I can't work out whether she was hugely over-protected and given a distorted idea of her own importance, or hugely neglected, resulting in such attention-seeking.

What do you think?

She is her own person and unless you are a group clone you will be targeted to conform.

Interesting! Does anybody know whether she had any siblings? I would suspect that she was as charmless as a child as she is as an adult, and therefore had to develop other strategies to get attention — probably by throwing tantrums or being ill. If these worked for her as a child then it's understandable that she carried them through into adult life.

What were you saying about non sequiturs?

I would say over-protected. She has mentioned she was brought up on a council estate, but her parents had traditionally "middle-class" jobs (civil servant and office worker), so it's difficult to say that she was "neglected" or socially deprived. She also attended Edinburgh and the "Ivy League" Pennsylvania university, both of whose students generally come from "better-off" backgrounds and have supportive parents.

But children from all socio-economic backgrounds can be emotionally neglected.

I take your point. But I think academic success is linked to emotional support given by the parent as much as by economic support. And despite her dodgy Phd she went to two well-regarded universities.

Also conditional support — "we love you when you are good and do well", which is emotionally unhealthy.

One of the things I think is missing from the show is a psychologist giving the audience some insight into people's behaviour in the camp as the days go by. Or has that been done in a previous series and dropped?

There's certainly material there for an interesting study in Gillian's case. I'm beginning to believe that although when she collapses it isn't a medical "faint" Gillian herself believes that she is actually fainting, and I'd be willing to bet she's been doing it for years as a tactic to get attention or escape things she doesn't want to deal with. She did say after all that her family wouldn't be worried about the fainting because they've seen it happen loads of times.

I'm sure any day now people are going to start coming out of the woodwork and saying they worked with her years ago and she was doing it then.

There's a photo of her as a child in this article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...rmed-back.html

And a little bit about being bullied at school:

Was anything said about what she did to them?(first ...probably)
Last edited by KittyKatNat : 24-11-2010 at 12:21

Ordinarily that would make me feel sympathetic, but we've seen how she exaggerates and bends the truth even on the limited edit that has been presented to us. Including her own self edit to sainthood: how she asked Shaun *nicely* not to smoke...

True. The photo can tell you a bit about her though, that she was a little prim and proper, maybe a Daddy's girl?

I thought it was interesting when she said that she thought her camp mates were worried by her alleged fainting, and that her family were "used to it".
She expressed the fact that her family reacted to her, what appears to be frequent stage fainting with indifference.
I am guessing that she saw a new audience, both with the camp mates, and the viewers to see if she could shock and gain the reaction she craves.
Just as she said in her interview that she thought they would be worrying about her wellbeing, when in fact they were laughing about how fake her collapse looked. She has a delusion that everything is about her, and that her actions elicit sympathy and worry.

Yet she shows no caring or empathy towards others, ever! When she upset Stacy she made her "apology" all about herself still, and somehow still managed to blame Stacy for the event.

She finds it hard to hide her glee and smugness when Bob has to go through the procedure with the oxygen etc. She gets positively giddy with giggling excitement when she recounts it.

I think she desperately wants that reaction from her family but she has pulled the stunt so many times they no longer bat an eye to it!

I think she is about one thought away from munchausens syndrome! Now she has had a taste of it with Bob and his oxygen and wet cloth there may be no stopping her!

I was attending an acupressure massage workshop and, ever the enthusiast, when a volunteer was called for, I took to the stage.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...#ixzz16CdQ1aMJ

Ever the enthusiast, when a volunteer was called for LOL Changed a lot has'nt she.

The article is very interesting - she was born with a twisted spine, but nobody spotted it. She didn't develop properly physically and endured a lot of back pain but it was only diagnosed after an accident in her 30s. A lot of her life is taken up with managing her condition. She is convinced nutrition and pilates can help, and it perhaps explains her "over-protective" attitude towards herself.

This would be fair enough if it just involved her attitude to herself.

However it doesn't explain her need to make up qualifications, pretend to know things that will 'cure' people with little scientific training or indeed understanding, or to continually sue or threaten to sue those who point out anomalies in what she claims.

I read this a few days ago and if those are her own actual words in that article then sheesh!

Genuine bullying is a terrible thing but the over dramatisation used here actually detracts from the point she's trying to get across. 'Sad' face? Thank goodness that was mentioned otherwise I'd presumed she was grinning from ear to ear...

A typical Gillian article. At the starts she says
then a bit further down:

More importantly if this is normal behaviour for her. What kind of upbringing is it for her own children, if, as quoted they are home schooled, they will have limited social contact with their peers and she will be their model as normal!

I have to say that I find this whole article very hard to believe - sounds extremely exaggerated. Your spine would be VERY curve to mask 8 inches of height. I just don't buy that. And not to notice until you're in your 30s after yet another of the many supposed dramatic incidents in her life. She really does seem bordering on Munchausens Syndrome

That actually sounds like a comprehension exercise written in school by pupils to demonstrate an understanding of the use of adjectives.

I can only think that she has severe controle issues. How, why ? I have no idea. It's her personality IMO

If I had a deformed spine I don't think I would chose to have a hobby of "fainting" and falling down. It could be seriously damaging. If I did have a genuine tendency to faint and a deformed spine I would avoid like the plague situations that might cause me to faint.

It's quite odd that, given how much agonizing pain her scoliosis causes her every day, we've never once heard her complaining about her back. Everything else, yes. Her back, not a peep.