The Psychology of Superheroes

June 16, 2008 on 7:25 pm | In 3 Stars | No Comments

The Psychology of Superheroes
By Robin Rosenberg, Ph.D.
(Benbella Books, 2008)

Y’know, as a writer myself, I love to know what makes a character tick. What makes them who they are, and what makes them do what they do. It’s a fascinating subject and a great way to understand the character if you ever hope to write him or her. The Psychology of Superheroes, edited by Robin Rosenberg, Ph.D., book seemed like it would be a great find for me, and while I certainly enjoyed it, I often found it to be dull and clinical.

This book looks at the psychological motivations behind your favorite characters.

* The positive psychology of Peter Parker.
* Themes of race and discrimination in X-Men.
* Gender roles in Wonder Woman.
* Nature versus nurture in Superman’s upbringing.
* Is the Punisher a clinical psychopath or just anti-social?
* Anger management and the Hulk.

Every single topic could be fascinating and well-explored … if they had any real writers.

This book is an anthology, written not by creative writers but mostly by clinical professionals. Yes, Virigina, there is a difference. Just because a writer scripts a story about a doctor working in a busy urban emergency room, that doesn’t make him a doctor. Likewise, just because Dr. John Somebody has been published in the “North American Journal of Psychology” doesn’t mean they know a thing about writing a captivating story.

They certainly know a lot about the characters, I can’t deny that; but most of their essays read like a disertation for a professional journal. In fact, if you substituted any of the popular character mentioned in these essays for more generic, unknown names, the essays would be virtually unreadable to the average person. I think it’s only because it’s dealing with characters we know and love that we even bother to read them.

After all … we’re talking about an entertainment industry, and to suck all the fun out of them is counterproductive to their creation.

Still, if you can get past the technical jargon, it’s still a fun and interesting book to read. I especially recommend it to writers who hope to someday script these characters’ adventures, as a way to better understand the motivation behind their actions. I also recommend it to anyone with a combined interest in comics and psychology — for you people, this book is like someone put their chocolate into your peanut butter!

Overall, it’s a great subject matter, with some excellent topics, that just fell a little flat in the hands of some less than entertaining authors.

I’d give this book three stars.

FUN FACTS: In the Marvel Universe, the X-Men have often been used as allegories for racial prejudice; Dr. Charles Xavier representing Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Magneto representing his idealogical counterpart, Malcom X.