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Psychopathy
Is the Joker a Psychopath?
Diagnosing an iconic comic villain.
Posted November 24, 2019 Reviewed by Lybi Ma
The Joker is an iconic villain and arch-rival of Batman in DC Comics. In recent years he has been brilliantly portrayed on the big screen by the late Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight and most recently by Joaquin Phoenix in the film Joker. Because the Joker is perhaps the most high profile, enigmatic and beloved comic villain of all time I find it interesting to consider his possible criminal motivations and the pathologies of his mental state.
When discussing the Joker character, authors, critics, comic fans, and the general public often refer to him as a psychopath. As a criminologist who studies mental disorders, I would say that whether or not the Joker really is a psychopath depends upon which of the two memorable film depictions of him mentioned above you are watching.
In The Dark Knight, the Joker is a loner, glib, unemotional and very violent. These behavioral traits are very consistent with psychopathy. The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), released by the APA in 2013, lists psychopathy under the heading of Antisocial Personality Disorders (ASPD). The APA estimates that approximately 1 percent of U.S. adults are psychopaths.
Generally speaking, like the Joker, psychopaths are intelligent, glib, and articulate and they use these attributes to manipulate others into trusting and believing in them. However, a number of the attitudes and behaviors common to psychopaths are distinctly predatory in nature and they tend to view others as either competitive predators or prey, as Heath Ledger’s Joker certainly did.
When psychopaths view others as prey, their lack of feeling and bonding to others allows them to have unusual clarity in observing the behavior of their intended victims. As demonstrated by the Joker in The Dark Knight, psychopaths are unencumbered by the anxieties and emotions that normal people experience in interpersonal encounters. This is because psychopaths are unable to form emotional attachments or feel real empathy with others, although they often have disarming or even charming personalities.
Psychopathy is the most dangerous of all antisocial personality disorders. When committing crimes, psychopaths carefully plan out every detail in advance and often have contingency plans in place. Psychopathic criminals tend to be cool, calm, and very meticulous. They make few mistakes and are never undone by their emotions.
At one point in The Dark Knight, the Joker asks, “Do I really look like a guy with a plan?” In fact, the Joker did have a well-developed plan in the film but ironically it was to create societal disruption and chaos for his own amusement.
In contrast, Arthur Fleck (aka, the Joker) as brilliantly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix in Joker is psychologically tormented and has lost his connection to reality. His agonizing descent into madness in the film is both powerful and troubling to watch. In every respect, he is a man who is falling to pieces and appears to become suicidal right before our eyes.
Arguably, Fleck’s feelings of persecution and his delusions are consistent with the mental disorder paranoid schizophrenia. According to the Mayo Clinic, slightly more than 1 percent of the U.S. population suffers from schizophrenia.
The DSM-5 says that schizophrenia is a severe and chronic mental disorder characterized by disturbances in thought, perception, and behavior. The diagnosis of schizophrenia involves the recognition of an array of symptoms that negatively impact one’s social or occupational functioning. Such symptoms include hallucinations and delusions, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, and diminished emotional expression.
The paranoia in paranoid schizophrenia comes from delusions—firmly held beliefs that persist despite evidence to the contrary—and hallucinations—seeing or hearing that which others do not. Significantly, Arthur Fleck manifested this trait throughout Joker. His gradual descent into madness in the film is fraught with delusions that are nearly impossible to separate from reality, even for the viewer.
Moreover, Arthur Fleck demonstrated inappropriate affect in the film whenever he would laugh at socially incongruous times or in the absence of a stimulus. This is very consistent with schizophrenia.
Unlike Heath Ledger’s Joker, the Arthur Fleck character portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix demonstrates a full range of human emotions but is deeply disturbed and delusional to such an extent that he simply cannot function normally in the world. When Fleck completes his break from reality toward the end of the film and is transformed almost majestically into the Joker, he is reborn as the master of his own schizophrenic universe.
It seems to me that the nature and extent of the Joker’s mental pathology depend upon which brilliant actor’s portrayal of him you are watching: Heath Ledger or Joaquin Phoenix. Of course, all of this is academic conjecture because the Joker character is not real and is subject to interpretation. Nevertheless, I think that using scientific knowledge to better understand an iconic fictional, criminal character is a fun and educational exercise.
