Work Text:
A fascinating topic for me is the evolution and growth of Sherlock that we see after his return. While there are subtle changes throughout seasons 1 & 2, we see the greatest amount of growth in season 3, with Sherlock making drastic leaps from episode to episode.
When the show began Sherlock often quoted himself as sociopathic, when in reality he merely hadn't outgrown certain stages of cognitive/emotional/social development (although there are probably some anti-social tendencies floating around in there, but that isn’t my area of expertise, so I’ll be focusing on development). For this meta I’ll only be comparing past seasons to TEH, since the growth is so fast between episodes as well, and I want to do each episode justice.
Sherlock as a child cognitively
Let's look first at cognitive development. The framework I’ll be working off is the model proposed by Piaget, as it is what is currently in use for Masters level Education coursework. He divided cognitive development into 4 stages typically divided by age: Sensorimotor (birth-age 2), Preoperational (2-7), Concrete Operational (7-11) , Formal Operational (11-16 and up). Keep in mind, the ages are merely an estimation of when children would typically reach those stages. The two stages I want to look at are the preoperational and formal operational. In the preoperational stage the child is often very rigid in their understanding of the world, described by Piaget as egocentrism – the child assumes everyone views the world the same as his or herself. They are their own only frame of reference. A child thinks of the world only one variable at a time – centration.
“Dear God. What is it like in your funny little brains? It must be so boring.” “Is it nice not being me? It must be so relaxing.” Ringing a bell? And those are just from the first episode. We see that trend continuing on throughout the series. In TGG he says “ordinary people” very derogatorily when talking about memory and what he chooses to remember. He’s blunt in ASiB when dealing with the people coming in about dead relatives: “People don't really go to heaven when they die. They're taken to a special room and burned” –said to a small girl after her grandfather died. Also in ASiB: “Look at them. They all care so much. Do you ever wonder if there's something wrong with us?” He uses John as a lab experiment in tHoB, as well as saying this to Henry right after the incident in the hollow: Murder weapon and the scene of the crime, all at once! Haha, oh, this case...! Thank you, Henry. It's been brilliant.” All of these are clear signs that Sherlock is still in this preoperational stage cognitively.
And yet, the operational stage is defined as the child beginning to reason logically about abstract concepts using formal operations (Piaget). The child uses hypothetical-deductive reasoning and is able to consider hypotheses and hypothetical possibilities (possibilities outside of his or her experiences). Sherlock bases his entire method around deductions and reasoning, can read people’s motives, and has no trouble creating multiple hypothetical situations when dealing with crime as he attempts to narrow it down to the correct answer. So we see an interesting blend of poorly developed versus highly developed cognitive skills here.
In TEH we see a subtle change occur. Sherlock initially doesn’t see beyond himself, for instance his quote “What life? I’ve been away.” He isn’t realizing that people stay in motion even outside of his purview (this always makes me think of how babies cry when things ‘disappear’ from sight or how toddlers will forget about the toys not immediately in front of them). However after his reunion with John goes poorly, we see him making the attempt to relate outside of his own existence. His little chat with Mycroft about friends and getting a goldfish stands out because he is following the hypothetical of “if I lived like Mycroft, how would I feel?” Now granted, we know that some of that is still drawn from personal experience (how he was before) but he is finally acknowledging an existence outside his own. This is further expressed by his anger at the step father who lied to the daughter to keep her income.
The biggest indicator though, is his time with Molly. After attempting to thank her in a way that is meaningful for him (and apologizing as well), he comes to the realization of exactly what he has done. “You can’t do this again can you?” Then he goes on to say “congratulations…I hope you’ll be happy…you deserve it.” Throughout this entire conversation, Sherlock is sincere and genuine, not just shamming because he wants something. He is finally looking outside his worldview and realizing that not only do his actions have consequences, but that people aren’t wrong for thinking or reacting differently than he does. This begins to resolve the differences in his cognitive development.
Social/emotional development
There is no one theory for development, yet within the social/emotional field, it always seems that there are more than you would find elsewhere. For this meta I will primarily be using the framework designed by Erikson, though I will also include some of the theory developed by Bandura. Erikson focuses on mental well being as well as which stages, if not passed through correctly, will cause issues into adulthood. He posits that people must face and overcome various psycho-social crises as they grow to become healthy adults.
There are numerous crises that we face so I’m only going to discuss the ones I believe pertinent (if you are interested in more, shoot me an ask and I’ll direct you to the source material, or wiki it for the basic idea). The autonomy stage is the last stage age wise that Sherlock successfully passes and it generally occurs around 2-4 years of age. This is the stage of ‘no’ where children begin making decisions for themselves. Also around this age is the purpose stage, during which children will actively play and engage in fantasy. Sherlock manages part of the purpose stage but fails to fulfill the second condition which includes socializing outside of the family. We do see him following Bandura’s model of mimicking behavior of those around (TEH and ASiB both show Mycroft’s influence on a young Sherlock).
