Mental Disorders Associated with Superheroes

Something that greatly enriches fictional characters is their psychological definition, because it facilitates the construction of their development and evolution. We thus have film classics in which mental disorders are the main protagonists, such as As Good As It Gets, A Beautiful Mind or Rain Man. However, in the world of superheroes, the extremeness of their powers is also usually accompanied by psychological characteristics. very on the limit. It is because of that It is possible to associate some of these superheroes with mental disorders

Superheroes and mental disorders

If there is a character archetype whose narrative benefits enormously from mental fragility, it is that of the so-called superheroes, since this resource allows them to be humanized and facilitate identification by the viewer.

In that sense, we can illustrate elements of psychology with these colorful characters, and some of the most popular heroes whose interest lies in some mental disorder They can be the following.

1. Spiderman

Spider-Man gained the ability to climb walls thanks to the bite of a radioactive spider, but it was not until he was a victim of tragedy that he gained this property. At first he used his powers in show business, for selfish purposes, and it was not until he let a thief escape, who would kill his much-loved Uncle Ben, that he would learn his famous mantra: with great power comes great responsibility.

From then on, the character acquires inflexible moral values, sacrificing his personal life every time he could use his power to help someone. Thus, repeatedly his excessive dedication to duty has led him to abandon personal relationships, job opportunities or confront the police or other superheroes, illustrating symptoms that we can find in Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder.

2. Hulk

After exposure to radiation, Bruce Banner acquires the curse of transforming into a destructive monster called the Hulk. In clear inspiration from the work of Lewis Stevenson, The Amazing Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (which had some influence on early psychodynamic studies), the personalities of Banner and Hulk were completely opposite, with the former being a brilliant and introverted scientist and the latter being an irrational brute with the intelligence of a child, in an obvious case of dissociative disorder. identity, in which neither personality has memories of what the other did when it was out of control.

Also, the transformation into Hulk occurs under high levels of stress so Banner has learned breathing techniques, meditation, etc. in various versions.

3.Iron Man

Iron Man was conceived as an antithesis of himself: he was an iron man with a severe heart disease. This concept has been extended over the years to the psychological field and, although it has sometimes been directed at narcissistic personality disorder due to its high ego, the truth is that, above all, we find symptoms associated with substance consumption, specifically with alcoholism

And Tony Stark hindered the commitment of his publisher against this social problem, being a millionaire businessman who could not control his alcohol consumption, leading him to lose his social relationships, his company, his house and his armor, although he was finally able to overcome it. and become stronger, like so many other victims of this condition. Of course, since then the character only drinks water, avoiding the discriminative stimulus that could trigger the whole process again.

4. Wolverine

Better known in Spain as Wolverine, Wolverine is a mutant who suffered the intervention of a government experiment in which his bones were reinforced with adamantium, the hardest metal in the fictional universe of Marvel comics. As a result of the trauma, Man X suffered retrograde amnesia that prevented him from remembering part of his past. However, over time it was also discovered that the memories he preserved were nothing more than “memory implants” inserted in the same experiment, that is, induced false memories in the same way as in the studies of Elisabeth Loftus.

5.Batman

Bruce Wayne witnessed the murder of his parents by an armed robber while still a child, a situation that led him to use his inheritance to become the crime fighter called Batman. Bruce relives the experience of the murder of his parents on specific dates (the anniversary of the death, Mother’s Day…) or whenever he goes to the crime scene, as occurs in post-traumatic stress disorders

In addition, he has problems falling asleep and, at times, high irritability and, although exposing himself to situations similar to the stressful event would contradict the diagnosis, this symptom is usually reflected in comics and movies by Batman’s constant avoidance of firearms.