The Psychology Behind Our Fascination with Superheroes

Source: GIPHY

As you may know, I'm not a super big fan of the world of flying capes, superhuman powers, Comic Con, Marvel or DC. Nevertheless, I will be one of the people who will flock to a cinema to watch The Amazing Spiderman, X-Men, The Avengers, and now the upcoming Deadpool and Batman Vs. Superman. All of us, or to be more realistic, most of us will have the curiosity, a little to more interest or a strong fascination with these superheroes. Why? Does it have anything to do with how beautiful or how handsome the actors are? Do we watch these movies or read comics just because others are doing it too? Maybe and maybe. We cannot deny that there is something more to that.

Of course, the casting team and directors for each superhero movie are doing a great job at picking the right actors to portray the personalities of superhero characters (most are). The actors are doing a great job at it themselves. But like I said, there is something more to that. We can call it 'the psychology behind our fascination with superheroes'. Why do we feel sad when Peter Parker lost his Uncle Ben or when he couldn't save his then-girlfriend Gwen Stacy? Why do we feel torn apart when Bruce Wayne (as a boy) saw his parents die in front of his eyes? Why do we feel guilty when Clark Kent (as a boy) chose to let his father (or as people would have said Jonathan Clark sacrificed himself) die in the storm in order to protect his own identity? Why do we feel for Bruce Banner when he is unable to control his strength and feels helpless when he realizes all he can do is hurt people?

Simply, superheroes are like us. Or we made them that way. In an essay on Oxford University Press Blog which was extracted from the book What is a Superhero? comic book writer, Stan Lee (2013) said:

"I try to make the characters seem as believable and realistic as possible. In order to do that, I have to place them in the real world, or, if the story is set in an imaginary world, I have to try to make that imaginary world as realistic-seeming as possible, so the character doesn’t exist in a vacuum. He has to have friends, enemies, people he’s in love with, people he doesn’t love—just like any human being. I try to take the superhero and put him in as normal a world as possible, and the contrast between him and his power and the normal world is one of the things that make the stories colorful and believable and interesting."

Superheroes are mirrors to our inner-self; our emotions; our feelings; our moral development; our fears; our insecurities. And the fascination with superheroes taps into our deepest and strongest emotion, or we can call it 'power': empathy.

We know what it feels to lose someone we love; to be put into a position where our values and beliefs are questioned; to be able to ascertain what is right from wrong; to face our deepest and darkest fears. These emotions are what makes us human and to be able to recognize these emotions is what makes us capable to relate with others, in this case superheroes. If superheroes had emotions we did not recognize (which is impossible because humans created superheroes, and our knowledge of the concept 'emotions' are only limited to our own perception of the world, we are unable to understand something beyond our human-self), we could not relate to them, thus we would be talking about aliens. But let's not divert from the topic. We (superhero creators, comic creators) already have in mind that Superman, Batman, Iron Man and more would not be a big hit if there were not human-like which means they are capable of feeling human emotions and experience moral dilemmas. In that particular scenario, people would look at comic books and wonder why they were ever made or walk out of cinemas only to post on their Facebook status that the show was full of robots with no feelings (but even then, how do you make a robot show interesting? Of course, to put human emotions in to robots).

Let us now look into some opinions I have collected from my friends to make this topic more interesting.

Kunal Chopra, 19 said he identifies most with Batman for his ability to nobly face adversity, Spider-Man for his underdog personality and Superman for portraying a character of the ideal being. He said that these characters have inspired him in their own different ways and has taught him many things about life. What are the reasons behind his identification with these 3 superheroes? The idea that he was able to identify with Spider-Man was because he, alike Spider-Man was an outcast and overthinks things.

"I identify with Spider-Man because well, he’s a nerd, and I’m a nerd. We both were bullied, both into Sci-Fi, always the loner and underdog," Kunal said. 

Next, he was able to identify with Batman because of his ability to persevere through any hardships and at the same time turn himself to a better person. He added that it was Batman that taught him that common criminals are only normal men. 

"So the next time some massive bully treats me like crap, I'll stand up to him. I’ll be scared, but I’ll stand up to him. He's just a man". 

Finally, he said Superman's character helped him most in his darkest hours. Superman taught him to never give up on hope and there's always light at the end of the tunnel. Superman, who is not a human is willing to protect us humans until his last breath. Kunal mentions that there is a comfort in knowing that despite Superman being a fictional character, he is the light we look towards to. He adds that this alien with god-like abilities has taught him more about what it means to be human than any real human being. And I further quote him:

"There was a comic, ‘Superman All-Star’, where Superman was dying a slow death, a form of cancer, and in the end of issue #10, there was a young Goth woman named Regan, with purple-colored hair and numerous piercings getting ready to jump off a building. Superman appears just in the nick of time - as he always does - to hold her in his arms, the very arms that can bend steel like it was paper, and yet, he wraps her in his cape that has brushed the sun and tells her, “You’re much stronger than you think you are.” That one sentence meant a lot to me, and it still does. He shows us that the world may not accept us for what we are, but that we can, and should, strive to make a difference in it."

