The Doctor's Links
The Doctor is the one who took West from Fern as a toddler and raised him. The Doctor acted more of a father figure to West, but The Doctor always saw West as a means in controlling Fern and Sethpis. The Doctor never truly cared about West's childhood. He just saw it as an inconvenience to his studies, so he raised West quickly and treated him like a novice scientist with need to be trained in the experiments he was running.
West was raised mostly by The Doctor and would only see Fern for brief random moments. Many, inducing West, thought for a while that Fern cheated on Sethpis with The Doctor and West was their child, until West figured out he was a hybrid with Sethpis' powers. West learned many things from The Doctor and The Doctor gave him many scars, mental and physical, too. Since Fern took West away from Infamous Pax, West began to struggle with how the rest of the world acts. West was raised in a place that encouraged only professional behavior, to follow your curiosity even if you kill a couple of cats along the way, and emotions get you killed.