Mental disorders associated with superheroes

These fictional characters usually lead extreme lifestyles, some of them associated with disorders.

Something that greatly enriches fictional characters is their psychological definition, because it facilitates the construction of their development and evolution. Thus, we have cinema classics in which mental disorders are the main characters, such as Best Impossible, A Beautiful Mind or Rain Man. However, in the world of superheroes, the extreme nature of their powers is also often accompanied by psychological characteristics that are very extreme. This is why 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 makes it possible to humanize them and facilitate identification on the part of the viewer.

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

Spiderman

Spiderman obtained 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 obtained this property. At first he used his powers in show business, for selfish purposes, and it wasn't until he let a thief escape, who would kill his beloved 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 whenever he could use his power to help someone. Thus, he repeatedly his excessive dedication to duty has led him to abandon personal relationships, job opportunities or to confront the police or other superheroes, illustrating symptoms that can be found 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 the Hulk were complete opposites, the former being a brilliant, introverted scientist and the latter an irrational brute with the intelligence of a child, in an obvious case of dissociative identity disorder, in which neither personality has memories of what the other did when he was out of control.

In addition, the transformation into the Hulk occurs in the face of high levels of stressBanner has learned breathing techniques, meditation, etc. in several 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 oriented to narcissistic personality disorder because of its high ego, the truth is that, above all, we find symptoms associated with substance use, specifically with alcoholism..

And the fact is that Tony Stark made 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 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 Marvel Comics universe. As a result of the trauma, the X-Man suffered a retrograde amnesia that prevented him from remembering part of his past. However, over time it was further discovered that the memories he retained were nothing more than "memory implants" inserted in the same experiment, ie, false memories induced in the same way as in Elisabeth Loftus' studies.

5. Batman

Bruce Wayne witnessed the murder of his parents by an armed robber when he was still a child, a situation that led him to use his inheritance to become the crime fighter known as Batman. Bruce relives the experience of his parents' murder on special occasions (the anniversary of the death, Mother's Day...) or whenever he goes to the scene of the crime, as occurs in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)..

In addition, he has trouble falling asleep and, sometimes, high irritability and, although exposure to situations similar to the stressful event would contradict the diagnosis, this symptom is often reflected in comics and movies by Batman's constant avoidance of firearms.