21st Century's New Satan Part 4

 Why the Joker is Not Insane

              The Joker has been often been labeled by critics and fans alike as a psychopath, sociopath, or even as a schizophrenic in an attempt to explain his character. However, we were never meant to receive an explanation as to why the Joker is the way he is. The co-creator of the Joker, Jerry Robinson, tells us that when he first thought him up along with Bill Finger he “never intended to give a reason for his appearance” because they thought “that it takes away some of the essential mystery.” (qt. in Langley 152-153) The creators of the Joker understood that the Joker could become a symbol of evil but that to do that he needed to maintain a certain sense of mystery, that he had to appear as a type of boogie man. Despite receiving an origin story the Joker's mind remains an enigma nonetheless and attempts to label him as mad are simple attempts to try and explain the fears and anxieties that arise from his presence. However, is there any possibility that the Joker's actions could be explained with a diagnosis of psychopathic behavior or something else? Or The Joker's madness pure unexplainable evil?

               Furthermore, the Joker's fall into the chemical vat could be argued as having shaped his mental state. It could be argued that perhaps it was the trauma of being horribly disfigured that caused him to turn into a psychopath but “[knowing] he had a specific mental illness might engender our sympathy.” (Langley 152) In trying to explain what lies behind his creepy smile and maniac laughter, we are attempting to humanize him, but the Joker defies any attempts to turn him into a sympathetic figure. In The Killing Joke Alan Moore expands further the Joker's origin story and provides us with a tragic story of loss, but the Joker himself undermines any feelings of empathy the audience might feel by causing extreme emotional and physical harm to two key main characters, Commissioner Gordon and his daughter Barbara, also known as Batgirl. Moore presents the Joker as a failed comedian who lives in poverty with a pregnant wife and who must turn to crime to be able to provide for her and the child. The Joker, who's name might be Jack, agrees to help some thugs steal from a playing card company which is adjacent to a chemical factory where he used to work. During his conversation with the thugs two policemen inform Jack that his pregnant wife has died in accident, but is forced to go on with the thug's plan irregardless of it and it is then when he suffers his own accident.

 Although we might be motivated to feel for the Joker's past and see his point about what happens to a man when he has a bad day he does several things throughout the text to frustrate our attempts to find goodness, or humanity in him. One key example of this occurs in the very beginning of the comic book where he shoots Barbara Gordon, Batgirl. He causes her paralysis forever changing his role in the narrative signifying the way in which “[his] menace had become meta-fictional.” (Wallace 108) However, his actions are not the only things that keep us at a distance from him, but the fact that he admits to being a liar. The Joker admits to us that when he remembers his experiences he “sometimes [remembers] it one way, sometimes another” and that “if [he is] going to have past, [he prefers] it to be multiple choice!” (Moore 41) The Joker does not want our sympathy, he does not need it, and in providing us with confusion and uncertainty as to his origin he negates whatever chance at sympathy Moore's story might have provided for him. This idea is explored as well in Nolan's The Dark Knight where the Joker first invites us into his world, to know more about him, by inciting us to ask how he obtained his scars. Yet, throughout the film he will change the story of how it was he came to have the scars denying us the possibility of ever having a real glimpse into his mind or past. As Stephanie Carmichael suggest in her essay “Dark Knight, White Knight, and the King of Anarchy,” that in defying order, definition and origin the Joker is embracing the ideal of anarchy and thus is able to become a legend. It is not just anarchy and chaos that the Joker is embracing as Carmichael argues however, it is the very essence of evil which he is taking in as part of his being. It is not an issue of psychopathy, maniac depression, or schizophrenia, which keeps the Joker from granting us access into his mind, but an understanding that in constantly changing his origin story he moves beyond the texts he inhabits by allowing his legend to grow beyond himself. As stated previously, in a sense the Joker invites his audience to engage with him by asking, “Do you wanna know how I got these scars?” He offers us lies, but he also offers us possibility so that we may continue to ponder on his actions. It raises questions as to whether we can trust anything this man says and puts in question his madness. Is there any certainty that he had an accident at all or that he suffered a horrible experience that resulted in his scaring? Or was he simply born this way? We will never know and he does not wish us to know because as it has been said previously he is a postmodern figure who has the understanding that he resides within a fractured world without a center. The Joker's accident should not be accepted as a means to comprehend his motivation, or supposed madness, but rather it should be viewed as what distinguishes him from being just a bad person or even a sick person, and into being something much more terrifying. An organic sort of evil that flows and changes as the situation requires in order to mirror the anxieties of his audience at any one time. 

