PUT ON A HAPPY FACE - BATMAN AS SCHIZOPHRENIC SAVIOR

This essay uses the psychological framework of Carl G. Jung as an inte rpretive lens to view Batman, the 1989 movie. Gotham City is suggested to represent a contemporary, collective dream; the psyche is scene. T o be an effective crime fighter in this city. Bruce Wayne must activel y cultivate schizophrenia. The integration of the psychic elements rep resented by the Joker is necessary for the psychological health of bot h Gotham and Wayne/Batman, but paradoxically the Joker must be destroy ed to preserve both the city and savior. Gotham City represents a cont emporary psyche unwilling to do the hard work of physchological matura tion. Therefore, it can maintain order only through the efforts of a m adman.