Psychoanalysis of The Joker – Latest Info!

The Joker – Psychoanalysis Update

Pretty excited folks. Earlier, I mentioned about the fact that a publisher showed interest in my thesis on The Joker. After a series of meetings over the last few weeks and a few edits as requested, I sent my revised draft to the publisher. I got a call this afternoon from my contact and she said that the team liked it. Hopefully, it is a good sign and I should have some great news about the publication soon. I will announce the title of the book in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, a couple of people I know here, one a psychiatrist, and the other a psychologist have expressed interest in reading the edited draft. Both of them read a rough draft of the thesis a few months back already, and they gave great advice that was very helpful in fine tuning the book. It would be great if the current material meets their expectations.

Clown Prince of Crime – Psychoanalysis Update

The Joker – Psychoanalysis Update

I would like to briefly interject with some other news. Over the last few months, I had spoken about my Psychoanalysis of The Joker thesis. I had last mentioned that I was postponing my publication due to the shootings in Aurora, Colorado. I would just like to mention that I have not forgotten about it. The reason is a person from a publishing house contacted me sometime ago and asked if I was interested in getting it published as a book. It came out of the blue and I thought I could  give it a shot. Just a few minutes ago, I got a phone call from her and she said she has been given the go-ahead by her boss, provided I make some modifications. I am not really sure how big a change is being requested really. Got a Skype conversation planned with her this Sunday. Keeping my fingers crossed.

The publishing house is a medium-sized one and have an excellent portfolio. I will reveal more information if the deal goes through. Pretty excited!

Psychoanalysis of The Joker – On Hold!

Moment of Madness – The Killing Joke

Due to the tragic developments in Aurora, Colorado, I have decided to delay publishing my thesis, “Psychoanalysis of The Joker”, by a few days. As of now, I have been closely following the James Holmes story and it doesn’t look good. You might have already read reports that he claimed that he was The Joker to the police. A lot of news outlets are running with this story, but so far, I am not sure if Aurora PD has confirmed it.

As usual, the media is going overboard and it is only a matter of time, before they start blaming Batman, comic books, video games, movies, in that order for this tragedy. True, one can be influenced by a lot of things, but, one delusional man’s actions can never be used as a point of gross generalization. But, you know how it works in the news media. They will have airheads on their programs who will start the blame game and badmouth just about anything or anyone, from the dark overtones in The Dark Knight saga to people like Frank Miller. It’s no wonder why many Batman related pages on Wikipedia are currently locked.

I think we should remember that this is such a huge tragedy and wish for the well-being of everyone affected by this heinous act of violence and pray for the lives lost.

Tragedy such as last night’s is not predictable. Also, long-term mental illness does not sound like a logical cause for it. From what I have read so far, it is clear that there was meticulous planning leading to the massacre. Dropping out of UCD a month earlier, rigging his home with explosives and ammunition, it seems to me that James Holmes is someone, who is very much in charge of his own faculties. It suggests that he was willing to go the distance in waging a bloody battle to the very end. I may be dead wrong, but, let us wait before a complete picture of him emerges.

In conclusion, given the current circumstances, I am delaying publishing the article. I am not talking about an indefinite hold or a delay by a month or so. It would be just a few days. But, I will do something else. I wrote a lengthy article on Bane last night and I will put it here in a two-three part post over the weekend.

July 20th 2012 – Psychoanalysis of The Joker

In other news, my psychoanalysis article has been progressing quite well. I am just taking time to make sure that it is devoid of errors. I wanted to mention here just quickly that I will make it available for download on the 20th of this month, coinciding with The Dark Knight Rises release. I will start posting articles and excerpts from the book, starting from 15th of this month culminating in the release of the book on 20th. So keep watching this space.

Scene next to Gloria Cinema in Stuttgart, Germany

Joker Thesis – Delayed

Sorry about that folks. I am getting released from the hospital tomorrow, hence, it has been pretty hectic over the last few days. It will take a couple of days or more to settle down at home environment. Once settled, I will post the article. Finally, it feels good to be out of the hospital. Sort of feels like I was locked up in one of those root partitions all this time, where I had no access to change anything, but I can peek around harmlessly. Now, I am back to my home partition. Time to celebrate! /usr/home/skinwalker/ FTW!

Psychoanalysis of The Joker – What to expect

So, my psychoanalysis article is almost complete, except for a few edits here and there. I will be putting it online this Saturday. So, keep watching this space. But before I do that, I would like to give a glimpse of what one could expect from the thesis.

You see, there are plenty of articles available online about The Joker. In my thesis, you can expect strong elements of modern psychiatry and psychoanalysis – Freudian, Jungian, you name it. My analysis is also partially influenced by Deleuze and Guattari’s  work and the The Matrix Trilogy. Wait, Why you ask? Just because I can. I just managed to find parallels between a character in The Matrix and The Joker that I thought I should address. So, you should expect the unexpected.

