gregory house, m.d.'s Journal

"You can think I'm wrong... but that's no reason to quit thinking."

you.
name: Briana
age: 26
rp experience: 5 years, mostly PB games.
how did you hear about us?: A friend. :D

character.
name: Gregory M. House, M.D.
nickname(s): House
pb: Hugh Laurie
fairy tale & character: Dr. Gregory House of House M.D.
age: 48
position: Doctor
office: B221
preferred method of treatment: Seekers of warm fuzzies, stop here. House is cynical, abrasive, and a strong proponent of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. Psychoanalysis and sympathy are bullshit; he firmly believes that all non-psychotic disorders stem from irrational attitudes, judgments, and expectations that turn a healthy response to a negative event (i.e. concern) into a unhealthy one (i.e. anxiety). The key is to find and alter the interim step between the trigger and the detrimental response. He’s also been known to treat the occasional psychotic, generally because their doctor is too inept for the task.
specializes in: Diagnostics. House is renowned for his uncanny ability to diagnose (or re-diagnose) the patients who’ve baffled everyone else. In terms of treatment, his therapeutic approach is best suited for neuroses; namely patients with mood disorders, addictions, compulsions, phobias and traumas.

personality: House is an asshole at heart. Granted, he isn't an inherently evil person and has been known to have his moments every now and then, but for the most part, he's an asshole. Arrogant, sarcastic, and generally abrasive, he scorns the existence of social decorum and longs for the day when people can be blunt with each other without consulting the Miss Manners etiquette handbook. In the absence of a shift of world opinion overnight, he's graciously appointed himself as the voice of reason - and ridicule. House very rare pulls any punches; if he thinks something needs to be said, he'll say it, even if it means causing someone else emotional harm or ruining a happy moment. He is more concerned with principles than feelings, firmly advocating the importance of facing 'reality' with little regard for the peace (or beliefs) of others. A miserable atheist beats a euphoric Catholic in his eyes - a philosophy that he has been known to not only follow himself, but impose upon others against their will.

In actuality, House is well-versed in a variety of languages and has spent time in numerous countries, but hell will freeze over before he acts "cultured." On the contrary, he chooses to be extraordinarily crass, often making lewd or inappropriate comments as a result of his natural craving for attention and the general childishness that he exudes. His ethics are notoriously skewed and suited to whatever aims he happens to have the moment, often resulting in insensitivity to his patients and his colleagues. He is so extraordinarily cocky and certain of his knowledge that he sometimes plays games with individual cases and tries to prod others into making the appropriate (or inappropriate) diagnosis. He delights in besting others, be it in a verbal sparring match or the proper identification of a mental disorder, in no small part because of his narcissism and his underlying need to conquer his insecurities.

Beneath all the bravado and coarseness, House is a complicated, conflicted soul who is not nearly so content and certain as he would have others assume. His father's abuse has scarred him far more internally than it has externally, fostering his sardonic attitude and pessimistic outlook. If his father inspired his cynicism, however, the trauma of his injury and loss of movement has nurtured and refined it, exacerbating his negativity and misanthropy. Many of the people he meets write him off as a jerk and a sadist, but the truth of the matter is that House is a deeply pained person. It is in his quest to relieve his agony that he indulges so recklessly in the abuse of Vicodin, mindless of the danger of his addiction in his quest to kill the pain inside and outside.

history: On the evening of June 11, 1959, John and Blythe House welcomed the birth of a baby boy, but young Gregory's family was not to be a harmonious one. From an early age, he was expected to meet his father's lofty expectations and swiftly punished when he inevitably slipped - a stark contrast to the unconditional love he received from his mother. His parents recognized his genius and encouraged his interests in chemistry and playing the piano, but his father's emotional neglect and physical abuse led the boy to withdraw, severely lacking meaningful contact with other children his age and thereby foretelling his troubled relationships with his peers. Not long after the boy's sixth birthday, his father, a Marine pilot, announced that they were moving from overseas from their home in Ohio, thereby severing what few associations his son had with other boys his age in the area.

His father's active duty led the family to move from country to country through Europe and Asia. Of the countries they lived in, Egypt ranked among the most prominent in House's recall, as it inspired his strong fascination with Archaeology and treasure-hunting. With each passing year, he grew more rebellious and unconcerned with his father's demands, fostering the development of his own interests - and the worsening of the treatment he endured at daddy's hands. At the age of fourteen, the family moved once more and settled in Japan, where House's interest in the medical field was born when a rock climbing incident led him to aid a fallen compatriot. Curiously enough, it was not in the hospital's resident doctors that he found inspiration, but in the man he initially mistook for the ward's janitor. The doctors were at such a loss for how to treat his friend's infection that they petitioned the poorly-dressed attendant for aid, identifying him as a buraku, a member of Japan's lowest class. The others loathed and avoided the unapologetically disheveled man, but when it came to baffling cases, they acknowledged his brilliance and sought his help.

Needless to say, House was tantalized by the notion of such a doctor - a man who eagerly shirked social niceties and conformity, but nonetheless earned a grudging sense of respect or his skill. In that short span of time, the buraku managed to do what his father failed to all his life; successfully convince House to get his ass in gear and pursue an occupation. At John Hopkins University, his natural intelligence and tenacity led him to complete his undergraduate degree and pursue his MD at the university's School of Medicine. Within the discipline, psychiatry and behavioral science appealed to him most, but his budding career very nearly came to a halt when he was expelled for cheating. This stain on his record should have precluded him from pursuing medicine, but the University of Michigan inexplicably accepted him despite it all. It was here that he met Lisa Cuddy, a brilliant and beautiful undergraduate who would one day become his supervisor. The ensuing one-night stand is a source of continuing sexual tension.

Since his graduation, House's career has been the medical equivalent of a game of hot potato; his social ineptitude, questionable ethics, and general disobedience have led numerous bosses to toss him to the next hospital supervisor in the line, effectively branding him the most unemployable doctor in the New England area. Ten years ago, a chance encounter at a paintball event led him to meet a woman named Stacy, with whom he shared a long relationship until tragedy struck and she was thrust into the role of proxy when he suffered an infarction in his thigh. Were it not for the inability of his doctors to diagnose him until three days later, the muscle in his thigh would not have become necrotic. House made his wishes clear; he was willing to take the risky option and endure the post-operative pain required to retain the use of his leg. Stacy, however, contradicted his wishes during his drug-induced coma and had the dead muscle removed, resulting in a partial loss of movement in his leg and condemning him to walk with a cane for the rest of his life. The relationship fell apart as a result of this betrayal and his inability to forgive her.

As one of the doctors who failed to detect the infarction in a timely faction, Cuddy felt guilty about the incident. When it came time to take a job as a supervising doctor at Cheshire Crossings, a prominent New England mental institution, she helped House get a foot in the door. Recently, he has accepted her offer and put his psychological training to good use, though his supervisor's motives for recruiting such a talented, but intolerable man are still something of a mystery of everyone else.

examples:

phantasmagoriat, first entry
picture: here.