3. Cinderella - Dependent Personality Disorder
Cinderella is the ultimate rags-to-riches fairytale and solid proof that, if you remain a docile and compliant empty vessel, then everything will surely turn out great for you. Dependent Personality Disorder is more often diagnosed in women than men, and sufferers display highly passive and submissive behaviour. The underlying fear of independence causes the sufferer to remain in oppressive and dysfunctional situations rather than have to make their own decisions. The fear of disagreement and the pathological need to feel "needed" means that those with DPD are likely to perform unpleasant tasks for others, striving to make themselves indispensable and therefore unlikely to be rejected. Cinderella remains placid and dutiful in the face of her step-family's cruelty. Despite their abuse, she remains polite and hardworking, seeking their approval and putting their wants and needs before her own. She is apparently incapable of changing her situation without outside help, first in the form of a fairy godmother, and then in the form of a prince. She even allows herself to be dressed by others, her godmother and animal friends, and physically changes herself in order to be acceptable to her new potential target. The only way she feels as though she can break ties with her previous relationships, is if she is immediately able to replace it with another, this time as a wife as opposed to servant. Cinderella is careful never to risk having to be self-reliant by continually fulfilling everybody else's expectations of her the the Nth degree.