Another friend of mine who did not want to be named, let's just call him A, said that he identifies with Batman as well. He explained to me that Batman had a dark past where as we know that he lost both of his parents, but he managed to discover and understand the darkness that people hide within themselves. He further explained he has the similar values with Batman where he never trusts anyone. He also said that from identifying with Batman, he was able to learn how to see things not as they appear but rather to understand what he sees and how it came to be. 

"I have seen much and experience much in live whereby man-kind has so far proved to me that they are more destructive than loving. Man-kind is their on disease. Man-kind don’t really want heroes anymore, what they want is a monster," A said. 

Another friend who did not want to be named, but we can call her K said she identifies most with the character Deadpool who is an anti-hero. She explains that she identifies with him most because he does not see the point of keeping the bad guys alive, unlike other superheroes. She further explains that there are times where she feels people don't deserve to be spared. K said these bad guys had a choice of not doing wrong, as she has the same opportunity of choice to terminate them. She adds that a lot of trouble could have been avoided if the hero did not try to find a way to spare the bad guy by taking him to justice. 

"Keeping a bad person alive is, I would say, a waste of space."

"It’s impossible to count the number of times I get frustrated when I watch superhero related shows or movies and the hero spares the bad guy," K said. 

That's not the only interesting thing about our fascination with superheroes. The very fact that they have human-like emotions and also something beyond what humans are capable of is what makes them 'super'. In his essay from the book What is a Superhero? Stan Lee said that a superhero is an individual (accurately he said, 'person') who does heroic deeds and has the ability to do them in a way that a normal individual could not. So I just want to say sorry to the policemen, soldiers, firemen, nurses, doctors and others who devoted their lives to perform heroic deeds beyond the line of work. A normal individual wouldn't go into a burning building to save a person's life, but that is what the fire and rescue team is required to do. But you know, they get paid. So I guess that doesn't count, according to Stan Lee. A superhero doesn't get paid to do those heroic deeds. Sarcasm aside, a fireman cannot lift an oil tanker by himself, with his own hands so let us give props to Kal-El (that is Superman's birth name for those who don't know) for that. More sarcasm.

Anyway, we are fascinated with people who can do things we cannot possibly do (as a normal human). We are fascinated with people who have powers, we wish we had for example, running faster than the speed of light (The Flash), turning green and big and super strong and angry (The Hulk), turning into something equivalent to a size of an ant (Ant-Man), shooting webs out of our wrists (Spider-man originally made the contraption which can shoot webs, but I guess growing webs from our wrists is much cooler), having the American spirit of bravery, self-sacrifice and patriotism and super strength, agility and stamina (Captain America), and of course, not to mention flying (Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, even Iron Man). Okay, I give up! There are super duper!

Basically, superheroes are supposed to have powers that bend the logic of science and nature, save and protect humans and ideally, do the 'right' thing. If not you would be called, Supervillians. But this topic is not about them. What makes us 'wish' we had powers of our beloved superheroes? The possible answer is that we all have 'alter-egos'.

I'm sure most of us have heard of Sigmund Freud (psychology students? We all love him so much). For those who don't know him, he is the father of psychoanalysis (psychoanalysis: Noooooo!) Let us bypass his theories of psycho-sexual development and sexual repression, and go straight to the point about his theory of the Id, Ego and Superego. According to Freud, the Id is our primary personality structure (simply, our deepest inner-self), the Ego is our mediator between our Id and Superego (simply, our referee) and finally the Superego is a representation of our societal demands, rules and taboos (simply, what we think we should do based on what we are told to do). Therefore, a person has these 3 things that make them who they are. Primarily, it is referred to as a person's 'ego' (because it's a balance, like Ying and Yang). And as you may or may not suspect, we will be talking about the Superego (because it has the word 'super' in it) but no, I will be referring to the Ego. So what I mean about 'alter-ego' is that a person creates a person within themselves and relate to that person as an ideal-self (people be going like, wtf!).

To decode what I just said, if you are a big fan of Batman it may (I'm purely speculating, because I'm not a certified psychologist) or it may not mean that you have a darker side, a revengeful side to your personality even though people tell you, you are happy-go-lucky or whatever. According to Jason Laddock on HealthGuidance.org (2016), this 'alter-ego' is created (there are many theories, so I shall pick one) when people have not been able to do what they always wanted to do in life. So with this 'alter-ego', they are able to live a life they had always wanted. Who may be our alter-ego? We may find them in Spiderman, Batman or Wonder Woman. Even Spiderman is something like an alter-ego to Peter Parker's dorky personality. For example, my friend A said he felt bored of living just as another human being.