The thesis is divided into the following sections:

1. Motivation: A little bit about why I decided to write such an article and what it means to me personally.

2. Introduction: Introducing the character of The Joker as it was intended in the 40’s and how the character has evolved over time to a dark, psychologically richer version of current day.

3. Origins: The most important part of my thesis. A strong building is dependent on its foundation. Likewise, the key to understanding The Joker is analyzing his formative years and his transformation. This section is mostly derived from The Killing Joke.

4. First Encounter with Bats: I spent quite a while trying to understand this part. You see, the first encounter basically established The Joker for what he is. After this first encounter, Batman knew that if The Joker were to strike again, it will be his utmost priority to stop him. The Man Who Laughs and Lovers and Madmen inspired this section.

5. Arkham Asylum: I had a lot of fun analyzing The Joker’s time at the asylum. The kind of tricks he pulled to get out and how he manages to manipulate officials and even parole officers into doing his bidding.

6. Relationship with other Villains: The Joker’s relationship with Two-Face is well known and has been explored in different titles. So is his relationship with The Penguin. Analyzing these relationships gives us a viewpoint of The Joker that is absolutely stunning in my opinion. Hence, this is a very important aspect of my thesis.

7. Comparisons: This is the section where I compare The Joker with several figures, including The Matrix connection.

8. Conclusions: A long section devoted to my final words on The Joker. I address questions like, Can he ever be cured? Does he really want to be cured? Can he exist without Batman? and many many more.

Hopefully, I have been able to trigger your interest in my thesis. Please wait until this Saturday. I will definitely put it up then. 

The Joker – Psychoanalysis: Sources

The Joker – Psychoanalysis: Sources

I based my psychoanalysis of The Joker on both comic books and modern psychiatric literature. Here is a picture of some of the comic books that served as the inspiration for my thesis. Please remember, it is no way complete. These are just the comic books that I have with me at the hospital. There are many more at home and a few digital versions of comic books as well. Nevertheless, the comic books shown here would show different aspects of The Joker’s character.

Let us look at them one by one. The first comic book on top left is Joker’s Last Laugh. In this book, The Joker is wrongly diagnosed with terminal cancer and he decides to go out with a bang. He engineers a monumental assault that pits him against the entire JLA, President Luthor and the Batman family. He is actually killed by Nightwing, only to be resuscitated by Batman himself. It is an excellent piece of work, kind of gives you an idea as to how a person like The Joker would respond if he knew that he has only days to live.

The next comic book is The Joker – Devil’s Advocate. In this comic book, The Joker is wrongly implicated with murder charges and is on death trial. Only Batman can save him. Does he? It’s a great little book that shows justice actually goes both ways.

The third book is the famous The Man who laughs. The book details Batman’s first encounter with The Joker character. Covers a bit about the transformation from the Red Hood to The Joker. The gruesome murders sort of give a first view into the psyche of The Joker and why he does what he does.

The fourth book is Lovers and Madmen. The book is a modern imagination of the first encounter between Batman and The Joker and is a bit darker and edgier. I loved the introduction to The Joker character by Brad Meltzer.

The next book is Going Sane. The Joker believes that he has gotten the best of his arch nemesis forever and creates a different character and starts living life very differently. He has a pretty normal life and even falls in love and even planning to get married. But, the news of Batman’s escape and further existence results in The Joker’s relapse to madness. This is a fantastic book, since, we get to see if The Joker can be completely cured and what his association with the Bats means to the whole dynamic.

The sixth book is Batman Secrets. In this comic book, The Joker is able to drive public opinion against Bats and manipulates the entire perception of Batman. Association with Batman is again explored brilliantly.

The seventh book is the famous Red Hood annual addition. It deals with the transformation of Jason Todd aka Robin to Red Hood and how The Joker influenced everything. Psychologically, it is darker.

Apart from these seven books, there is The Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum, Joker – Classic Tales, It’s Joker Time, The Dark Knight Returns and many many more. In addition, animation videos, films, and documentaries form the basis for this thesis as well.

The Joker – Psychoanalysis

Moment of Madness – The Joker, The Killing Joke

One of the luxuries of being hospitalized is that you have a lot of time to do stuff. Apart from digging Cosmology and Math, I am reading a lot of comic books as well. Almost all of them are Batman Comics. The richness and variety of the Batman Universe is unparalleled in my opinion. The gallery of villains presents a great potential for psychoanalysis.

I have been obsessed with The Joker for many many years. But, now my focus is on the psychological analysis of him. I have been able to analyze his character layer by layer, in context with modern psychiatric text and it has been an enjoyable experience, so far.

I would like to post my analysis of The Joker in a few posts from now on. Whether it makes any sense or not, I will leave it to you folks.