Okay, so this is a blog about Batman right? And every Batman-related document has to talk about the whole dynamic between the persona of Batman, the creature of the night righting the wrongs of Gotham City, and Bruce Wayne, the civilian playboy who just so happens to have the body of a God and the mind of a modern day Einstein. Also, he's loaded. Cash-wise.
One of the most prominent topics of discussion in the Batman series is the battle between Batman and Bruce Wayne. In fact, sometimes Batman speaks in the third person and talks as though Bruce Wayne is another person. This split between both personalities is taken to the extreme in The Dark Knight Returns, a graphic novel written in the 80s by Frank Miller.
Here's a panel from page 25 of the Dark Knight Returns
Some backstory: Bruce has been out of the business of crime fighting for about 20-30 years now, retiring the Batman persona for good since the death of the second Robin - or so we think. See, Bruce can retire the Batsuit, the Batcave, the Batcar...the Bat everything. But Batman, the persona, has forever been lurking inside of him. This creature even talks to Bruce, as evident in this panel on page 25. The creature says, "For I am your soul."
To further cement the idea that Batman and Bruce Wayne are two totally different characters, let's look at another page from The Dark Knight Returns.
In this scene, Batman confronts Two-Face (also known as Harvey Dent) but Two-Face has reconstructed his face using plastic surgery. Harvey, however, is addicted to crime and continues his reign of terror on Gotham City. When Batman finally catches him again in the middle of a crime, Harvey ashamedly admits that the Two-Face persona still lives on inside of him. He asks Batman to see him for what he really is; to look past the newly constructed face of Harvey Dent and see the demon lurking within. Batman obeys; he looks at Harvey and sees "a reflection," or in other words, he sees his own demon (the Batman). The Batman and Bruce Wayne are waging a psychological war for one body. Batman and Two-Face are essentially the same in this respect.
This example of D.I.D., or dissociative identity disorder, is a powerful one - in fact, (to my knowledge, at least) no other popular superhero struggles with two personalities in such a dynamic way. On the DC side, Superman has his Clark Kent and is totally fine with it. Wonder Woman is Wonder Woman; no problems. On the Marvel side, Captain America, Iron Man, Spiderman, the X-Men - they're all fine with two identities and are mentally stable, for the most part (but there is a creepy story of the Iron Man suit desperately trying to put Tony Stark inside of him...sexual undertones intended...I'm not making this up. Check it out here.).
So what is D.I.D.? Symptoms of split personality disorder include "two or more distinct or split identities or personality states that continually have power over the person's behavior." Some other symptoms include forgetfulness and memory variations, where memories will be different over the personalities. A patient can switch between personalities in an instant or over years. These other personalities are different from one another; for instance, these personalities can differ in sex, age, gestures, way of talking - sometimes there are even cases of the personality being an animal.
That's right ladies and gentlemen; animals. Batman could literally be a dictionary example of D.I.D. and would run something like this: "Dissociative Identity Disorder 1. Split personality psychological disorder where a patient will have multiple personalities in one body. 2. See Batman"
Other symptoms of D.I.D. include depression (Bruce has got that down), mood swings (oh definitely), sleep disorders (hello, the guy stays up all night dislocating jaws), compulsions and rituals (does dressing up like a Bat every night for 40 years qualify as a ritual? I'd think so), and psychotic-like symptoms (Scarecrow helps out with that).
D.I.D. is a huge topic in the Batman mythos and I'll definitely take a few blog posts to completely flesh out the details. For instance, D.I.D. occurs when a traumatic event occurs in a child's life. In order to save itself, the mind fragments itself into pieces, attempting to forget. Does this sound familiar?
source: http://kidsdontgetit.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/list-o’-the-week-worst-superhero-parents-3-1/
It should. Until next time!
Bibliography:
All information on D.I.D. taken from this article from WebMD:
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/dissociative-identity-disorder-multiple-personality-disorder?page=2
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