batman psychoanalysis
TRANSCRIPT
Brian Carland
March 14, 2012
Batman: A Tragic Hero
The Silent Guardian. The Watchful Protector. The Dark Knight. These are just a few of
the many nicknames given to the character we all know as Batman. Whether you’re a fan of
Batman or not, he is one of the most iconic fictional characters in America. Batman has been
portrayed in every form of media. From the Detective Comics (DC) where he originated from in
1939, to the countless other ways he’s been reimagined in movies and books, everybody knows
who he is. One thing you probably don’t know, however, is how truly distraught of a character
he really is.
Born to billionaires Thomas and Martha Wayne, Bruce (Batman) had a great life. Living
in Wayne Manor with his parents and butler, Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce had it all. At a young
age, Bruce was playing with his childhood love when he fell into a deep cave. As he lay on the
bottom of the cave, he was swarmed by a wave of bats. Being as young as he was, this
experience traumatized him greatly. When he was finally rescued, his fear was beyond repair. A
short time later, Bruce’s parents took him to the local movie theater (In the movie Batman
Begins, it was an opera). Dark images on the screen manifested the fear of bats inside Bruce
again and he felt the need to leave the theater immediately. Taking an emergency exit into the
back alley, Bruce’s parents rushed after him. Understanding his fear of bats, his parents tried to
comfort him. Standing in the secluded alley, a man approached the Wayne family. Living in the
streets and desperate for money, the man murdered both Thomas and Martha. Seeing the cold
look on Bruce’s face and hearing what he thought were police sirens in the distance, the man ran
away, sparing Bruce. Later that night, police caught the man and identified him as Joe Chill.
Feeling completely responsible for the murder of his parents, Bruce’s life spiraled
downwards. He became a loner, his only friends being his butler Alfred, and Rachel, his
childhood sweetheart. As the years went by, Bruce still felt guilty about leaving the movie
theater. Every night he had nightmares about the whole traumatizing experience, wondering why
it happened. Overtime, his sadness turned into anger and he changed completely. Rather than
living in his ten million dollar house, Bruce lived as a street rat. After living in the streets for
months, he goes on a spiritual quest in the mountains to regain who he is. After being trained by
The League of Shadows, a group of vigilantes who want to destroy evil through violence, Bruce
Wayne becomes a master in all forms of martial arts. After tons of training, Bruce becomes both
physically and mentally strong. With his new abilities, Bruce goes back to Gotham City to
avenge his parents’ death by ridding the streets of criminals. Becoming the “superhero” we all
know as Batman, Bruce hits the streets to fight crime. Considered a vigilante by the citizens of
Gotham City, this poses the question: Is Batman a superhero or actually a villain?
So first of all, what makes a superhero? I’m sure most people would define superhero as
anybody with superpowers. Well, whether you know it or not, Batman DOES NOT have any
superpowers. Yes, he does have tons of gadgets, a solid suit, and a super car called the
Batmobile, but no: he doesn’t have any superpowers what so ever. Maybe a superhero is just
somebody who saves peoples’ lives? Doctors and firemen do this every day and they’ve never
been called superheroes. So, why exactly is Batman considered a superhero? Heroes are out to
help people and do good deeds. Batman doesn’t really do either one of those things. For the most
part, Batman fights crime for himself, nobody else. Yes, he’ll help somebody that is in distress,
but he does it mostly to get back criminals. Beating people up for your own well-being doesn’t
make you a superhero: it makes you a vigilante.
What is a vigilante? Webster’s Dictionary defines a vigilante as “a member of a volunteer
committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are
viewed as inadequate); broadly: a self appointed doer of justice.” Technically, aren’t all
superheroes vigilantes? Unless they have permission from law enforcement (which most of them
don’t) all superheroes are actually committing crimes when they’re supposed to be stopping it. A
prime example of this is the Marvel superhero Ironman. Not only does he get involved in
international affairs by fighting terrorists groups: he’s one of the only “superheroes” that I know
of that kills. Using various types of missiles and lasers, Ironman kills the criminals rather than
bringing justice to them. Although refuses to kill, isn’t he the same as any criminal: a man who
goes around commits crimes for his own benefits? Maybe Batman is actually a villain.
This is where things get complicated. Although he thinks he’s doing good for all of the
people in Gotham City, they all see him as a menace (Hunt). The citizens of Gotham aren’t too
happy about a man lurking in the shadows and beating criminals up rather than them being
arrested by law enforcement. In the Dark Knight, Batman thinks he’s doing what is “right” when
he’s really just committing felonies. Whether he’s kidnapping a criminal in China, using
explosives to break into a building, destroying half a city block to rescue a would be district
attorney, or even wiping out an entire police swat team in order to stop them from going after the
wrong people: Batman performs more acts of deviance than anything. In what is considered a
just society, nobody is above the law. Although he does these actions for the greater good, he
himself is actually breaking more laws than the criminals.
