The emotions and stress are just building. Now, during the 3 years, we have between we don’t know what happened. But when we meet him again, he has a slightly calmer persona. He’s also less fidgety.

When he reunites with his friends, he instantly recognizes them. This would partly be due to his long exposer to them. Here we witness his friends asking if they knew him. Mostly due to him being taller and no longer in his child to the preteen body. The way he addresses himself is the fact of his hair. This would demonstrate his understanding of associations. We also witness that he still is showing signs of being socially distant, and limited emotional response. This is going off how easily he jumps from interacting with one person to another. It can also be part of his underlining ADHD.

While he is speaking with friends, in the preliminary hall we again notice a calmer demeanor compared to when we last saw Goku. Then when he is tap on the shoulder by Chichi, we notice two things happening. For starters, he automatically scans her from feet to head. We know he only has done this once before. Typically, he starts from head down and back up. Secondly, we witness that he’s automatically drawn to this female. This would incline that he subconsciously recognize her. This could intel that subconsciously between the 3 years his body had reacted to anything that remains it of her. Like maybe a smell. We are then brought back to the fact he has a very strong sense of smell and recognizes people by their scent. For example, his association with his grandfather’s smell, comfort.

In this case, his body is what’s reacting to the situation. We also see the same pattern repeat itself. Eyes slightly lasting longer on the hips and chest, before meeting her face. When he reaches her face, we see the symbolic stars sparkle more. We’re presented Goku’s POV for the first time. Now here we see more of a quick screenshot of his emotions. Mentally he can’t process them, nor understands. This would be evident in how he reacts to her introduction. Not only does he blink a few times, almost like coming out of a trance, but he’s confused and drawing a blank. This upsets her, but he can’t seem to understand what he did wrong. When she leaves, he’s still looking at her. We have established that Goku jumps from one thing to the next quickly, but his focus lingers on Chichi. Then when his friends confront him on the matter, he’s still confused.

Not to mention that he has a blank face during this whole interaction. We even witness his first of many mentally clocking out. This is a huge red flag. This would incline worsening symptoms. This also intel that his brain automatically shuts down during random moments, and blink to snap out of it. As the preliminary go on, we witness another new behavior. His response to someone pointing his attention to something has become instant. And his attention has increased. These are good signs, but the clocking out is bad. Again, we witness him having a positive demeanor during his matches. But he shows an interest in the female he still can’t seem to figure out. He’s even trying to process that he might know her. Here we see his thought process is still slow, outside the realm of his knowledge.

We then see a few new behaviors. For starters, his switching between emotions. This is not a good sign. We also see that his temper is also pulled back a bit. We even witness that he’s more emotionally distant than we thought before. But when he came to the female, he showed a level of excitement that was missing from most of his interactions throughout the day. He went from excited to fight but seemed more of general excitement. Just excited to do something he enjoys. But when it came to Chichi, he showed a different level of excitement. Even his friend’s comments on his excitement. He even tries to be friendly but confused about why she still appears angry. It could also be read as disappointed. Up to this point when he met people that seem to not like him at first, then later smiled and were friendly. Now, he’s face where it was the opposite.

Before the fight, his body language is different than how he is when facing any other opponent. He’s in a relaxed state, where normally he shows some form of defense. His shoulder is relaxed, fingers and expression are also relaxed. Even his feet position is at a comfortable distance. His whole poser reads relaxed. Then during the fight, he’s on the defense. We witness that his body automatically knows to defend, while he’s trying to figure what’s wrong with the girl. Since his movements don’t take him any mental effort, he uses that time to speak with the female. This would be the first time he shows interest instead of the fight at hand. He’s giving her his full attention.

When she finally tells him why she’s angry, he shows no realization of what she’s talking about. In turn, he’s even more confused. This also makes it obvious that his vocabulary is still very limited. This is something that could have been negated while living on Kami’s Lookout. Now let’s look at his two main reactions. First, there’s a shock. This is a good first reaction. It means he understands the concept of what his friends tried to explain. The second reaction is what’s interesting. He reacted with excitement. When he comments that if they were going to live together it would be awkward if he didn’t know her name. The main take away is how he responded to the words “live together”. His mood brightens exponentially over those words.

This would indicate loneliness. He feels lonely. He has friends that he would leave without worry. He doesn’t stay in one spot, for longer than he has to. Mind you, Goku self isolates himself. He doesn’t grow strong attachments to people. The people he does consider his “friends” he grown with. These “friends” are also constant. But he still keeps them at a distance. This could be a sign that he stuffer from abandonment issues and tries to limit the pain. Case in point of always on the move. This is also strong evidence that he’s suffering from borderline personality disorder.

