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Psychoanalysis of the Joker

Decent Essays

The Dark Knight is a 2008 film based on the Dc Comics character Batman and his struggle and journey in combating the most demented villain ever, The Joker. The Joker is a psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy. Due to The Joker’s insane nature, it is appropriate to use Dr. Sigmund Freud’s method of Psychoanalysis to better understand why The Joker is the way he is.
What is psychoanalysis? Psychoanalysis is a form of treatment invented by Sigmund Freud that usually focuses on the early years of the patient’s life and his/her relationship with immediate family members. A wise man once said, “There are four questions that every good student of psychology will ask about a personality theory. The first question …show more content…

The third question is can the personality change over time. According to Freud personality development is to be seen as psychosexual stages (Hergenhahn). In The Dark Knight The Joker’s constant twitching and licking of his lips are both evidence of an oral fixation. Freud would probably diagnose The Joker as an oral –sadistic character (Hergenhahn), and would want to speak with his mother to see what happened to him during the oral stage, which are the first years of life. In the second narration of the origins of his scars, The Joker tells Rachel that he once had a wife that was cut up by mobsters and that in an effort to make her feel better, he carves his own face and was devastated when she leaves him. If we believe this version of the story, then his anger from his father is compounded when he is rejected by his wife (Psychoanalysis of The Joker). This is again an example of selective memory, a defense mechanism.
The fourth question asks why there are differences between The Joker and the rest of us. “Freud would argue that different people develop in differing environments and had different childhood experiences” (Psychoanalysis of The Joker). The reason The Joker is different from all of us is his complicated past. Due to unknown childhood experiences, he never developed a superego.
Due to The Joker’s traumatic conflicts that he was unable to resolve in

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