Diving deep into the mind of Bruce Wayne, we can see he’s a broken man. Having
witnessed the murder of his parents and beating himself up over it for years, his mind is
broken(Moye). He becomes obsessed with being Batman and forgets who he really is. Because
of this, he suffers from various psychological disorders (Bohlen). The first and probably the most
notable is Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD). Not to be confused with regular
OCD, OCPD is more acquainted with how the person sees themselves. Occupied with
perfectionism, people who suffer from OCPD have trouble with anxiety. Whatever the person is
obsessed with, they feel the need to have it perfected. In Batman’s case, it’s justice. He cannot
stop until every criminal has been stopped which is nearly impossible. No matter how battered or
beaten he becomes, Batman refuses to stop fighting. Obsessed with avenging his family’s death,
Batman has been threatened with serious jail time if caught, shot multiple times, and has even
had his back broken by a super villain named Bane (Batman #497).
Another thing that Batman is obsessed with is the Joker. In many aspects of both the
comics and the movies, Batman is considered to be on the same sanity level as the Joker. Known
as The Clown Prince of Darkness or The Clown Prince of Crime, the origins of the Joker are
unknown (Alinio). Having been introduced in 1939 in the first ever issue of a Batman comic, the
Joker is Batman’s longest and most well-known arch enemy (Batman #1). Dressing up as a
clown, the Joker is obsessed with crime. This clown uses gags and puns in every crime he
commits. From using magic tricks to kill his victims to using laughing gas to rob innocent
people, the Joker has serious mental issues, just like Batman (Batman #37). As twisted as it is,
the Joker needs Batman as much as Batman needs the Joker. Batman is the Joker’s main fuel for
engaging in criminal activity. With Batman refusing to kill him, the Joker knows he can get away
with a lot. Having this kind of freedom, the Joker really can’t be stopped. Despite his parents
being killed, Batman resists killing the criminals who do wrong. Sticking to his strong moral
code, Batman can’t bring himself to kill the Joker. This relationship works both ways, however.
With Batman being obsessed with fighting crime, he’s let the Joker go free on numerous
occasions. Batman has had dozens of opportunities to put the Joker away for good but he
doesn’t. As long as the Joker is out committing crimes, Batman has a reason to go out and do
justice. This toxic relationship between Batman and the justice system is actually quite
disturbing. Hundreds of innocent people being murdered could have been prevented if Batman
would just break his moral codes and kill the Joker. Strange as it may sound, the only way the
Joker can be stopped is for Batman to kill him. Having tons of resources, the Joker can never be
locked up and always manages to escape prison. Murder is the only thing Batman can do stop the
Joker, and murder is the one law that Batman refuses to break.
One final thing Bruce Wayne is obsessed with is fear. Fear is his most powerful weapon
(Fritscher). When fighting crime, Batman lurks in the shadows and psyches out his enemies with
various scare tactics. With fear running through their minds, the criminals can’t think rationally
and always fall into Batman’s traps. As Batman becomes more notorious in Gotham City,
criminals start to think twice about what they do. With the constant fear that they are being
watched by the Dark Knight, bad guys may not follow through with their intended actions.
Always staying submerging himself in darkness, Batman runs Gotham city with a shadowy fist.
Still traumatized of bats from a young age, Batman uses this fear to motivate him. Masking
himself as a bat, he shows the world he’s out to face his fears. Anybody who faces their fears on
a daily basis in the manor Batman does cannot be thinking straight. Batman also suffers from a
slight case of coulrophobia, the fear of clowns. Anybody would suffer from coulrophobia if they
were attacked by a psychotic clown who wields guns, chains, and knives once a week. Like his
fear of bats, Batman must face his fear of clowns. Carrying a joker playing card around with him,
he attempts to gradually rid himself of his fear of clowns. Fear will stop sane people from doing
things, fear fuels Batman. While most people avoid their fears, the Caped Crusader embraces
them and uses them to his advantage.
Along with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder, Batman also suffers from a
number anti-social disorders, the most prominent being schizoid. Not to be confused with
schizophrenia, schizoid revolves around the person being a recluse: disassociating themselves
with other people and taking on an apathetic view on life. With the tragic loss of his only family
members, Batman refuses to associate himself with anybody else. Not wanting to go through the
loss of losing another person he’s close to, Bruce will not get close to anybody else. Viewed as
an outlaw by the citizens of Gotham, Batman takes on the lone ranger personality. In the comics,
Batman has a teenage partner named Robin. This is pretty much the only instance in the Batman
universe that he works with somebody else. Even then, his relationship with Robin is more
mentor-apprentice than a friendship. Having similar characteristics to that of Spiderman, Batman
chooses this secluded life to avoid loved ones getting hurt. Living through this life of isolation,
Batman suffers from the most common mental illness in the United States: depression (Grohol).
