Unmasking the character of Louis Litt

Suits have always been one of my favourite shows that I like to binge-watch on Netflix. I have been catching up with some of the later seasons that I have yet to watch. One of the things I have realized is there are many leadership articles written around the series especially on the characters of Jessica Pearson, Harvey Specter, and even Mike Ross the good Samaritan.  Recently, my focus has been more on Louis Litt ever since I started reading up more on self-esteem and confidence related topics. Watching Louis Litt on screen reminds me of a biblical character called King Saul who was the first King of Israel. Unlike Louis, history records King Saul to be someone who has everything going for him. He was tall, good looking and even athletic based on his described attributes. Unfortunately, he was a man who met a disastrous end because he was consumed by low self-esteem. 

There can be a misconception that someone who is common looking like Louis Litt might be more subjected to self-esteem problems as compared to someone like King Saul. But you as you dig deeper and learn more about people, you realize that self-esteem can affect anyone because the roots go deeper. It might not be visible to the naked eye, but if you look closely you can catch the ugly traits the person is exhibiting.  Let us look into some of these disturbing traits that are displayed by Louis Litt and how that in return caused considerable damage to himself and his relationships

1)Seeking Affirmation

 Throughout the show, you can see Louis Litt seeking constant affirmation and acceptance from his superiors. There are many scenes where you see him swell up with pride when his partners dish out a compliment to him. He feels important when he gets assigned specific tasks based on his past achievements. This is clearly a sign of someone with low self-esteem. What makes it even sad is, Louis does not even need to feel this way, because he is, in fact, smarter and richer compared to his peers. But because of his insecurities, he is not able to see that. 

2) Poor Judgement and Problem-Solving Skills

Louis is intelligent and he can think quickly on his feet when it comes down to his expertise. But because of his need for affirmation and acceptance, he is driven to making bad judgment calls. That leads up to bad decision making when it comes to problem-solving. Instead of being a team player and contributing to his team, he ends up ruining things as he is busy chasing after the wrong things. 

3) Failure to Keep Relationship

Because of his anxiety, Louis Litt's worst fears always ends up coming to pass. One of his greatest fear is that he will always be unloved. These are the lies that he keeps feeding on to make up for his loneliness. Out of desperation, he ends up clinging to people so tightly for fear that they will abandon him. This is played out in the scene where he sabotaged his relationship with Tara Messer, his fiancée. When you look closely you can tell by Louis's outbursts, that he was fighting his inner demons more than he was fighting with Tara. That outburst cost him his relationship and dashed his dreams of becoming a father. 

4) Being Verbally Abusive 

The breakup caused him to head down a further path of destruction. He took it upon himself to be hard on the associates he was grooming. The poor associates got the full backlash without even realizing that they had been roped into Louis mind games. Later, we see how Louis further drives his friendships apart by being nasty towards Donna and Rachel who have always been in his corner. Eventually, he even yells at his therapist for not being there for him.

5) Anxiety

After getting help from his therapist, Louis began to mend his ways and begins to be nicer to the people around him. But the roots of his low self-esteem runs deep, and it was just waiting for the right trigger to set it off. At this point, viewers got introduced to Alex, who got poached by Harvey to join the firm. That set off more anxiety and jealousy in Louis for fear that Alex will come in between his friendship with Harvey.

How many of us can identify with these traits? Maybe we have even experienced similar outbursts from family or friends. I will uncover more tips on how to help people with low self-esteem problems on my next post.