Chandler Bing is a character from the sitcom Friends. He grew up with divorced parents - a mother who was an erotic novelist and a homosexual father. His difficult childhood likely led to issues with commitment and oral fixation. According to psychoanalytic theory, Chandler exhibits traits suggesting fixations in Freud's oral, phallic, and anal stages of development. Adler's theory of inferiority complex also applies to Chandler due to his low self-esteem and anxiety about relationships. While humor is a defense mechanism, Chandler uses it to cope with his traumatic upbringing and personality.

1. Juna Phinky L. Delostrico
MAGC
Couns 4012 – Advanced Theories of Personality
ACTIVITY #1
CASE ANALYSIS: Chandler Bing of F.R.I.E.N.D.S
This paper is a closer look at the fictional role of Chandler Bing, (played by
Mathew Perry), a character that is by far, the most popular and best loved, in the hugely
successful American TV series F.R.I.E.N.D.S. The sitcom created by David Crane and
Marta Kauffman ran for ten, long years and was a boisterous depiction of the life of six
friends in Manhattan, New York City. The show was an insightful view into their lives,
loves, quirks and eccentricities, and managed to make an impact in very home across
the world. Up until today, the sitcom is one of the most viewed among all others.
Chandler Bing was born on April 8, 1968, to an erotic novelist mother Nora Tyler
Bing and a homosexual father Charles "Helena Handbasket" Bing who later became the
star of a Las Vegas drag show "Viva Las Gay-gas". He is an only child and is apparently
from an affluent family. Chandler's parents announced their divorce to him over
Thanksgiving dinner when he was nine years old, an event which causes him to refuse
to celebrate the holiday in his adulthood. Chandler has a very good sense of humor,
and is notoriously sarcastic. Chandler is maybe best known for his mocking comical
inclination. He is frequently making jokes that serve to pester as opposed to interest his
companions, and getting away uncomfortable circumstances with silliness. He is
personally the highest earning member of his friends due to responsible income
management, and learning the value of money from a young age. He suffers from
commitment issues, brought on by growing up in a broken home with no idea of what a
stable marriage looks like. Once a heavy chain smoker, Chandler began smoking when
he was nine years old after his parents announced their divorce. Chandler is first seen
smoking during the first season and is chastised by his friends for breaking his non-
smoking streak of three years. Chandler also shares a lot of traits with Mister Heckles,
one of his neighbors. They are both extremely picky with women (planning to break up
with one, simply because her head was too big). He is one of those people who can
deliberately see other people’s flaws while being wholly aware of his own.
Now, in relation to Psychoanalytic Theory, Freud proposed that on our way to
adulthood, we each went through certain Psychosexual stages of Development, if one
were to struggle with a specific stage, they may develop a fixation or the tying up of
psychic energy that leads to the inability to function normally. I believe that Chandler
may have fixations in three of Freud's stages of psychosexual development. One of

2. which is in the oral stage. Traumatic experiences during this stage have led Chandler to
develop an oral personality, in that he is dependent on others and possesses an
infantile need for oral satisfaction. He satisfies this need through excessive smoking and
frequent touching of the mouth. Chandler grew up in a non-nurturing and loving family.
His parents were always away from home and if ever they are home they always get
themselves into argument. This led him to become emotionally and psychologically
dependent to his friends. The second fixation is on the phallic stage, this is when the
primary erogenous zones are the genitals. According to Freud, during this stage boys
must overcome the Oedipus Complex an attraction to their opposite sexed parent and
begin to identify with their same sex parent. Chandler probably struggled to connect
with his father, who was homosexual and frequently dressed as a woman. A fixation in
this stage can lead to a person exhibiting qualities generally displayed by the opposite
sex. This helps us explain why Chandler is the most effeminate of the men on
“FRIENDS”. Even some of his friends thought he was gay at first. The third fixation
appears to be at anal stage. His constant jokes and often bawdy humor suggest an
anal-expulsive tendency. He often gets himself or others in trouble due to something he
has said, such as accidentally revealing to his friend Rachel that Ross is actually in love
with her. This can also be seen as a Freudian slip. Chandler, who is often unlucky with
relationships, could be jealous of Ross for finding a person he truly loves, and thus,
without realizing it, aims to spoil the moment in which Ross would reveal this feelings to
Rachel. Freud would also see Chandler’s use of humor as an example of a defense
mechanism, a means for his ego to protect itself through a distortion of reality (Feist J. &
Feist G.). His jokes, which he acknowledges to use when he is uncomfortable (Bright,
K.), could be interpreted as denial—he shifts the focus of the stimuli that is producing
anxiety away, replacing it with humor to distract from the situation. He refuses to
acknowledge what is making him uncomfortable, thus protecting himself from this
discomfort. Chandler’s childhood experiences would have had a huge role in
determining his personality: he grew up with a mother who did not hide her sexuality
(and even bought Chandler his first condoms), and a cross-dressing father who pursued
young, blonde men. His parents divorced when Chandler was young because of his
father’s affair with a young boy who worked in the house, and since then he has used
humor to evade awkward situations. Chandler himself knows well this defense
mechanism.
On the other hand, Chandler’s humor and sarcastic comments, according to
Alfred Adler’s concept, indicates his inadequacies and disappointments. In application
of Adler’s concept, Chandler has an inferiority complex. He has this difficulty to ask a
girl out on a date because of anxiously nervousness, helplessness when cornered by
people in positions of power, unable to say no when the situation calls for it, and
persistent fear of marriage and all long-term relationships. He often compares himself to
his friends and has relentless anxiety about not being good enough. This is most often

3. shown in Chandler’s romantic relationships, he has trouble accepting that any woman
could love him and, even after he and Monica are married, frequently brings up her past
partners (“The One with the Secret Closet”).
Because of traumatic experiences and environmental factors, Chandler doesn’t
really fit the classic description of an only child – as confident; self-assured, having low
feelings of cooperation, and a pampered style of life. Chandler has a low self-esteem
and tends to criticize others and himself.
Nonetheless, with all the experiences of Chandler, he still grew up as a good
man and just the way he is. Freud’s and Adler’s concepts just made me/us understand
Chandler’s character below the surface and not just as the comic man of the show
F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

4. References
Feist J, Feist G., & Roberts, T. (2013). Theories of Personality. Mc-Graw-Hill
Companies, Inc., New York.
Friends1994blog: Always and Forever. Chandler Bing, (August 7, 2016). Retrieved
December 1, 2017 from
https://friends1994blog.wordpress.com/2016/08/07/chandler-bing/
Chandler Bing. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved December 1, 2017, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler_Bing
Bright, K., Kauffmann, M., & Crane, D. (200). The One Without the Ski Trip [Television
series episode]. In Friends. Burbank: NBC.
Bright, K., Kauffmann, M., & Crane, D. (2002). The One with the Secret Closet
[Television series episode]. In Friends. Burbank: NBC.
Bright, K., Kauffmann, M., & Crane, D. (2004). The One With the Birth Mother [Television
series episode]. In Friends. Burbank: NBC.