               Moreover, although many of his actions could be seen as arising from madness the Joker defies diagnosis because “[his] behavior doesn't neatly fit any specific mental illness.” (Langley 152) We must consider the metal illnesses that the Joker could possibly suffer from and we must distinguish between mental illness and insanity. Mental illness is defined as: “a condition which causes serious abnormality in a person's thinking or behavior, esp. one requiring special care or treatment.” (“Mental illness”) In other words a mental illness can be classified as a disease that affects the mind of a person and which needs either medication or the help of a physician. Some such diseases that the Joker could suffer from are psychopathy, schizophrenia, or maniac depression caused by some sort of trauma as discussed previously. However, there are other terms that are thrown around as well like insanity, but insanity is not a sickness rather it is “a legal standard, not a medical classification or psychiatric diagnosis, one that excuses individual responsibility for committing criminal offenses on the grounds that those who lack rational awareness of what they're doing need treatment, not punishment.” (Langley 132) This term is a combination of both the psychology and the legal terminology that that attempts to create order and classify different types of crimes, but it does not delve into the more complex issues of motivation and reason. 

               Let us then examine the medical, rather the bureaucratic aspects of the Joker's mental issues. The Joker's personality appears to resemble the characteristics of psychopathy, also known as antisocial personality disorder the most out of any other illness. The Diagnostic Statistical Manuel IV tells us that this disorder is marked by “pervasive patterns of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continue into adulthood.” (qtd. in Rorty 332) From the history of the Joker we are unable to determine if he had any of these symptoms from his childhood because we know nothing of his childhood or his teenage years. We cannot prove with certainty that

   the Joker enjoyed inflicting pain to others or torturing others at a young age. The DSM declares that in order to be able to make a diagnosis of psychopathy the individual must have presented these symptoms before the age of fifteen. Even though we do not possess any knowledge about the Joker's youth, if we are to consider Alan Moore's origin tale then we must declare that the Joker is not a psychopath as his madness occurred well past the age of fifteen. We must not however, disregard the fact that the Joker does possess certain characteristics of a psychopath. These individuals are described as “contemptuous of the feelings, rights, and sufferings of others,” “[displaying] ...superficial charm,” they are also “deceitful and manipulative,” and can be “aggressive and may repeatedly get into physical fights or commit acts of physical assault.” (qrd. in Rorty 332-333) The Joker has exhibited many of these characteristics for example the he is often shown as feeling no sympathy whenever he inflicts harm upon other human beings. There are many examples of this in The Dark Knight such as when the Joker kills his own henchmen, or when he murders one of the mob leaders, Gambol, and forces his men to fight each other to the death in order to gain a place in the Joker's ranks. In these scene specifically the Joker uses the phrase “try-outs” to describe the situation, minimizing not only the death of their previous leader, but also the importance of the lives of these men. The Joker also has no issue with using people who are actually mentally ill. We discover this through a remark made by Batman to Harvey Dent about a man they have just caught who had been working for the Joker, “He's a paranoid schizophrenic, a former patient at Arkham. The kind of mind the Joker attracts.” (The Dark Knight) Actions such as these demonstrate the Joker's lack of empathy, for the suffering of others both mental and physical as he does not hesitate in gaining leverage through the exploitation of these people. The Joker is also capable of being charming as well as manipulative as seen in Batman: The Animated Series where he utilizes this ability to turn his therapist, Dr. Harleen Quinzel, into his accomplice. In the series the Joker “charms her with a wink, tempts her with his secrets, earns her sympathy with lies about his father, and wins her heart by making her laugh.” (Langley 146) Lastly, his desire to engage in aggressive behavior and physical fights cannot be disputed as it has always been he who has initiated the aggression between him and Batman, even though he will often claims otherwise. 

               So then the question is if the Joker is not a psychopath, can we then call him a schizophrenic? Many have suggested that perhaps the Joker could be a schizophrenic because he seems to have a warped concept of the world, but he does not reflect many of the key symptoms of the disease. The DSM states that schizophrenics must exhibit “disorganized thought and speech, delusions, hallucinations, grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior.” (qtd. in Gray 609) The Joker may seem disorganized and erratic but not in a way that it hinders his ability to carry out elaborate plans. It has been mentioned previously in this essay that upon his first appearance in the comics he executed a plan that outsmarted both the police and the world's greatest detective, Batman himself. More recently in The Dark Knight he will similarly attempt to destroy Gotham while all the while attempting to teach its inhabitants about human nature and the falseness of their societal structures. The Joker also does not experience hallucinations or delusions. One of the most common hallucinations that schizophrenics suffer are “auditory, usually the hearing of voices.” (Gray 610) Despite the fact that the Joker views the world through a different lens than most people he will claim that he is just “differently sane” (qtd. in Langley 153) and although this statement is not entirely convincing he has never made a claim to carry out his deeds because voices in his head have ordered him to. In fact although his rationale

