The Joker and Antisocial Personality Disorder
After doing a comprehensive observation of the famous but yet infamous character “The Joker” and researching his thoughts, behaviors, and actions, I have deduced that he suffers from antisocial personality disorder, one of the dramatic-emotional personality disorders. Antisocial personality disorder is a common diagnosis, as it affects about 200,000 people in the US per year. (Mayo Clinic, 2016). Many of the people diagnosed are men since men are five times more likely than women to meet the criteria for antisocial personality disorder (Kring & Johnson, 2014). Those with this disorder are antisocial, hostile, deceitful, manipulative, irresponsible, risk takers, impulsive, aggressive, irritable, …show more content…
According to Kring (2014), “the core feature of antisocial personality disorder (ADP) is a pervasive pattern of disregard for the rights of others.” The Joker is at least eighteen years old and shows evidence of conduct disorder before the age of fifteen. He also likes the spotlight and broadcasts himself to the public and media. The Joker also was continually being confronted by law enforcements and Batman due to the constant crimes he commits, but easily avoids capture due to the sick and disturbed games he plays on them. However, once they caught him he was punished until he escaped. For example after being interrogated and beaten by Batman, the Joker escaped shortly after. And once he would escape he would bounce right back to committing shocking crimes. The joker was also deceitful, for example, one time The Joker robbed the Gotham National City Bank and manipulated his group of thugs into helping him and told them they would all divide the money up when they got back. Instead, The Joker killed his group of thugs and kept all of the money for himself. While robbing the bank he all dressed up as and used the alias Bozo the clown. Additionally, the Joker fails to plan ahead a lot of times and is very impulsive. For example, right before he was arrested by the police and Batman, he was standing in the road yelling hit me when Batman was driving towards him. The …show more content…
Usually, when a patient is brought into counseling for psychological help, there is a lack of improvement due to the fact that the patient is usually disobedient and uncooperative. The treatment that would probably be the most effective for the Joker would be a treatment facility in which he could not hurt others. This way if he adjusted his negative behaviors he would be able to earn some privileges such as doing a hobby that he enjoys, as long as it cannot harm someone else. Also, since the Joker really does not have any healthy relationships in his life, a combination of behavior modification and psychotherapy would be helpful. In addition, the development of a healthy relationship between him and a therapist would probably be helpful for him as well. The development of these healthy relationships could be the way to teach him how to treat others the right way without hurting them for his own sick pleasure. The Joker also may be suffering from depression. Also, antidepressant medications may be beneficial in his situation to help his irritability along with any depression. Antidepressants are not actually used to treat individuals with antisocial personality disorder, however, they could help with some of the symptoms he has. Treatment depends on each individual’s specific situation, and
After doing a comprehensive observation of the famous but yet infamous character “The Joker” and researching his thoughts, behaviors, and actions, I have deduced that he suffers from antisocial personality disorder, one of the dramatic-emotional personality disorders. Antisocial personality disorder is a common diagnosis, as it affects about 200,000 people in the US per year. (Mayo Clinic, 2016). Many of the people diagnosed are men since men are five times more likely than women to meet the criteria for antisocial personality disorder (Kring & Johnson, 2014). Those with this disorder are antisocial, hostile, deceitful, manipulative, irresponsible, risk takers, impulsive, aggressive, irritable, …show more content…
According to Kring (2014), “the core feature of antisocial personality disorder (ADP) is a pervasive pattern of disregard for the rights of others.” The Joker is at least eighteen years old and shows evidence of conduct disorder before the age of fifteen. He also likes the spotlight and broadcasts himself to the public and media. The Joker also was continually being confronted by law enforcements and Batman due to the constant crimes he commits, but easily avoids capture due to the sick and disturbed games he plays on them. However, once they caught him he was punished until he escaped. For example after being interrogated and beaten by Batman, the Joker escaped shortly after. And once he would escape he would bounce right back to committing shocking crimes. The joker was also deceitful, for example, one time The Joker robbed the Gotham National City Bank and manipulated his group of thugs into helping him and told them they would all divide the money up when they got back. Instead, The Joker killed his group of thugs and kept all of the money for himself. While robbing the bank he all dressed up as and used the alias Bozo the clown. Additionally, the Joker fails to plan ahead a lot of times and is very impulsive. For example, right before he was arrested by the police and Batman, he was standing in the road yelling hit me when Batman was driving towards him. The …show more content…
Usually, when a patient is brought into counseling for psychological help, there is a lack of improvement due to the fact that the patient is usually disobedient and uncooperative. The treatment that would probably be the most effective for the Joker would be a treatment facility in which he could not hurt others. This way if he adjusted his negative behaviors he would be able to earn some privileges such as doing a hobby that he enjoys, as long as it cannot harm someone else. Also, since the Joker really does not have any healthy relationships in his life, a combination of behavior modification and psychotherapy would be helpful. In addition, the development of a healthy relationship between him and a therapist would probably be helpful for him as well. The development of these healthy relationships could be the way to teach him how to treat others the right way without hurting them for his own sick pleasure. The Joker also may be suffering from depression. Also, antidepressant medications may be beneficial in his situation to help his irritability along with any depression. Antidepressants are not actually used to treat individuals with antisocial personality disorder, however, they could help with some of the symptoms he has. Treatment depends on each individual’s specific situation, and