Is Batman, well, batty?
That's the central issue in a new book by Robin S. Rosenberg, Ph.D., clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, author, lecturer and certified hypnotist. "What's the Matter with Batman? An Unauthorized Look Under the Mask of the Caped Crusader" applies professional criteria to the questions that have always swirled around the sanity of a man whose response to tragedy has been to dress up like a flying rodent.
And Rosenberg is precisely the person best suited to do it. In addition to the curricula vitae listed above, she is also series editor of the "Superheroes" line at Oxford University Press and editor of the anthologies "The Psychology of Superheroes" and "The Psychology of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."
She is also a major Bat-fan, given that she is conversational with terms like "the Dick Grayson era" of Robin, and can explain in depth the differences between Batman's 1939 origin in "Detective Comics" No. 33 vs. his origin in the 2005 film "Batman Begins."
So, back to the book: Is Batman crazy?
Well, first, Rosenberg was quick to tell me in a phone interview that psychologists "don't actually use the term 'crazy,' " preferring phrases like "diagnosable disorder." (I assume "nutso," "bonkers" and "taking the cray-cray train to Koo-Koo Town" are equally off-limits, but was afraid to ask.)
Secondly, we have to establish which Batman we're talking about. There have been a lot of versions of Batman, from Adam West's campy TV turn to Frank Miller's aging, ultra-violent "Dark Knight Returns." It turns out Rosenberg examines more than one version of Batman at once.
"I focus on an amalgam," she says. "Basically what I was trying to do was find, in any version, enough symptoms of various disorders."
Those disorders include dissociative identity disorder, clinical depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and antisocial personality disorder. She also discusses Batman's guilt, workaholic tendencies and occasional poor judgment (hint: Robins).
So is Batman crazy? Well, you've probably figured out by now that I'm not going to spoil the book by telling you what Rosenberg concludes. Instead, I'll regale you with a few of Rosenberg's Bat-impressions from our interview:
Is Batman messianic, thinking he is so necessary for Gotham?
"In the film 'Batman Begins,' " Rosenberg said, "Gotham City ... is basically a mess, and the Gotham police (have) not been able to fix it. So if (Bruce Wayne) can fix it, then he's justified in his messianic beliefs. ... it's an accurate self-assessment."
Isn't his anger a problem?
"Anger can be a very powerful motivator," she said. "Anger in and of itself isn't a bad thing. When people who end up becoming doctors or cancer researchers have been motivated because they were angry that a loved one died of cancer, does that make anger bad? No. ... It's OK to be angry. It's really important being in control of it ... to make it work for you, versus working against you."
In "Batman Begins," it's implied that the Bat-mask is a totem of sorts. Is it?
"I think partly it just depends on the wearer," Rosenberg said. "(Bruce Wayne) chose the bat, it's not simply a mask that he's putting on. It's a meaningful mask, so it may be when he puts it on there is a totemic-like aspect, wishing to imbue himself (with) certain bat-like characteristics. I mean, if he were wearing a princess mask, he might feel a little differently!"
What's your opinion of the Christopher Nolan films, from a professional psychologist's perspective?
"Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan and David Goyer ... are really good lay psychologists. In 'Batman Begins' ... I thought it was absolutely brilliant to have Bruce Wayne as a young child be an anxious and fearful kid, temperamentally. We know a lot about anxious and fearful temperament and here ... he fell into a cave of bats and was traumatized by that, and then he goes to the opera (which) has people dressed as bats going up the walls of the stage, and he has a panic attack. And having that ... was absolutely brilliant, because that's the part about his guilt. ... He understands that if he hadn't had the panic attack his parents wouldn't have ended up in the alley with Joe Chill.
"And they had him master his fear by the technique called exposure, where you expose yourself to what you're afraid of in a controlled way. And that's the totem of him taking on the bat as his animal costume. It added a whole other veneer to the Batman mythos, the meaning of his becoming Batman. I thought that was absolutely psychologically brilliant."
Finally, I had to ask her about a recent Playboy interview, where longtime Bat-writer Grant Morrison made the startling claim that "gayness is built into Batman. I'm not using 'gay' in the pejorative sense, but Batman is very, very gay. There's just no denying it. Obviously as a fictional character he's intended to be heterosexual, but the basis of the whole concept is utterly
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