 is not entirely acceptable he will occasionally make coherent arguments, following as mentioned before the pattern of the psychopath more closely than that of the schizophrenic. It seems that Nolan understood that the Joker should be differentiated from people who are mad as in his film he presented several examples of actual madness with which he may be contrasted against. A minor example is during the the scene in the MCU where one the Joker's henchman begs to taken out of his cell because he feels strong stomach aches. The thug exclaims, "The boss said he would make the voices go away. He said he would go inside and replace them with bright lights. Like Christmas." (The Dark Knight) The Joker surrounds himself with mentally ill people because they are easy to manipulate for him, but is not one of them. There is a clear distance between his thoughts and their clear madness. A more important example in the film is Harvey Dent's mental breakdown and the way in which the Joker manipulates him to serve his purposes. Harvey has proven to be throughout the whole film a sane individual and it is not until the Joker puts him through a horrible experience that he turns insane. We witness the birth of Harvey's madness, we can also sympathy and understand his pain. The Joker, however simply sprang out of nowhere. We this concept repeated over and over again in The Dark Knight. When the mob leaders hold a meeting to discuss the Joker and their missing money, Maroni dismisses the Joker by affirming that “[he's] not the problem – he's a nobody.” (The Dark Knight) And indeed later on in the movie Commissioner Gordon will reaffirm that indeed the Joker is a nobody because he has no traceable identity. Gordon remarks that there is no record of the Joker, no prints, no DNA that links back to him. Even his possessions will not provide us with any hints because his clothing is custom and he carries in his pockets nothing “but knives and lint.” (The Dark Knight) Yet, Maroni does wrong in dismissing the importance of the Joker's anonymity and sees it as hindrance. For the Joker this mystery, is power, it keeps the audience at a distance and we are not able to sympathize like we do with Dent, it keeps us frightened. It is for this reason that Nolan never makes it clear in his film whether the Joker suffers a mental illness and rather opts for an representation of unexplainable evil by denying the Joker a stable identity and infirmity. 

               Lastly, could the claim be made that the Joker suffers perhaps from a combination of maniac depression and psychosis due to his accident? Langley tells us that people who suffer from psychosis are like schizophrenics also prone to have “lost touch with the real world as indicated by gross reality distortions,” (101) but as we have already established the Joker does not suffer from hallucinations. However, he is prone to feeling melancholy, but there is a caveat to this as well. As Langley explains bipolar individuals who suffer from maniac depression “alternate between depression and...mania in cycles due to brain chemistry,” the Joker however does so “in response to specific circumstances.” (153-154) This careful analysis of the psychology behind the Joker is not meant to excuse his person, or explain his motivation for committing his crimes, but the opposite. It is meant to show that the Joker is not a sick man, that even if he presents the symptoms of various mental illness he does not personify them fully. Also it is meant to dispel the idea that the Joker is simply a madman who runs around causing harm to others without purpose and to present him rather as the intelligent mastermind that he is. The Joker is indeed an amalgamation of the illnesses that have been mentioned here, and perhaps more, but he has been developed in this way over time in order to represent the futility of science in trying to explain the complexity behind man's darker side. Without having to make an argument for himself the Joker succeeds in escaping a diagnosis as well as in proving that our system, or terminology fails to capture his true nature, the nature of unexplainable evil. Like Langley points out these terms, these categories of madness are simply “attempts to pathologize a non-psychological term: evil.” (Langley 101)

                In order to be evil the Joker has had to maintain a hold on our fears. the general anxieties we feel as a society have changed and evolved but the Joker's understanding of our psyche has not. We may not understand him fully, but he understands us and our fear of madness and the unknown far better than we and it is for this reason that he maintains the mask of madness. Jason Todd, the second Robin, explains this best in Batman #649 when he tells the Joker: “You're not nearly as crazy as you'd like us all to believe. Or even as crazy as you'd like to believe. It just makes it easier to justify every sick, monstrous thing you've ever done when you play the part of the mad clown.” (qtd. In Langley 153) In part Jason's statement is true, playing the part of a mad clown makes the Joker's job easier, but not in the way that he implies. Jason is really insinuating that this charade of madness is self-imposed and that it serves as a defense mechanism for the Joker, but it is not exactly so. The Joker as a character employs the illusion of madness to allow his audiences to have something to hold on to because otherwise we would lose any kind of framework with which to analyze him through. That is to say without the paradigm of Batman who represents order

 and sanity, we would not be able to distinguish what the Joker stands for. The Joker has a conscious recognition that “evil cannot be excused – otherwise, it is not evil; it is human, and so, we might forgive it” and “[if] it is forgive, it can be forgotten.” (Smith 198) As stated previously, the Joker does not want to be excused, he does not wish for our sympathy, and least of all does he want to be forgotten. Therefore, in a way the Joker begrudgingly plays along with our need of binaries to define the world in order to subsist. This can also be seen in the failure of the seventies comic The Joker, which was a spinoff dedicated solely to the Clown Prince of Crime. The comic failed because the Joker never fought Batman and instead fought against other villains that were part of Batman's rogue gallery. As Wallace points out in these comics the Joker's “rampages weren't 'evil vs. good,' but rather a more palatable scenario in which the Joker's brand of villainy won out over a competing...expression of the same.” (177) The paradigm of order vs. chaos, of good vs. evil was lost in these comics and the Joker cannot work without these concepts. Even though he himself fights against these binaries he risks losing his place in our world if he were to escape them. Only by showing us the darkest depths of the darkness within man can he accomplish his true purpose, to flip the mirror back at us so that we may learn that this evil works insidiously within us as well.