Huge Ego, Sorry: Dr. Gregory House

Absolutely. Might be hard to come across, though. I've seen a kitten in a jar, but never a puppy. I like to think that House has a collection of deadly diseases in his fridge at home, or in the office fridge. Need some Legionnaire's disease to infect Foreman? Right here on the bottom shelf behind the pickles!

Next to the strains of flu, measles, and part of Ian's heart tumor he stole for some reason, all of which are in old Vicodin bottles. This rememinds me of the chapter of House and the PLOT device where House and Wilson go to a carnival and House wants some sort of fetus in a jar. Hee.

There's a cool new promo video on the fox.com homepage that's basically a montage of clips of House taking Vicodin. The force of repitition makes it pretty amusing...

You definitely noticed House popping Vicodin at stressful times in 'The Right Stuff'. Anyone else find it interesting that House called himself "a heavy drinker"? Not a regular drinker, but a heavy one?

Taiga-- Just as long as House doesn't have to admit that the heavy drinking is a problem. House seems to display a keen awareness of his flaws.

House doesn't do anything in moderation. Maker's Mark and the other things we've seen him drinking aren't the beverage of choice for the average social drinker. His fondness for expensive beer at least indicates that he's a classy drunk. I did think it was interesting that he called himself on that flaw. Perhaps a little extra warning for his potential victims?

House seems to display a keen awareness of his flaws. (I have never posted an opinion on any board anywhere ... this is a first for me...) House seems to display a keen self-awareness in general. He is aware of his "addiction" (not to open a can of worms, but I feel the need to put that word in quotes), he is aware of his limitations in relationships (ending things with Stacy because -- only my opinion here -- perhaps he knew that he was unable to give to the relationship what he feels she needs, and perhaps because he saw how much more Mark was willing to give than he was), he is aware of how he appears to other people, including CCF (in "Half-Wit" he allows them to believe that he was only trying to participate in the drug trial for a high, when, perhaps, there were many more reasons for his desire to participate) -- in fact, he does very little to correct their -- or anyone's -- mis-perceptions of him. These are only a few examples -- and if I had more time I could probably come up with much more -- but I am often struck by how self-aware House is.

Don't worry,rockstarmama we'll be gentle. Totally agree on how self-aware he is about his motives for his actions, and you've named some good examples. It's funny though that though he is highly aware of both his own and others' motivations for their actions (it's part of his genius as a diagnostician to be almost preternaturally observant), his blind spot seems to be that, despite his calculated behavior, other people really do accept him and care about him and, sometimes, don't judge him as harshly as he judges himself: he tries to be such a jerk that people won't care and he keeps them away so they won't pity him, feel sorry for him, get involved with him, yet he is so clearly in pain, so clearly rational at heart, so clearly "the man" when it comes to observation, creative thinking and commanding a vast sea of arcane and not-so-arcane knowledge, they come to him anyway. Which causes him to escalate the jerkiness or, sometimes, to abandon it altogether and behave with surprising decency, directness and compassion, especially to patients or others who are worse off than he is. Complicated, paradoxical, unpredictable, utterly frustrating, and yet there's that something there that you can deeply connect to: the still inexplicted and possibly inexplicable House.

Thank you, Boffle! (Baby steps ... baby steps ... as I post yet again ....) I, too, find that House has a blind spot when it comes to seeing how people really feel about him. It's as though he refuses to believe that there is something more worthwhile in him than just his genius ability to solve medical mysteries, and his uncanny ability to see the true motivations behind others' behavior. And, just to throw this is (I know you did not say this, in fact I have not seen it yet mentioned on these boards), because it has been tickling my brain, one word I would never use to describe House is "arrogant" ("having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities" -- As has been discussed, he has a keen awareness of himself and his abilities, but exaggerated ... not at all). Another word I would use to describe him, and I have not seen this one used all that often -- vulnerable. (And without further explanation I must abort this post, as RL beckons me from the other room ......)

Another word I would use to describe him, and I have not seen this one used all that often -- vulnerable. Yes, yes, yes. House is so vulnerable that I might even dare to say that there's a way in which, emotionally, he's downright fragile. He's so hard on himself, so aware of his flaws and his capacity to make mistakes, and so easily hurt by anyone he allows to get close enough -- which is why he doesn't allow it. Those who do get close enough tend to pick up on that vulnerability and it causes them to go to extraordinary lengths to protect him. If only he were able to understand that they don't do it out of professional necessity. They do it because they love him, but I think it's too frightening for House to allow himself to believe that. If he believes that people care about him, then he also has to fear that they'll stop caring. Or that he's wrong and they never cared at all. And he's too ... fragile, really, to handle that kind of thing. So he tells himself that he's too much of a jerk and nobody gives a damn.

If he believes that people care about him, then he also has to fear that they'll stop caring. Or that he's wrong and they never cared at all. And he's too ... fragile, really, to handle that kind of thing. Or that if he cares back, and then somehow loses them, it will be ... well, it would be very bad. So he tells himself that he's too much of a jerk and nobody gives a damn. Yup.

House is so vulnerable that I might even dare to say that there's a way in which, emotionally, he's downright fragile. Yes, very much so, it's probably one of the main reasons he has built the walls around himself so high and thick that they are impossible for most people to get over/through. Letting others in means he's taking a big risk on them and I think he invests so heavily when he cares about someone that when that relationship breaks down it means he breaks as well. The walls obviously help prevent that investment from happening and therefore the risks of breaking from happening as well.

This aspect of House is the one I think is what makes him a classic Byronic/tragic hero. Hugh brings great vulnerability to the character of House through those amazingly expressive blue eyes of his. House internalizes pretty much everything anyone says to him. Very little rolls off his back (except some of the stuff that Wilson and Cuddy say to him). Last night when Cuddy was discussing responsibilty for the POTWs death, House took a great deal of that on himself. My favorite example of how emotionally vulnerable House is is taht scene on the rooftop between he and Stacy. After they've slept together and Stacy tells him that she wasn't really thinking of telling Mark, the look that House gets is one of pure devestation and disappontment. Wilson has explained how vulnerable and emotionally fragile House is when he and Cameron were planning to go out and in explaining that he "had to pick up the pieces" after Stacy left. It's why Wilson (and Cuddy) get so concerned about him from time to time.

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