A journey behind the mask and into the mind of Gotham City’s Caped Crusader, timed for the summer 2012 release of The Dark Knight Rises

Batman is one of the most compelling and enduring characters to come from the Golden Age of Comics, and interest in his story has only increased through countless incarnations since his first appearance in Detective Comics #27 in 1939. Why does this superhero without superpowers fascinate us? What does that fascination say about us? Batman and Psychology explores these and other intriguing questions about the masked vigilante, including: Does Batman have PTSD?  Why does he fight crime? Why as a vigilante? Why the mask, the bat, and the underage partner? Why are his most intimate relationships with “bad girls” he ought to lock up? And why won't he kill that homicidal, green-haired clown?

Gives you fresh insights into the complex inner world of Batman and Bruce Wayne and the life and characters of Gotham CityExplains psychological theory and concepts through the lens of one of the world’s most popular comic book charactersWritten by a psychology professor and “Superherologist” (scholar of superheroes) Acknowledgments: My Bat-Family

Foreword by Michael Uslan, Bat-Films executive producer

Introduction by Dennis O’Neil, comic book writer/editor

1. A Dark and Stormy Knight: Who Is Batman?

2. Which Batman?

3. The Trauma

4. Why the Mask?

5. Why the Bat?

6. The “Superstitious, Cowardly Lot”: Criminal Nature

7. The Halloween Party: Why All the Costumed Crooks?

8. The Madhouse: What Insanity?

9. The Psychodynamic Duo: Freud and Jung on Batman and Robin

10. The Kids: Why Robin?

11. The Women: Why the Cat?

12. The Fathers: Why Do We Fall?

13. Why So Serious?

14. The Assessment: Bats in His Belfry?

About the Author

Endnotes

References: Comic Books and Graphic Novels

References: Not Comic Books or Graphic Novels

Index Read Less