Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight (Wiley Psychology & Pop Culture)

by Langley, Travis

  Tetch thinks of hats as living things. Betrayed by a supposed ally, the villain Ragdoll, Tetch murmurs, “That’s what friendship is, this side of the Looking Glass,” and clutches his big, battered hat, calling it, “My friend. My only friend.” By attributing traits such as friendship to a hat, Tetch evinces animism, the belief that inanimate objects have living qualities like intention and feelings, a belief typical of preschool children. A child may cry out of fear that a plush toy is suffering pain or stamp on the sidewalk out of anger at that sidewalk for making the child fall down. For Tetch, it exceeds childlike belief. He hallucinates. In his head, he hears hats. “I’m sorry, child. It’s the hats. They tease and betray me.”7 Believing that hats can seize power over his mind and actions for both good and bad purposes, even hats without his mind control devices in them, exemplifies a delusion of control.

  The small man who wants to live in Wonderland—and in his mind sometimes does—feels more comfortable in the company of children than adults. Some stories have indicated, without confirming, that Tetch may be a pedophile, someone whose primary sexual focus is on children.8 He has stood up for children and protected them from others who might do them harm. He also been known to kidnap children and drug them to make them act out his Mad Tea Party fantasy.9 Psychiatrically speaking, not all child molesters are pedophiles. Some molest children as sadistic or antisocial acts with no specific sexual preference for children over adults.

  Tetch’s interest in children could be one aspect of his psychosis coupled with childlike self-image, in which case his fellow Gotham villains would insinuate pedophilia anyway. If his unhealthy fixation on children over adults includes sexual fantasies and urges (remember, Tetch does not fare well at distinguishing fantasy from reality), he would be, in the typology of pedophiles, a child molester of either the inadequate or fixated type, the particularly immature types. The inadequate type of child molester, usually because of a mental defect like mental retardation, senility, or psychosis, cannot recognize the wrongness of his or her behavior. Known for being strange or bizarre, this is a loner—not by choice but due to inability to establish relations with others. This person prefers children over adults because they seem less intimidating than adults. Not one to inflict injury upon children or have sexual intercourse with them, the inadequate molester instead kisses, holds, or fondles. Were Tetch sexually focused on children even when sane (perhaps while wearing the “thinking hat” that helps him focus his thoughts), then he would be a preferential type of molester known as fixated. Immature, uncomfortable around adults, and childlike in lifestyle and manner, the fixated offender “loves” children, does not want to harm them like a sadistic molester would, and does not recognize how harmful his actions toward them nonetheless are. This one courts children, gives them gifts and attention, and slowly becomes more intimate, moving toward sexual activity but only after a long progression.10 Tetch’s mental defects suggest the inadequate type if he qualifies at all. This particular man who draws children into his escapist Wonderland fantasy without developing a lasting connection to any one of them probably does not have sexual intercourse with those girls and boys—but he might get too personal with their headwear.

  “I would say I’m very much cleverer than any of the people who put me here. As a matter of fact, I could leave any time I wanted. It’s only a doll’s house after all.

  “Anyway, I don’t mind. I like dolls, particularly the live ones.”

  —Mad Hatter in Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (1989)

  CASE FILE 8–2 Harley Quinn

  Real name: Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel

  First appearance: Batman: The Animated Series, episode 22, “Joker’s Favor” (September 11, 1992). Originally voiced by Arleen Sorkin.

  Origin: Brooklyn girl Harleen Quinzel grows up, like several of the Robins, with one non-criminal parent and one lawbreaker, that being her con-artist father, whose modus operandi is to charm older women and fleece them out of their fortunes. Even from behind jailhouse glass, her father tries conning his own daughter out of whatever loot she has stashed away. “Y’know, Pop,” Harley remarks when visiting her father in jail, “the main reason I became a psychiatrist was so I could understand why you did the things you did to our family.”1 It’s a family so full of contradictions, the Christmas tree in the corner near the menorah seems fitting. Her mother’s pattern is to express frustration by slamming the door in Harley’s face or blowing up, shouting, “I should throw you all out! Force you to fend for yourselves for once! Then maybe you’d all finally grow up,” then immediately apologize for her own aggravation. Young Dr. Quinzel internsd at Arkham Asylum because “I’ve always had an attraction for extreme personalities. They’re more exciting, more challenging…. You can’t deny there’s an element of glamour to these super-criminals.”2 The Joker plays on her interests and insecurities. He charms her with a wink, tempts her with his secrets, earns her sympathy with lies about his father, and wins her heart by making her laugh.

  Harley: It soon became clear to me the Joker, so often described as a raving, homicidal madman, was actually a tortured soul crying out for love and acceptance, a lost, injured child trying to make the world laugh at his antics. …Yes, I admit it. As unprofessional as it sounds, I had fallen in love with my patients. Pretty crazy, huh?

