John Lund

Case Report on the Joker The Joker is a fictional character originally appearing in the DC comics Batman Series created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. The Joker was and is Batmans arch-nemesis. Most recently he appeared the major motion picture, The Dark Knight (Nolan et al., 2008). This most recent appearance shows the Joker in a way that allows a study of his persona. The Joker is a Male, his age is unknown and he is a criminal occupationally. He always wears heavy makeup giving him the appearance of a clown. The Joker does not appear to have any consistent relationships outside of his criminal life, or any emotionally healthy relationships with other people. The Joker mentions his past on very few occasions and often offers contradictory stories to different people; however, despite his own contradictions we will share what he mentions of his past. He tells a story of his father being a drunk and severely abusive, in the story his father takes a knife to his mother and then looks at him and asks, why so Serious son? and then took the knife to his face cutting scars into his face in a smile. In The Dark Knight, the Joker tells an older man who is chiding him for his criminal behavior, You remind me of my father. I hated my father (Nolan et al., 2008). It is obvious from this statement alone, that the Joker has unresolved issues with his paternal role model. In another version of his past he mentions a wife who left him after a run in with loan sharks she became disfigured and so he disfigured his face to make her feel better. This drove her to leave ultimately. There is not much else known about the Jokers history, although it may be safe to assume that such dark stories have to come from somewhere.

The primary concerns and presenting problems for the Joker are many In The Dark Knight, the Joker fails to conform to social norms. He is continuously breaking every law he can. He lies and is deceitful in many ways some worse than others. He cheats and uses aliases He acts easily irritable and is clearly aggressive. He murders, maims, fights and assaults many people without any prior provocation. He drops people out of windows, tries to blow up innocent people, steals money from other gangsters, and shows no remorse (Nolan et al., 2008). The Joker has no motive or logic for his heinous crimes, he only wishes to dominate, control and have fun (Nolan et al.). After stealing millions of dollars, and murdering countless people for said money, the Joker decides to set it afire. He says, Its not about money; its about sending a message. Everything burns. He wants the rest of society to turn to the dark side, to prove his narcissistic desire to of being a master manipulator. In all of the things that the Joker does he for as long as we are aware fails to conform to social norms, especially with respect to lawful behaviors He is deceitful. He possibly doesnt plan ahead; think of the pencil trick scene. He shows reckless disregard for the safety of himself, think the Batpod scene, and for others. He shows zero remorse for anything that hes been doing. Although his age is unknown he is over 18. Though not solid it is very believable that to have become as terrible as he is he started young, this can be evidence to suggest Conduct Disorder before age 15. The Joker would score very low in emotional intelligence, as he does not display empathy, smooth social interactions, and has a fatalist view of human nature and society (Friedman & Schustack, 2006)

The DSM IV criteria for Anti-social Personality Disorder are clearly met by the Joker. He meets the need for a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others occurring since age 15. Of the seven sub-criterions for this he meets at least five and maybe even all seven. He is over 18. His current actions are plenty of evidence and his lack of history would suggest an early beginning as the Joker, forsaking his childhood identity. The Joker also fails to meet some of the criteria for Schizophrenia and mania, so ruling them out clears us on the fourth criterion. Lilienfeld and Arkowitz (2008) claim that psychopaths are superficially charming, self-centered, dishonest, reckless, outrageous, rarely learn from their mistakes, lack impulse control, are causal and callous in relationships, are devoid of guilt, empathy and love, and disturb the peace solely for the fun of it. It would seem that ASPD and psychopathy are closely related, and that the Joker would be a prime candidate for diagnosis of either one or both based on his behavior. In this case we will simply diagnose him with Anti-social Personality Disorder. The causes for the Jokers Anti-Social Personality Disorder most likely are a result from a traumatic childhood and from his relationship with his father. He has mentioned his father on several occasions and is consistent in that he had a poor relationship with him, leading to many of the Jokers problems later in life. The Joker may have learned his anarchist behavior via classical and operant conditioning. For example, his father may have rewarded him with some desirable privilege for being aggressive or tough and the Joker then generalized this as a response to all situations of daily life (Friedman & Schustack, 2006). Alternatively, perhaps the Joker would receive less severe beatings if he dissociated and

showed no emotion, a type of negative reinforcement or positive punishment depending on how one views the situation. The Joker may hate his father, yet respect his authority and supremacy, choosing to embody it in his adult life to protect himself from his weakness as a child (Friedman & Schustack, 2006). The Jokers father apparently maimed and potentially murdered his mother, and the Joker was unable to do anything to help her (Nolan et al). The Joker would have had to side with his father to protect himself, and stay alive, leading to a conflict that would have to be silenced Perhaps this is where the Jokers ideas that the values of society are pointless and useless It is possible that the Joker, angry at the world for his pain, and for rejecting him because of his appearance, is displacing these feelings in favor of showing the world its own ugliness. He mentions being abandoned by a wife, this may have amplified whatever problems he had from a younger age. As for treatment, although it is unlikely that any would be successful because the Joker would not think that he needed any treatment. The Joker would need very structured care in a residential setting where he is incapable of hurting others. As the Joker has never had any healthy relationships some behavior modification therapy and psychotherapy would be useful. Maybe the first good relationship he could develop would be with his therapist. The Joker has displayed reckless endangerment of himself in ways that could be constituted as suicide attempts, these may be the result of some comorbid depression. As such some antidepressants may help with the Jokers Mood as he goes through treatment although we would not be treating the Anti-social Personality disorder with said medication. It will take years for the Joker to recover from his current state and it is likely that he will fight any attempt to do so. More than likely he will continue in his criminal and anti-social behavioral tendencies and activates until he is killed.

References Friedman, H. S., & Schustack, M. W. (2006). Personality: Classic theories and modern research (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon Lilienfeld, S. O., & Arkowitz, H. (2008). What psychopath means. Scientific America, 18(6), p. 80 81. Nolan, C. (Producer/Director/Screenwriter), Roven, C. (Producer), & Thomas, E. (Producer/Screenwriter). (2008). The dark knight [Motion picture]. United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.