Customer Reviews

The Psychology of Superheroes: An Unauthorized Exploration (Psychology of Popular Culture)

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"The Psychology of Superheroes" by Robin S. Rosenberg (editor) is an outstanding collection of eighteen essays about the insights we can gain in human psychology by studying the behavior of comic book superheroes. Almost all of the authors are college professors or doctoral candidates in psychology who expertly blend their professional knowledge with their love of comics. The result is a clever, witty and intriguing book that should appeal to anyone interested in psychology or pop culture.

Several authors dedicate their essays to studing how individual superheroes fit or deviate from standard psychological models and practices. For example, Christopher Patrick and Sarah Patrick contend that the Incredible Hulk suffers from a textbook example of reactive aggression triggered by the extreme physical and emotional maltreatment he suffered as a youth. Robert Biswas-Diener finds that the Spider-Man alter ego allows Peter Parker to gain encouragement through performance and an increase in personal happiness in general accordance with positive psychology theory. On the other hand, Bradley Daniels informs us that the insanity plea seems to be used far more frequently in the comics than in real life; and thankfully, no realworld mental institution exists that is as easily escapable as Gotham's notorious Arkham Asylum.

The moral behavior of superheroes is discussed in several pieces. Peter DeScioli and Robert Kurzban compare and contrast the absolutist ethics of Superman with the more complex utilitarian ethics of Batman, who nonetheless retains a consistent sense of purpose to ensure socially just outcomes. Andrew Getzfeld suggests that The Punisher's moral outrage over the murder of his family compels him to engage in an extreme form of vigilantism that, unfortunately, would probably remain intractable even if he was afforded the benefit of intensive clinical treatment.

Other articles shed light on the psychology of groups, institutions and society. Mikhail Lyubansky shows how the X-Men embody the ideology of tolerance and diversity within the walls of the Xavier Institute but are unfairly scapegoated for their enviable talents by human society. Chuck Tate studies the history of Wonder Woman to discuss how changing societal attitudes towards women has made the struggle to depict a strong, independent woman to remain a highly problematic task.

These are just a few of the many remarkable essays contained in this fun, intelligent book. It is highly recommended to everyone.

This is a great book. It has interesting ways of applying theories of Psychology from multiple subfields in a novel and interesting ways. It opens the doors to new ideas on how to apply Psychological theory to comic books which adds to greater understanding of the theories and our world in general.

"The Psychology of Superheroes" gave me the possibility of updating my general knowledge about state of the art Psychology while watching great characters like Superman, Spiderman, Batman, the Justice League, the X-Men or lots of others make astonishing psychological deads while flying around, defeating powerful enemies, even saving the Earth. All of this through the eyes and minds of quite competent fellow psychologist writers. We learn a lot about what makes us appreciate superheroes and the way they contribute to our life and mirror our quest for happiness. A powerful book indeed, even capable of saving the souls of Comic books! So thank you Robin Rosenberg for making this happen.

I'll keep this review pretty short. This book felt like a sham of a book & a little bit of a set up for the next seduction of the innocent witch-hunt. It takes a lot of golden age characters & then uses really obvious arm chair psychology to paint the entire genre as juvenile & a little bit mindless.

For instance, Mikhail Lyubansky shows how the X-Men embody the ideas of tolerance within the walls of the Xavier Institute (a fictional location that at time of publishing no longer actually existed) but are hated & feared by the people they protect. Yet, not once does he touch on the fact that in a real world with mutants we would also want people with these incredible abilities to be both mentally stable & beholden to some sort of law. Nor does he ever mention the counter racism of mutants where they've spent most the 90's & early 2000's talking about how they are a superior race & shall inherit the Earth on the basis of possessing a random birth defect in the form of a single X gene.

The greatest travesty in this book is that it supplies psuedo-science from research students, while ignoring any form of common sense... But then isn't that psychology all over: Pretenses of wisdom, without common sense.

Book was in very good condition, and there were no problems with the ordering process. Interesting book if you enjoy comics, connects parts of our real world to the world of comics.

I really do think the GOP paid this quack writer to write something which smears Comic books, It's like Seduction of the Innocent all over again. But it;s meaning is clear and it is also distrubing.