  Joker (now sitting in the therapist’s chair, listening to Harley on the sofa): Not at all. As a dedicated, career-oriented young woman, you felt the need to abstain from all amusement and fun. It’s only natural you’d be attracted to a man who could make you laugh again.

  Harley: I knew you’d understand.

  Joker: Any time.

  Donning a harlequin outfit and accepting the Joker’s play on her own name, Harley Quinn helps him escape and commit crimes, willfully overlooking the worst of what he’s doing and rationalizing the things she can’t ignore. In Batman: The Animated Series, she regularly serves as his moll and accomplice. Her stories in DC Comics publications mostly take place after she has already struck out on her own without him. No matter how often he hurts her, no matter how many times she says she’s through with him forever, she follows those remarks by showing the hopes she holds for him.

  Harley: Not this time.

  Catwoman: Oh, please. He’ll be calling for your money the second he hears about it.

  Poison Ivy: Then you’ll be skipping out the door for another round of abuse, humiliation, and regret.

  Harley: Has he called?!3

  Fortunately for her, Ivy made Harley immune to all toxins, thus protecting her from some of the Joker’s favorite methods of bumping people off.4

  Dependent Personality Disorder

  An individual with dependent personality disorder defines his or, as in this case, her own self-concept in terms of some other person. Beginning before adulthood, the consistently and severely dependent person fears separation, lacks self-confidence, clings and submits, passively lets others lead her through life, and easily finds herself crippled with indecision, all in the hope that she might receive caregiving, comfort, and security. Because she fears losing support or approval, the dependent person does not easily disagree with anyone, especially not the one upon whom she depends most. She may make outlandish self-sacrifices and tolerate verbal, physical, or sexual abuse. Even though this can be a person full of strengths and abilities, she feels so unable to function alone that she will go along with almost anything rather than risk having the other person leave her. She does not trust her own abilities. She’s afraid to trust them. Recognizing her own strengths scares her, as though being able to live alone might increase the chances she’ll wind up all alone.5 The basic human need for affiliation has twisted and swollen into something that rules this individual. When a dependent person attaches to a narcissist, it might work for a time because they’re both in love with the same person, but the dependent’s clinginess wearies the narcissist, who wants much from others but gives little in return.

  Harley Quinn re-creat
es herself in the Joker’s image.6 Having only tolerated the “harlequin” play on her name after hearing it her whole life, she finally accepts it from the Joker, dons a harlequin costume to break him out of Arkham, and tosses away every professional achievement she has spent her life building. She takes heaping abuse from the man, including multiple attempts on her life. Lying battered and broken in an alley after the Joker hurls her out of a window, Harley blames only herself: “My fault. I didn’t get the joke.”7

  Lost, vulnerable without the Joker, and easily manipulated despite her intelligence and other strengths, she follows her friend Poison Ivy into assorted misadventures, bringing out Ivy’s more human side until Harley sees the Joker. A social chameleon, Harley molds her personality to suit Ivy, then snaps into ruthlessness around him and betrays her best friend when she’s in Joker moll mode.8

  Folie à Deux

  A person suffering shared psychotic disorder, a.k.a. shared psychosis and originally known as folie à deux (“folly of two”), buys into someone else’s psychosis and takes on, in part or even in whole, the other’s delusional thinking.9 With nothing in Harley’s history to suggest that she was psychotic before those months in Arkham while the Joker manipulated her, this diagnosis seems possible if she’s really psychotic. She does not hallucinate or show any other strong symptoms that might suggest she has become schizophrenic. Note, though, that a distorted point of view and willful blindness to some things that should be obvious to anyone do not in and of themselves mean she’s psychotic. It’s a matter of severity. The fact that she eventually earns a death sentence after killing someone over the Joker indicates that the law finally deems her sane enough to die—even if she gets to work off that sentence as a member of the government’s Suicide Squad.10

  Coping Strategies

  Whether Harley suffers dependent personality disorder, shared psychosis, neither, or both, how does anyone smart enough to get through medical school become so desperate for affection and approval in the first place? Her susceptibility to manipulation has governed her. Professional opinions are mixed as to what causes such extreme dependence and suggestibility. Maybe a cruel parent who made the child feel worthless nevertheless showed enough inconsistent affection and attention to give that child false hope. Maybe an overprotective parent makes life so easy that a child fails to develop adequate coping skills or makes it too easy for them to stay under someone else’s wing. Harley’s loser of a brother still hasn’t gotten off the couch, found a grownup job, bought a home, or married the mother of either of his children. Even after Harley gives him enough money, he finds it too easy to stay in their mom’s home.

