Real Life Forensic Psychiatrists Criticize DC's Portrayal Of "Crazy" Villains!

The New York Times have run an editorial by a group of forensic psychiatrists who shared their thoughts on the portrayal of "mentally ill" villains in the DC Universe. While you may think it's somewhat petty, they do in fact raise a few good points! Here are a few excerpts from the editorial, but you can read it in full by clicking on the link below to head on over to the site.

Comic books have long relied on mental disorders to drive their most memorable villains. Consider the Batman line, in which the Joker, Harley Quinn and other "criminally insane" rogues are residents of Gotham City’s forensic psychiatric hospital, Arkham Asylum.

Introduced in 1974, Arkham grossly confuses the concepts of psychiatric hospital and prison. Patients are called "inmates," decked out in shackles and orange jumpsuits, while a mental health professional doubles as the "warden." Even the antiquated word "asylum" implies that the patients are locked away with no treatment and little hope of rejoining society. Contrast that with real-world forensic psychiatric hospitals, where patients are typically incompetent to stand trial or judged not guilty by reason of insanity. These individuals are not inmates, since they have not been convicted of crimes and are not incarcerated.

True, some say, "these are just comic books." But such inaccuracies perpetuate harmful stereotypes. The 2006 National Stigma Study-Replication found that 60 percent of people believed a person with schizophrenia, as described in a vignette, would be likely to be violent toward others — despite the fact that, according to the Surgeon General’s office, "There is very little risk of violence or harm to a stranger from casual contact with an individual who has a mental disorder." Such stereotypes can in turn lead to discrimination and cause those with mental disorders to avoid treatment for fear of being labeled "lunatics."

That’s why DC Comics should seize the opportunity with The New 52 to move to the forefront in transforming mental health depictions in comics. To start, writers should stop overemphasizing a link between violence and mental disorders to explain criminal behavior. Moreover, accurate portrayals of symptoms should be paired with correct terminology to describe them. For example, writers might refer to the Joker, frequently depicted as lacking empathy and being a pathological liar, as "psychopathic," rather than "psychotic." In comics, these and other psychiatric terms are casually interchanged; in psychiatry, they are drastically different.

In a post on the DC Comics blog, its co-publishers, Jim Lee and Dan DiDio, wrote that "we want these adventures to resonate in the real world, reflecting the experiences of our diverse readership." To truly resonate in today’s inclusive culture, they should start by reintroducing their depictions of mental health.