Note: This
theory will make use of Freudian theory. While I recognize that Freud’s ideas
do not bear much contemporary relevance, that shouldn’t take away from the fact
that many of his concepts (i.e erogenous zones, child-hood memory repression,
catharsis) are nonetheless employed by Hima in the series. The purpose of this
post is to give some insight into the psychologies of the characters.

Terminology I’ll go over: Psychosexual stages,
causality, regression, fixation.

Yes, that’s right. Freud’s ideas are very much prevalent in the
series. A big area of his work was analyzing the impact of childhood on
personality development. Freud believed in causality, meaning that who you are as
an adult can be directly traced back to your childhood.

How you’re parented and brought
up is the most crucial factor. I don’t need to go into this in too much detail,
but basically, we go through five stages of development titled: Oral, anal,
phallic, latency, and genital.

For this specific post, we
only need to focus on the early stages of development, which focus on sensual
(sensory) pleasure and stimulation, often for the purposes of soothing and
experiencing relief.

Each stage has corresponding needs. If these needs are not met (under-gratification) or
if they are too easily met (over-gratification), then the person develops a
fixation.

A fixation essentially means that the person is
stuck at that level of development, which causes them to develop a problematic
personality type.

However, it’s only when that individual is met with confrontation
or a stressful situation that they regress back to the stage in which they developed
this fixation. The stress causes them to revert back to the age where their
needs weren’t met, and as such, adopt childish behaviours.

For example, if you get into an argument with someone and they
start behaving selfishly, like a toddler, then you have every right to poke fun
at them for having Daddy or Mommy issues. Or, there are those who bite their
nails and pick at their lips, something akin to the soothing acquired from
sucking one’s thumb as a child.

England appears to be fixated
at the anal stage of development, yes anal – ahem, moving on. During this
stage, children from 18 months to about 3-4 years undergo a struggle for
autonomy. This is the first point at a child’s life that they have control and
awareness over the body, and what Freud specifically focused on was bowel
movements; a biological need.

Potty training, for most
toddlers, threatens to impinge on the control they’ve only just recently gained
over their body. Some toddlers refuse to let themselves be potty trained and
just go whenever they want, as if they were an infant. Others, through the
encouragement and praise of supportive parents, learn to regulate themselves
when they go to the bathroom.

How a child is parented during this phase is crucial to the type
of personality they’ll develop later in adulthood. Children who are shamed and
ridiculed if they have “accidents” develop an anal-explosive personality type. A
child who is over-gratified, then, doesn’t just have accidents, but rather they
do it intentionally.

For the purposes of Hetalia,
we’ll only be focusing on the shame and ridicule that England experienced
during his childhood, as his personality neatly falls in line with the characteristics
of this personality type.

England was ostracized, shamed, and ridiculed by his older brothers, who
would send curses or arrows his way if he ever tried to approach them. This, in
turn, relinquished him a larger sense of autonomy and more freedom to do whatever he wanted, when he wanted.

France too shamed young
England, although it was more in a sense of teasing. Regardless, England still
took France’s criticisms of his appearance to heart…

Essentially, a person who has
an anal-explosive personality type is cruel, messy, and destructive. They can
also be classified as kind, generous, and creative.

Cruel: We all know how scathing England can be towards America.

Messy:
He’s also quite scatterbrained, and frequently loses things.

Destructive: Because
of his poor treatment of them, England is often isolated from the other
nations.

Now, for the more benevolent
aspects of his character.

Kind: A perfectly hospitable butler if you ask me. (He’s role-playing, by the way.)

Generous:
Believe it or not, he’s not always an asshole to France.

Creative: He’s
fairly decent at art too.

That
said, Hima’s characterization of the nations fits in scarily well with Freud’s
personality chart. It would be hard to believe that he hasn’t included some
of these concepts into his writing.