  Harley’s father, as he first appears, is a con artist. He lies to everyone, including family. Growing up with a parent who’s an inveterate liar tends to make a child either gullible or cynical, one extreme or another, ready to trust everything or nothing. Harley went for gullible. Her intelligence makes it a challenge to stay so gullible, so she shuts off part of her smarts. She protects herself with reality-distorting defense mechanisms, neurotic defense mechanisms Freud felt could turn psychotic if taken to an extreme: denial, refusing to believe stressful truths; suppression, refusing to think about stressful truths that have entered her memory; and rationalization, making up excuses like blaming Batman for the Joker’s behavior. These let her hold onto her hope.

  Harley: Well, no more. That pasty-faced creep has threatened my friends for the last time. I’m through with him.

  Catwoman: Glad to hear it.

  Harley: Of course … if the real Mr. J. shows up again, who’s to say he won’t have changed for the better? After all, it’s not impossible …

  (Poison Ivy wraps a vine around Harley’s mouth.)11

  Fans debate the nature of the Joker’s relationship with Harley. Clearly he’s using her and doesn’t care if she dies—more than once, he has tried to kill her—but exactly what does he use her for?

  Travis Langley: Would you ever have imagined the Joker having a girlfriend?

  Jerry Robinson: I would.

  Michael Uslan: I’m less concerned or worried or terrified about what the Joker could do with a woman as opposed to what the Joker could do with a pencil.

  Adam West: I think that Batman generally is a little island in time, spinning around forever, and it can take so many different levels and forms that one could do anything with it. Joker could have the mansion at Hefner’s place and his own show. Of course he could have a girlfriend. It might be very interesting.12

  Harley Quinn cosplayer (a real-life mental health worker) at New York Comic Con. Photo by Travis Langley.

  The details of any sex life between Harley and the Joker remain the stuff of fan fiction and nightmares. Frank Miller’s Joker wouldn’t have sex;e Alan Moore’s might. When Harley’s creators Paul Dini and Bruce Timm first unveiled her origin in Mad Love, a special issue of Batman Adventures, the comic book series modeled after their program Batman: The Animated Series,13 they showed her as an undergraduate psychology student who’d rather apply her feminine wiles on professors than study to earn her grades, and left us to wonder if that’s how she later gets her high medical school grades as well. Harley spends seven pages of that story in a skimpy red nightgown trying to entice the Joker. “Aw, c’mon, puddin’, don’t you wanna rev up your Harley?” His indifference gives way to anger over her distracting him from designing the ultimate death trap—a common occurrence between them, it seems. “Another night I get all dolled up, and another night I get the boot.”f If the Joker has no iota of interest in sexual activity, wouldn’t Harley have learned long ago that any attempt to seduce him would be a waste of time? Keep in mind that we’re talking about the woman who regularly fails to get a clue when it comes to her man. Harley wants the Joker, however she can get him, but what on earth does he want?

  CASE FILE 8–3 The Joker

  Real name: Unknown, possibly Jack

  First appearance: Batman #1 (Spring, 1940)

  Origin: A robber known as the Red Hood plunges into a chemical waste catch basin while escaping from Batman. The chemicals turn his hair green, his lips rouge-red, and his skin chalk-white. He becomes the Joker.1 That’s all we know—maybe more than we need to know. Beyond that, we can’t trust anything the Joker tells us about his background because the Joker lies. In the comics and movies, he describes his backstory differently every time, even to himself. As he says in the game-changing graphic novel The Killing Joke,2 “I’m not exactly sure what it was. Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another. If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!”

  “They’ve given many origins of the Joker, how he came to be. That doesn’t seem to matter—just how he is now. I never intended to give a reason for his appearance. We discussed that and Bill [Finger] and I never wanted to change it at that time. I thought—and he agreed—that it takes away some of the essential mystery.”

  —Jerry Robinson, the Joker’s co-creatorg

  The Joker defies diagnosis. His behavior doesn’t neatly fit any specific mental illness beyond his obvious psychopathy. He has no conscience, no empathy, no personal concern over right and wrong. Antisocial personality disorder describes him in many ways but is inadequate, failing to distinguish him from many petty thieves. There’s so much more to the Joker. We just don’t know what’s going on inside his head and for storytelling purposes, it’s best that we don’t. Knowing he had a specific mental illness might engender our sympathy.

  “Unlike you and I, the Joker seems to have no control over the sensory information he’s receiving from the outside world. He can only cope with that chaotic barrage of input by going with the flow. That’s why some days he’s a mischievous clown, others a psychopathic killer. He has no real personality. He creates himself every day. He sees himself as the Lord of Misrule, and the world as a theatre of the absurd.”

  —Dr. Ruth Adams in Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (1989)