With depression affecting over 21 million people in the United States, Batman is no
different. From being considered one of the most hated men in Gotham City to living in solitude,
Batman suffers from high levels of depression. With his association to the color black, Batman
does not have a very good outlook on life. Willingly making his life miserable to make the lives’
of the citizens of Gotham’s easier, Batman just cannot win. No matter how much good he may
do for Gotham City, Batman will still be hated. Suffering from depression, Batman’s case of
depression is worse than that of the average person. Declining to get mental help, Batman’s
depression psychologically tears him apart daily. Still feeling responsible for his parents’ death,
Batman also suffers from post-traumatic stress. He often has nightmares about his parents being
killed, occasionally seeing himself as the killer in his dreams. What’s even stranger is how he
chose to deal with the death of his parents. Rather than accepting their death like a normal
person, Batman chose to dress up like a bat and solve the problem with his own methods.
Because of his untamable depression, Batman has also turned to substance abuse over the years.
In the early comics, Batman even went as far as to use crystal meth and heroin (Batman #16-
Batman #20). Feeling he’s the only protection for the people of Gotham, Batman feels
completely responsible for whatever happens to them. With the Joker killing innocent people
every day, Batman takes full responsibility for not being able to save them all. Like an army
commander, Batman feels as if it’s his fault if he loses anybody. Feeling this need for control
leads to Batman’s next mental disorder, paranoia.
Characterized by irrational fears and the want for being in control, Batman is clearly
paranoid. He refuses to fully trust anybody and feels like the world is out to get him. His high
anxiety prevents him from thinking rationally even in the most simple situations. With his
distrust towards people in general, Batman is completely oblivious to the bigger picture of
things. But honestly, can you blame him? Risking your life every night to defend a city you care
about, can Batman afford to take an unnecessary chance? Maybe his paranoia actually works as
an advantage. Always assuming the worst, Batman is much more proficient in his defending of
Gotham City. Like an extravagant strategist, Batman is forced to pay attention to every minor
detail in his life. Not wanting to overlook the smallest thing, Batman is forced to think critically
on a constant basis. Fearing that everybody is out to get him, Batman truly can’t afford not be
paranoid. Not only does he suffer from paranoia, he also suffers from a form histrionic. Not only
does Batman have the urge to be the center of attention, but so does his alter ego, Bruce Wayne.
Still having billions of dollars from his parents, Bruce Wayne is the face of Gotham City. This
center of attention carries over to the Batman part of his life. Running around dressed as a bat
and using his appearance to strike fear in his enemies, Batman clearly wants attention. It’s also
clear he’s egocentric in the name he gives himself: The World’s Greatest Detective. Not getting
the attention he needs through personal relationships, Batman gets it through his actions. From
his overly dramatic raspy voice to protect his identity to his flashy martial arts moves, Batman
loves drawing attention to himself. The ironic part about this: he does a lot of this from the
shadows where nobody can really see him.
Living the lives of two completely different people, Batman also suffers from split
personality or more commonly known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). According to
Psychological Science, Dissociative Identity Disorder is the occurrence of two or more distinct
identities in the same individual (Gazzaniga, Heatherton, Halpern, 623). As seen in the movies,
Batman is also very similar to a character known as Two Face. After having oil cover half of his
face, Two Face (or is real name Harvey Dent) had part of his face burned off in a warehouse that
was set on fire. Before his accident took place, Harvey Dent was running for District Attorney of
Gotham City. When his face was scorched and his girlfriend was killed in a similar fire, Two
Face’s personality changed for the worse. Harvey Dent always let “luck” control his life,
carrying around a two-headed coin with which he made his own luck. For example, in the fire,
one side of the coin was burned, changing him forever. Rather than being the beacon of hope that
Gotham City needed, he became a cold blooded killer that many people feared. Still relying on
the coin to decide his actions, Two Face will commit deviant deeds if it lands on the burned side
and feels like he should do good if it lands on the non-scarred side. In a way, Batman is like Two
Face. For one, there’s the Bruce Wayne side of him: the face of Gotham City, a man who pretty
much everybody in the city looks up to. Then, there’s the Batman side of him: a vigilante who
goes out every night and beats criminals up to make him-self feel better about the death of his
parents. Ever since he became Batman, Bruce Wayne has lost sight of who he really is. Despite
what Alfred tells him about how he doesn’t need to be Batman, Bruce can’t grasp the idea that
he’s just a normal man, not a criminal. “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself
become the villain” This famous quote that echoes through The Dark Knight multiple times
wraps up Batman’s split personality perfectly (Bohlen). It’s basically saying that Batman should
either stop what he’s doing and accept that he won’t be able to completely save Gotham, or,
continue doing what he’s doing and eventually become the criminal that he’s sworn to banish so
many times.