"We all breathe the same air, drink the same water, eat the same food and somehow have secrets everywhere. What I want to be able to do is to not be the same, and be able to understand why everything is the way it is. The purpose of anything if you may," A said.

On the other hand, my friend K said that she imagines how she would handle a situation if she had some sort of superpower. I quote:

"People cut-in line? Maybe snatch their wallets with super speed or with a spider web so that they can’t pay for the things they want to buy. People driving recklessly or cutting in traffic? Throw their cars into the sea (Island living makes that possible) with my matter manipulation power. Let’s see how they get out of that."

We all want to be someone we may not be in real-life. And that is why we may relate to our beloved superheroes.

Again, these theories as to why we are so fascinated with superheroes is that in the end it relates to us humans as being very social. We just love to know that there is someone out there that can feel what we feel, hurt like how we hurt, dream like how we dream, or love like how we love. We want to be close to someone. And if it's not a human, it can be a superhero. There is nothing wrong with that.

The superhero fantasy life has not just bring smiles, excitement and entertainment to people of all ages but it has also begun to make its way into clinical psychology. Superhero Therapy is not a recent thing for therapists. Dr. Patrick O'Connor, a graduate psychologist and a teacher from Chicago School of Professional Psychology, uses superheroes in his therapy sessions. You might be surprised to know that he even debuted a new course in 2013 at The Chicago School entitled, "Geek Culture in Therapy". He basically teaches people about "geek culture", how we people connect with superheroes and whether violence in video games may become a concern. His online database, Comicspedia is filled with hundreds of comic book summaries and their respective psychological center of interest. (Ahh, comic book fans shall rejoice!)

“I noticed that, naturally, not only did the kids get excited about it and started looking forward to therapy, it really brought out a lot of stuff that they wanted to talk about—a lot of deep issues, it made the relationship between my clients and myself a lot richer, " Dr. O'Connor said in his 2014 interview with DailyBeast reporter Alex Suskind. 

It is relieving to comic book fans, or superhero fans out there to know that this fascination is not a mere "childhood obsession". Maybe it involves us holding on to our fairy-tales we indulge in as children. Maybe a little bit. As we know, there is something more to something. We have all just scratched the surface. In the end, we are just curious human beings. Fascinated with something beyond our reality. Is the creation of superheroes connected with the idea of a God? A being that is far more "super" than us. Are superhero believers or fans, religious? That is a question we can ponder or further research on.

But until then thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this read. I would love to hear what other ideas you have for my future posts. I would also love if I could gather more opinions from you on future topics and your opinions on this one so I can improve myself. I would be grateful to hear your comments. Thanks for reading until the end. See you on the next post!

MY.

Acknowledgement

The topic of this post was a suggestion from a friend to write about superhero fantasy. Of course, I couldn't write about the comic universe, because I know little about it. But psychology is fascinating. So this post is dedicated to you, Jeanette. Thank you for the idea. I would also like to thank Kunal, A and K (you know who you are) for providing me an insight to your feelings and your valuable opinions to add more spice to this post. I'm grateful for your efforts.

References 

Suskind A. (2014). The Daily Beast. The Rise of Superhero Therapy: Comic Books as Psychological Treatment. Retrieved from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/17/the-rise-of-superhero-therapy-comic-books-as-psychological-treatment.html

Lee S. (2013). OUP blog. Stan Lee on what is a superhero. Retrieved from http://blog.oup.com/2013/11/stan-lee-on-what-is-a-superhero/

Laddock J. (n.d.). HealthGuidance. org. Alter Ego Definition. Retrieved from http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/11252/1/Alter-Ego-Definition.html

Carney J., Dunbar R., Machin A., Barrett T., Silva M. Jr. (2014). Social psychology and the comic-book superhero: A darwinian approach. Retrieved from http://www.geape.ufpa.br/Social_Psychology_and_the_Comic-Book_Superhero-libre.pdf

Berlatsky N. (2013). The Atlantic. Why do people like superheroes? Don't ask a psychologist. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/07/why-do-people-like-superheroes-dont-ask-a-psychologist/277608/

Letamendi A. (2013). Under the Mask. The Psychology of the Man of Steel: Should Today’s Superman Be More Morally Realistic?

Retrieved from http://www.underthemaskonline.com/the-psychology-of-the-man-of-steel-should-todays-superman-be-more-morally-realistic/