The Competence stage (middle childhood or ~6-11 years old) is next in Erikson’s model, during which healthy children seek structured environments and see a drastic increase in peer interaction through structured play. Children that do poorly in this stage will feel uninvolved due to trust issues or poor past experiences. In the first two seasons we know that Sherlock does not play well with others. Donovan tells us very blatantly that Sherlock doesn’t have friends (keep in mind she’s worked with him nearly as long as Lestrade, so that’s the last 5 years at least he hasn’t had friends). In tHoB he tells John he doesn’t have friends, just has the one. Sherlock makes the comment to Mycroft in TEH that their parents wanted them to make friends when they sent the boys off to school. Both scoff at the idea, and the mental image I have is of a very precocious young boy who didn’t fit in, and therefore never learned how to act socially, which is why he’s always asking John “not good?”
Here again we see another split in Sherlock’s maturity though, as the next stage is the Fidelity stage, during which adolescents begin forming their identity through experimentation. A healthy child will include pushing societal boundaries during this period but also seeking leadership roles or challenges. We see Sherlock stay in this stage much longer than others and his habits become very dangerous, but he does make it out of it with a self made (if fragile) identity. I’ll point out here that John is a great stabilizer for Sherlock. He provides reaffirmation of worth, along with acceptance and companionship, but in the first two seasons Sherlock takes this for granted much of the time. I would argue that only in his confrontations with Moriarty does Sherlock actively protect the bond he has with John. But we’ll come back to that.
One last stage I want to briefly discuss is the intimacy stage which occurs from 18-35, so this is where Sherlock age wise would be. This stage is all about forming strong, loving relationships with others, and Erikson posits that failing to do so leaves the individual isolated and alone. The Sherlock we meet in episode one is very isolated, even though he is surrounded by people. His relationships are limited and he refuses to acknowledge them outside of a key few (Mrs. Hudson, and later John, with Lestrade added in only during Reichenbach). He ignores the care he feels for his brother, disregards Molly’s friendship, and completely throws off the gratitude of those he has helped.
In TEH we see an amazing and drastic change, again highlighted after John’s negative reaction to his return. Now Sherlock was still thinking of John, it’s the first thing he asks about when he comes back and is talking to Mycroft. But at the same time, initially he failed to realize that life wouldn’t wait. After he experiences that loss, we see him tell Molly he’s back, then Lestrade (whom he lets hug him), and then back to Baker Street, where Mrs. Hudson awaits.
We get a lovely scene of brotherly interaction, not only with the games, but also with him encouraging Mycroft to make friends. This scene is so so so important, because there is an awareness there of exactly what Sherlock put on the line and potentially lost and yet he still encourages Mycroft to “get a goldfish.” He’s realizing that connections are worthwhile even when they cause pain.
Next we get the interactions with Molly. He does a very childish thing by apologizing/thanking her by sharing his favorite thing, rather than finding something she’d like, but at the same time, it’s very sweet. At the end, he acknowledges her worth, and in many ways the value of her happiness. “I hope you’ll be happy…you deserve it.” In some ways I take this as meaning, “you’ve dealt with assholes like me for so long that I hope you have finally found better.”
Now I doubt Sherlock will ever fully fit into some of these models (structure and Sherlock don’t really go together) but I think it is quite obvious from a psychological perspective that Sherlock has made great leaps and bounds in his growth.
Non psychological notes
From a non psychological perspective, we see a few things too. First, we see Sherlock refrain from snide remarks or potentially unwelcome deductions. Note when he’s on the case with Lestrade he doesn’t insult him once, also note both Mary and Tom go un-deduced (at least out loud). He’s still quite childish in the insult trading with Mycroft but there’s warmth to it that is much closer to friendly brotherly banter. Points in his favor for growing up: accepting that John can be angry and leaving him space, self moderating (remember John’s voice in his head at the crime scene?), appreciating his relationships in general (thanking Molly, better mood around Mrs. Hudson, polite to Lestrade), and that lovely scene at the end where he genuinely tells John he heard him, and you can hear the apology and care in his voice when he says it.
Now, things still needing work. For one Sherlock is still acting in childish ways, such as the inappropriate reactions to tension in the restaurants, either through making jokes or deflecting. “Are you really going to keep that?” “There were 13 possibilities…” “London is in danger…admit it, you’ve missed this.” He still can’t remember Greg’s first name, and he still starts stuff with his older brother in an attempt to show off. Or my favorite part, his lovely joking over a bomb.
So while we see a lot of character growth in our favorite detective, we still also see plenty of room for improvement.