A journey behind the mask and into the mind of Gotham City’s Caped Crusader, timed for the summer 2012 release of
The Dark Knight Rises
Batman is one of the most compelling and enduring characters to come from the Golden Age of Comics, and interest in his story has only increased through countless incarnations since his first appearance in Detective Comics #27 in 1939. Why does this superhero without superpowers fascinate us? What does that fascination say about us? Batman and Psychology explores these and other intriguing questions about the masked vigilante, including: Does Batman have PTSD? Why does he fight crime? Why as a vigilante? Why the mask, the bat, and the underage partner? Why are his most intimate relationships with “bad girls” he ought to lock up? And why won’t he kill that homicidal, green-haired clown?
- Gives you fresh insights into the complex inner world of Batman and Bruce Wayne and the life and characters of Gotham City
- Explains psychological theory and concepts through the lens of one of the world’s most popular comic book characters
- Written by a psychology professor and “Superherologist” (scholar of superheroes)
Inhoudsopgave
Acknowledgments: My Bat-Family vii
Foreword by Michael Uslan, Bat-Films executive producer xi
Introduction by Dennis O’Neil, comic book writer/editor 1
1 Beneath the Cowl: Who Is Batman? 5
2 Which Batman? 8
Case File 2–1: King Tut
Case File 2–2: Mr. Freeze
3 The Trauma 35
4 Why the Mask? 54
5 Why the Bat? 67
Case File 5–1: Scarecrow
Case File 5–2: Hugo Strange
6 The “Superstitious, Cowardly Lot”: Criminal Nature 90
Case File 6–1: Bane
7 The Halloween Party: Why All the Costumed Crooks? 110
Case File 7–1: The Riddler
Case File 7–2: The Penguin
Case File 7–3: Poison Ivy
8 The Madhouse: What Insanity? 130
Case File 8–1: The Mad Hatter
Case File 8–2: Harley Quinn
Case File 8–3: The Joker
9 The Psychodynamic Duo: Freud and Jung on Batman and Robin 158
Case File 9–1: Two-Face
10 The Kids: Why Robin? 178
Case File 10–1: Red Hood
Case File 10–2: Dr. Fredric Wertham
11 The Women: Why the Cat? 211
Case File 11–1: Catwoman
12 The Fathers: Why Do We Fall? 237
Case File 12–1: Ra’s al Ghul
13 Why So Serious? 257
14 The Assessment: Bats in His Belfry? 266
Notes 272
References: Comic Books and Graphic Novels 291
References: Not Comic Books or Graphic Novels 304
Index 332
Over de auteur
TRAVIS LANGLEY is a professor of psychology at Henderson State University. An organizer for the Comics Arts Conference, he is a psychologist who speaks regularly on the psychology of superheroes at conventions like San Diego Comic-Con?especially the psychology of Gotham’s Dark Knight.
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