When Chichi tells him what’s the only way he’ll get her name, he becomes more excited. Another straight behavior for him. Excitement about something that isn’t anything that we’ve come to know makes him happy. It’s not his basic need to eat or the challenge of a fight. No, it’s a simple reward of finding out who this person is. This where we see how easily he drops from happy to serious. This is bad and good. Good because it shows he can be serious when it calls for it. Bad because it’s a sign he’s detached from his own emotions. After his attack, he shows concern over her wellbeing. Even apologizing for unintending to hit her so hard. And when she tells him her name is when the realization sets in. Then we get a glimpse of how he remembers her. Which was before she went through her major puberty changes, and before she changed her armor for traditional wear. (In a cute pose at that. But that’s my opinion.) Then when he explains his reasoning back then, we get something I found interesting.

Chichi is sad and seems ready to cry. But then Goku just confesses that even though he might not understand, but he does know one thing. That something is compelling him to honor his promise. This would bring back his belief system, and how he was strongly taught to honor promises. But due to it being a mistake, he could have told her no. But there’s an explaining feeling, plus the situation leading to this point has given enough reason to keep his promise. Which would be his odd interested in her, when he assumed, he doesn’t know her. Now, when she cheerfully hugs him, we see the signs of self-isolation at the forefront. Don’t touch me. He feels uncomfortable about her suddenly touching him. He even shows confusion about her actions of a kiss.

We then see that he’s not able to keep up with Chichi’s excitement. He admits how everything is going too fast for him. This is a good sign. He learned how to vocally express when he not able to mentally keep up with something. This is good because it shows a great improvement in his mental state. Now during the rest of the tournament, we notice something else new. Physically Goku can stay still and watch the match. No side comments, or noticeable body twitches. This is a great improvement from the hyperactive Goku, 3 years before. This would mean that he has found an outlet for all his extra energy.

He’s even able to show distress for his friends getting hurt. But at the same time, he seems to have a very calm outer demeanor. This could be both bad and good. If his eyes weren’t following the movement of the match this behavior would be considered bad. But he’s paying attention to the match. This is great to see that he’s able to pay attention longer than before. We soon get a small glimpse of what happens behind the ring, before Goku’s next match. His behavior is one to note. He’s not used to this sudden attention and is trying to calmly defuse the situation. A key point of saying how she’s tickling him. But note how he receives well to good luck.

Then throughout his match with Tien, he now takes a battle stance and breathes confidence. This would intel how much he cares for his craft. We also get a hint that would detail that he’s a perfectionist and cocky with his skills. This is when we see how playful he is during the fight, and how he shows off. Also, when he flat out tells Tien he is going to win the fight.

During the match with Piccolo and Kami, he shows proper emotional responses to this situation. This again is a good sign of his emotional growth. Within 3 years theirs is a chance he not only learned coping skills but also how to express more clearly. Then after his match with Piccolo Jr, we come to see a high level of maturity. From how he has a great grasp on cause and effects. Where he put together that if Piccolo dies Kami will too, and then the dragon balls will be no more. Then we witness his reaction when Chichi hugs him a second time.

He still doesn’t seem confrontable with touching, but we do get a different response. He tells her not in front of his friends. This could intel he is still trying to process his emotions that are outside of fighting and had long come up that her being close wasn’t that bad. He shows that he doesn’t understand the situation nor his body’s reaction to her. We also see that he still retain his childlike nature outside of fighting. But he shows signs of abandoning issues. Yet, due to the fact he now has someone he can’t leave behind, he seems more enthusiastic that he’s leaving with another person. This is a huge difference between all the times he had left his friends. It shows immediate attachment to this “new” person.

In conclusion. At the beginning we started with a Goku that shows signs of ADHD, the mentality of a 7ish-year-old child, has trust issues, and slow to processes information verbally. Between the first 3 years, he shows signs of a form of depression or a mood disorder, such as Bipolar or Borderline Personality Disorder. During another 3 years, his understanding of the world around him increases and becomes more apparent that he does greatly suffer from a mood disorder. His symptoms lead more into BPD, compared to Bipolar. Also, during these first 3 years, it shows that mentally and emotionally he is younger than his physical age. Yet, psychologically much older. Hence why he has periods where the people around him forget he is “younger” than how he acts.

When we meet him again 3 years later, he shows signs that his mental state still catching up to his psychological age, but isn’t far behind. He even shows signs of learning coping skills. But emotionally he still falls short. With his history and how he currently behaves he gives the tell-tell signs he still stuffers greatly from BPD.

…

Part 2 will be on Dragon Ball Z’s Goku. Age 23 to 37/30.