The Dark Side of Superheroes But instead, the Joker is shown as suffering from pseudobulbar affect, a neurological condition that occurs after trauma to the brain and results in uncontrollable bursts of emotion at inappropriate moments.
“Rather, [“Joker” is] a film about the 'illness' in all of us, including the experience of lack, envy, rage, and manic and narcissistic defenses against these.” The cast and creative minds behind “Joker” had their own perceptions of the movie as well.
The comics often say he's "psychotic," but Joker doesn't have the hallucinations that accompany that illness. Some adaptations refer to him as having one or more Cluster B personality disorders, usually Narcissistic Personality Disorder or Anti-Social Personality Disorder ("psychopathic").
What is Pseudobulbar Affect? The condition known as pseudobulbar affect (PBA) is characterized by brief uncontrollable outbursts of crying or laughter that are incongruent with the patient's feelings of sadness or joy.
For starters, Langley asserts that Batman, despite popular opinion, does not have a mental illness. The Dark Knight exhibits some symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, but not enough to warrant a formal diagnosis.
Personality Disorder, specifically, Histrionic Personality Disorder plays a key part in Harley Quinn's life. People with Histrionic Personality Disorder are “pervasive and excessive emotionally and display attention-seeking behavior” (Bornstein 1998).
Wandering off to unknown lands and hearing 'hats' talking in his head, Mad Hatter is an immaculate portrayal of a paranoid schizophrenic. This profoundly deluded genius is often shown mistaking real people for Wonderland characters. That's kind of sad, minus the evil part.
The psychopathology Arthur exhibits is unclear, preventing diagnosis of psychotic disorder or schizophrenia; the unusual combination of symptoms suggests a complex mix of features of certain personality traits, namely psychopathy and narcissism (he meets DSM-5 criteria for narcissistic personality disorder).
Personality disorders. In general, Arthur appears to have a complex mix of features of certain personality traits, namely narcissism (since he craves attention by any means) and psychopathy (since he demonstrates no empathy for his victims).
In Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho, the protagonist, Patrick Bateman, is apparently simply a psychopath. However, Bateman can be diagnosed with other mental illnesses such as Asperger's syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, narcissism, and antisocial personality disorder.
Released earlier in February, the new season of Netflix's 'You' has once again got fans talking about protagonist Joe Goldberg's condition – erotomania. Goldberg, a character played by actor Penn Badgley, is a bookstore manager who has a delusional obsession with a new woman each season.
Since it's a fictional character and the story never mentions autism no-one could possibly know. However, when looking at Joaquin Phoenix's portrayal of the Joker it certainly doesn't shout autism at all… It's more likely that he's a psychopath where his Pseudobulbar affect (PBA) certainly doesn't help.
Harley Quinn is a lot of things. She is insane, mentally unbalanced, and perhaps even psychotic. However, if there is one thing Harley is not, it is a psychopath.
So what exactly is Joker's Personality? According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the Joker's character would likely be classified as an ENTP (Extraverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Perceiving) personality type. This personality type is known for being charismatic, clever, and quick-witted.
Later, Arthur goes to Arkham State Hospital and steals his mother's records, and finds out that he was in fact adopted, and that Thomas Wayne is not his father and that Penny is not his true mother.
Arthur was brought up by a foster mother and did not have a father figure. The foster mother herself describes him growing up as a fun and kind boy, but later he was abused and beaten by his adoptive parents and even had a severe head injury.
Aside from the two names stated above, Joker referred to the illness as Joker-itis and Mad Clown Disease (a parody of hepatitis and Mad Cow Disease). Batman mentioned that Joker Infection was a variant of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease that was mutated beyond any medical record.
[Batman Forever's Riddler] appears to have borderline personality disorder, an unstable, incomplete identity characterized by chaos in one's thoughts, moods, actions, and self-concept...
But does she have a mental illness? Possibly. Through her aggression, deceitfulness, theft, and serious violation of rules, Selina displays traits of conduct disorder, the childhood precursor to antisocial personality disorder.
The Riddler's war with OCD is surprisingly accurate. Despite being exaggerated for entertainment purposes, he embodies the base symptoms of OCD by portraying literal obsessions and compulsions.
Borderline personality disorder is one of the most painful mental illnesses since individuals struggling with this disorder are constantly trying to cope with volatile and overwhelming emotions.
The Joker gradually seduces Quinzel and gets her to fall madly in love with him. He later persuades her to release him, subjecting her to shock therapy in retaliation for her using it on him, and manipulating her into jumping into a vat of the same chemicals that disfigured him to prove her love for him.
However, Batman vehemently disagrees with him and states that Harley never had an obsession for the Joker. Instead, she "fell victim to direct manipulation" that took her years to undo. Still, she ended up winning out by shaking "herself free of his emotional depredations" and became an even better villain than Joker.
