We Asked Psychiatrists to Analyze Gotham’s Unhinged Bad Guys
http://www.wired.com/2015/01/gotham-villain-psychoanalysis/
This article was written by the psychiatrists of Broadcast Thought. Minor spoilers for Gotham follow.
Gotham is a batty city—particularly where its villains are concerned.
From unhinged vigilantes to maniacal menaces, mental illness and criminality seem to go hand-in-hand in Batman’s hometown—much more so than anywhere beyond Gotham’s city limits. In the real world, mental illness is a factor in only a small fraction of violent crimes, but on Fox’s Gotham mental health issues play a near-universal role in the origins of the show’s many bad guys.
Although the number of villains in Gotham with mental health issues is disproportionate, that doesn’t mean there aren’t actual disorders to explain the budding dysfunction that will define these characters. And their psychopathologies offer some clues.
Let’s start with Catwoman.
Juvenile delinquent Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova) is street smart and then some. She extorts cops, claws out the eyes of henchmen, and in general behaves like a feral feline: extremely dangerous when cornered. She also, of course, steals things. As Catwoman, Selina is a world-class burglar—one who honed her skills committing larceny and B&E as a teenager.
So yes, Selina is troubled. 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. This could mean she’s on a somewhat familiar trajectory. About half of real-world prisoners suffer from antisocial personality disorder, so if her conduct disorder develops into that condition—and she continues her criminal ways—Selina could find herself behind bars at Blackgate Penitentiary alongside a lot of people with similar backgrounds.
But many of Gotham‘s villains are more than antisocial. They’re psychopaths.
Take, for example, Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor). The man known as the Penguin appears on the surface to be simply a clumsy, stuttering ne’er-do-well, but underneath he is a calculating criminal and ruthless killer completely lacking in remorse or empathy. He’s also narcissistic (he often asserts Gotham “needs” him), masterfully manipulative, and immeasurably power-hungry. He’s not only a psychopath, he also might fit the standard definition of a serial killer since he stabs frat boys in the neck and feeds people poisoned cannoli with a fair amount of glee.
But what made him a psychopath? It’s hard to tell for sure. However, the roots of the Penguin’s pathological hunger for power may come from years of feeling powerless as a child. After repeatedly being bullied and beaten in his youth, Oswald’s actions may just reflect those of a person who has had enough. Some of his behaviors also may be traced to his mother. Overbearing and jealous—in a creepy, converse-Oedipal sort of way—she seems to have fostered in her son a dysfunctional psyche and poor social skills.
The source of our third and final villain’s criminality is even more of mystery. Or rather, a riddle.
The Riddler is known for his campy compulsion to ask riddles and a narcissistic need to claim ownership of his criminal schemes. In Gotham, we see him first as Edward Nygma, a socially clueless but brainy forensic scientist at the Gotham City Police Department who lurks outside the captain’s office until called in and then doesn’t really know when to show himself out.
His awkwardness doesn’t end there. Edward also inappropriately comments on the name of GCPD record-keeper Kristen Kringle (Chelsea Spack) and excessively smells her hair as she walks by. He even blurts out “I want you!” and in a failed attempt to impress her and takes it upon himself to reorder the record room’s files using a peculiar “rhizomatic” system. And of course, underneath his eccentricity, he doesn’t seem to know when it is socially appropriate to pose riddles—much to the chagrin of Detectives Gordon (Ben McKenzie) and Bullock (Donal Logue).
So what’s his diagnosis? Edward’s persistent deficits in social communication and interaction—as well as his restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior and interests—point to autism spectrum disorder. And if that assessment is correct, his riddles could even be seen as a learned social interaction strategy. However, while autism spectrum disorder might explain some of his social interactions, it offers little in the way of answers about his impending criminal life. Autism isn’t associated with violent crime, so something else must have caused Edward Nygma to become The Riddler.
It’s possible, for example, that narcissistic injuries—lack of approval/admiration from GCPD detectives, failed attempts at courtship—put Edward on the road to villainy. It also could be the case that his deficit in social-emotional reciprocity—like his “fascination” with the broken body of a Viper victim—isn’t related to autism spectrum disorder at all, but rather just symptomatic of textbook psychopathy. Regardless of Edward’s enigmatic criminal raison d’être, Detective Bullock is right to recognize that Nygma needs “professional help.”
In fact, Selina, Oswald, and Edward could all benefit from psychiatric treatment. But don’t put them on the couch just yet. Given that mob boss Sal Maroni (David Zayas) is the man behind the infamous Arkham Asylum’s promised renovations, quality mental health care seems unlikely to be coming to Gotham any time soon.
