Dînadan wrote:SuccubusYuri wrote:I mean, the super-cynical side of me classifies Batman as a mental illness Bruce has (the paranoid obsession of it all), but because of his economic resources, he's allowed to be humored instead of put away in Arkham.
My personal headcanon is that he is mentally ill, which is why he decided to cope with his trauma by dressing up as a bat and going out at night to rough up crooks rather than becoming a policeman, lawyer, judge or the like and trying to clean up the system from the inside (and only turning to vigilantism once that failed). The only difference between him and his rogues is that his neurosis are directed towards being productive rather than destructive and his personal code of morals.
In fact there's at least one storyline where Gordon outright tells Batman that the only reason he's tolerated is because of said code.
I don't know if mentally ill is the right word but... emotionally stunted, maybe?
In one of our earlier threads, I recall, their was some discussion of Batman being sort of child-like, as I recall (don't recall which thread). I think that rings true, to an extent. Not childish in his behaviour, because he's usually deadly serious, but emotionally immature or child-like in certain ways. I mean, dressing up in a scary costume and going out to punch the bad guys is a
very childish response to the evils of the world. Then there's his lack of healthy romantic relationships (though that could just be a product of his career), his idealistic insistence on not killing (which I personally agree with, but could possibly be interpreted as a remnant of child-like idealism and innocence), and the fact that his friends and associates tend to be adolescents (Batgirl, Robin, etc.). In a way, he's someone who never grew up, because he never was able to move past that night in the alley.
In light of all that, it makes an absurd sort of sense that his arch enemy is an evil
clown- a very child-like fear.
Edit: I'm not a psychiatrist, obviously, but I wonder if you could make a case for some sort of dissociative disorder- considering that at least some versions think of themselves as Batman, not Bruce, in their own head.
But really, I think it makes a stronger story generally if Batman is not a product of mental illness, but of Bruce's own choice. An irrational, or at least uninformed choice, probably, a choice made by a desperate and angry child which Bruce is to stubborn, and has sacrificed too much for, to walk away from. But ultimately his decision, made for fundamentally sane reasons.
