Fox Mulder, "Genius/Madman"

On a bad day:
He's reclusive, self absorbed, cynical, antagonistic, obsessed & paranoid. He's susceptible to insanity & schizophrenia. He struggles to keep his interpretation of the world balanced with reality. If unchecked, his all encompassing distorted vision of reality (everyone is out to get me, aliens are everywhere, people are trying to control me) will eventually deliver him into a personal hell, ironically not from without, but from within.

But mostly:
He's analytic, eccentric and loves solving complex mysteries.

Motive:
Mulder is driven by a need to understand his environment. That's why he profiled in Violent Crimes, to understand the mind of serial killers. Later under the X-Files, he tackles harder mysteries, laboring to understand the conspiracy, the paranormal & the alien question. It's his way of protecting himself from the threats "out there."

How he does it:
He observes, investigates & speculates.
He needs to test his ideas, "the truth is in me," against the real world "the truth is out there," so he can act with certainty on his interpretations.

Anxiety:
Mulder's anxiety over misconceptions forces him to labor diligently to understand his environment. It's also why he needs Scully so much to off set any distorted views he has. It's self preservation. A way to stay grounded in reality.

Weakness:
Jung on the introvert's subjective thinking:
"...facts are collected as evidence for a theory, never for their own sake."

In other words, Mulder is only concerned with collecting proof to support his ideas and he ignores things that discount those ideas. "See Scully! There really IS an alien goat sucker!"
"Sure, fine. Whatever Mulder."

Fear:
His biggest fear is being controlled by others so he must constantly be alert for any threats to his security.

Sexuality:
Mystery is a turn on for him.
He's attracted to strong intelligent mysterious women. He has strong sexual impulses that he channels through cerebral stimulus. Getting into a hot debate with Scully is like foreplay. But it's not all about mind f*cks, he gets off on a kinky escapades. Dirty mischief is his game.

Pastlife Musing:
My crystal ball tells me he was an incubus.

Religion:
It doesn't make sense to him. Any God who would allow so much evil to exist in the world must also be evil. On the other hand, Mulder doesn't believe in chaos, he sees patterns in everything, a sign of divinity (or his own madness). Therefore Mulder is agnostic. Ironic for guy who's life work is to prove the existence of the unexplained huh?

Communication:
Mulder doesn't communicate clearly because his thoughts are complex & convoluted. His ideas too detailed & condensed. He breaks out into elaborate monologues, making it difficult for people to follow his thought processes. Scully is an exception. He respects her for it, but even she sometimes gets subjected to his frustrations. He would rather ditch her than have to waste time explaining things.

Mulder's Little Secret:
What Scully doesn't know is that Mulder IS hypersensitive of her criticism of him, but he hides it well. The irony is, the beating his self-esteem gets by her hands, makes him seek out solace in his preferred self-indulgence, pornography.

Seduction advise for Scully:
Be understanding, mysterious, cater to Mulder's ego and you'll get lucky!
"Mulder I wouldn't put myself on the line for just anybody."
"Scully, if there's ice tea in that bag, it could be love."

So what's the problem Fox?
Even though he loves trying to figure out what makes Scully tick he avoids getting involved. He's wary of her unpredictableness. Once aroused, his passions overflow. He fears loosing control. He would rather bury himself in his work than risk letting *anyone* gain some kind of control over him.

Violence:
If Mulder were to ever murder with intent, he's most likely committing suicide.

Childhood:
So what the hell made Mulder the way he is?
I blame Bill & Teena Mulder.

In young Fox's formative years, his parents loveless marriage, and his father's alcoholism kept young Fox forever separate from a dependable source of love and encouragement. He became both fascinated and repulsed by them. He coped in this erratic environment by learning to predict their behaviors.

Career:
It seems natural for him to take to psychology like a duck to water because he's already been doing it all his life. It's not hard to see how he ended up chasing aliens. And his attachment to Scully makes perfect sense.

After all, Mulder may be crazy,
....crazy like a fox.

My advise to Mulder:
Keep your feet on the ground and marry Scully.