The Psychology of Superheroes
An Unauthorized Exploration
by Edited by Robin S. Rosenberg, PhD
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Pub Date Feb 09 2008 | Archive Date Apr 07 2016
BenBella Books | Smart Pop
Description
The Man From Krypton (https://s2.netgalley.com/publisher/title/85447)
Batman Unauthorized (https://s2.netgalley.com/publisher/title/85451)
and the Psychology of Superheros (https://s2.netgalley.com/publisher/title/85450)!
This latest installment in the Psychology of Popular Culture series turns its focus to superheroes. Superheroes have survived and fascinated for more than 70 years in no small part due to their psychological depth.
In The Psychology of Superheroes, almost two dozen psychologists get into the heads of today’s most popular and intriguing superheroes. Why do superheroes choose to be superheroes? Where does Spider-Man’s altruism come from, and what does it mean? Why is there so much prejudice against the X-Men, and how could they have responded to it, other than the way they did? Why are super-villains so aggressive? The Psychology of Superheroes answers these questions, exploring the inner workings our heroes usually only share with their therapists.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781933771311 |
| PRICE | $17.95 (USD) |
Average rating from 13 members
Featured Reviews
Erica W, Reviewer
This book is a collection of essays regarding the psychology of superheros, villains and comic book worlds (Bizzaro, Arkham Asylum, Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters, etc). Because of the book being a collection by different authors, a lot of the articles seemed to be hit or miss. The good articles are extremely fascinating and well written and the bad ones, while not uninteresting or poorly written are less about comics and more about the author's primary research rewritten to fit the topic to plug the author's other works. Some of the authors were familiar with only the superheros from movies and TV and not the comics at all.
While it seemed that all facts were sourced, a couple of authors sourced Wikipedia for information- which would have been acceptable for just Marvel & DC information, but one author I noticed sourced Wikipedia for information about Umberto Eco which I felt was unprofessional- students aren't even allowed to sourced Wikipedia in school essays.
I did enjoy this book as an admirer of some comic superheroes and someone with a mild interest in psychology. I think this book would be great for anyone more interested in psychology or comics than me. It's not too deep and fairly easy and quick to read though I would recommend reading it over time instead of quickly like I did. My favorite passages include Positive Psychology of Peter Parker, Prejudice Lessons from The Xavier Institute and Mind-Reading Superheroes: Fiction and Fact.
Reviews posted online at:
Online reviews:
http://ericaskindle.blogspot.com/2016/03/review-psychology-of-superheroes.html https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1574147671 https://www.amazon.com/review/RYEMVOSQ029C4/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv
Sara P, Reviewer
Un gruppo di psicologi mette sul lettino i supereroi: da Batman a Superman passando per gli X-men, vengono potate nevrosi e paure, traumi e punti deboli, con il ricorso alle più svariate tecniche di analisi.
Un'iniziativa brillate e intelligente, che da una parte approfondisce alcuni dei personaggi più noti della cultura popolare, dall'altra apre una finestra affascinante sulla psicologia come disciplina, e sulle varie metodologie di approccio.
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