It’s pretty clear that Batman suffers from more than one mental disorder. It’s also pretty
safe to say that his mental illnesses are on a higher level than that of a normal person. Between
both the comics and the movies there’s something interesting with Batman’s illnesses: through
each mental disorder he has, there is another villain or super villain that mirrors him identically
(Alinio). As mentioned before, Batman is on the same twisted level as the Joker and a similar
split personality to that of Harvey Dent, but what about his other illnesses? Firstly, there’s
Oswald Cobblepot. Better known as his criminal name The Penguin, Cobblepot easily swayed
from a life of vigilante like Batman, to a life of crime (Batman #58). However, unlike all of
Batman’s other enemies, The Penguin isn’t insane. He has total control of his actions but chooses
to commit these crimes to make money. Running an illegal night club called The Iceberg
Lounge, The Penguin illegally sells stolen goods to willing buyers. Batman uses this night club
to collect criminal intel and cannot report it to the police because he would be forced to give up
his true identity (Batman #58). Similar to the Joker, Batman and The Penguin have a mutual
relationship where they both benefit from each other.
Next up is Victor Fries (A.K.A. Mr. Freeze). An accomplished scientist, Victor Fries was
living a perfect life with his wife, Nora. Eventually, Nora was stricken by a disease that was
unknown and obviously had no cure, eventually killing her (Batman #121). Not knowing what to
do, Victor froze her in a cryogenic chamber in the hopes of restoring her back to normal
someday. Seeing it was useless, scientists decided it was useless to keep her in the chamber and
decided to pull the plug. In doing so, a freak accident occurred and Victor’s genes were changed
resulting in him not being able to survive in temperatures above subzero. Now in critical
condition, Victor turned to a life of crime, creating a suit that could shoot ice and keep his body
at the ideal temperature. Calling himself Mr. Freeze, Victor turned to robbing people to gain
money to try to get enough money to save his beloved Nora. Never finding a cure for her that
worked, Victor became a criminal for life, not giving mercy to anyone because he wasn’t given
any his whole life. Mr. Freeze is similar to Batman in the sense that they both lost the only
people they ever truly loved. Rather than mourning their losses, both of these broken men turn to
vengeance to hopelessly try and get back what they lost.
One final villain that Batman is identical to in a sense is the super villain, Scarecrow.
Once a famed psychiatrist, Jonathan Crane (Scarecrow) created a gas that once inhaled, would
cause an illusion in the victim to see his or hers’ greatest fears before their eyes (Batman #189).
Like Batman, Scarecrow used fear to his advantage. Fear is an extremely powerful thing and
both Batman and Scarecrow realize this. Rather than use these fear weapons to gain fame and
fortune, Dr. Crane uses his drugs to do “research” on his unwilling victims. In the movie,
Batman Begins, Scarecrow is a some-what normal looking man who wears a beehive like sack
over his head. In comics and other media sources, Scarecrow is often portrayed as an actual
scarecrow, wearing a top hat and having a straw like appearance. Also having a PhD in
psychology, Scarecrow can use just words to manipulate his victims to do his bidding rather than
using actual force. In one instant, he even convinced two men to commit suicide just by talking
to them. Batman uses fear to his advantage as well, but not nearly as extreme as Scarecrow.
Batman uses fear more as a scare tactic to avoid hurting people while Scarecrow uses fear to
control his victims to do what he wants.
To conclude, Batman has serious mental disorders that need to be addressed. Although in
his head he is doing the people of Gotham a favor, he is really just causing them more distress in
reality. Back to the question of whether Batman is a superhero, a hero, or a villain, it is
ultimately a matter of personal opinion. Some may say that he is a superhero because of the
things that make him super. Although he lacks powers, he is still one of the strongest men on
earth physically and oddly enough, mentally. Although there is a ton wrong with him, any other
person with these mental disorders would have surely committed suicide unless helped by a
professional. Driven by his personal goal of vengeance, Batman refuses to quit on the people of
Gotham. On the other end of the spectrum, some may consider him a villain. His efforts to
“protect” Gotham are really keeping its criminals in business. To me personally, I see Batman as
more of a flawed hero than anything. You have to take pity on him, really. Losing his parents at
such a young age and living his entire life as an outcast, Batman tries his best to do good for
others. But no matter how hard he tries, he’ll never be accepted by anybody. As quoted in The
Dark Knight, “Batman is the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.” It can be
said that Batman is one of the most recognizable characters in American pop culture. Although
he obviously isn’t a real person, there’s a part of Batman that we can all relate to one way or
another. Whether it’s us not fitting in for some reason or trying to do good but being scrutinized
for it, Batman has characteristics that reflect all of us. Probably the most well-known character in
comic book history, Batman continues to grow ever popular. Despite his various mental flaws,
there’s something that separates him from other comic book protagonists: he’s just human.
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