Batman is Crazy: This is What I Learned

I’m making the assumption at the beginning here that all of you all know the story of Batman. If everyone is okay with this premise I’m going to move on to my point, otherwise there is plenty of information around to give you details of our main characters.

There’s a theory that someone came up with on Tumblr that Bruce Wayne (Batman) is actually a patient in a mental hospital and all the adventures and storylines are simply a figment of his vivid psychosis. The theory goes that the “villains” of Batman’s universe are actually the Doctors and nurses who are trying to help Bruce find his way back into the real world, Poison Ivy is the nurse who sedates him when he gets out of control, Two-Face is an abusive orderly who acts nice when the doctors are around and then beats up the patients when their backs are turned. Riddler is a therapist who asks Bruce difficult questions that he has a hard time answering, Matt Hatter is a hypnotherapist who Bruce is convinced is trying to brainwash him and of course his arch-nemesis, Dr Joe Car and his assistant Harleen Quinzel see Bruce as their top patient, both desperately trying to bring the man back to sanity and Batman will fight with all he has to protect Gotham from the Joker and Harley Quinn.

It’s an interesting theory and while coming a little from left field it had me thinking about the perspective you can take to spin a story so completely. Using this theory Bruce is taking the people in his life who are trying to help him and turning them into villains of the most vicious nature.  Of course this is quite an extreme example however every day we take away our own perception of what has occurred and it may be quite different from the perspective of someone else who went through the day with you. What we say and do may be coming from a place that is meant to be helpful or even just thinking aloud however if done in such a way that leaves someone else feeling that they were belittled or treated badly it can change how someone walks away from their day without us even realising it.

Trying to look at something from someone else’s perspective can be an interesting exercise, especially when their perspective is so completely opposite your own. Taking a step back from your own position to look at something from a different viewpoint and truly trying to see how someone else sees something without simply trying to poke holes to solidify your own perspective may allow you to change your thought process to come up with a different opinion or may simply allow you to have a better justification for why you think a certain way. In doing so at least you know you have come to an informed decision and are not simply spouting what you have previously heard or believed.

In the Batman story, Bruce turns himself from an orphan with no one (except of course Alfred, maybe a fellow patient?) into a true hero that everyone would call upon for help. Everyone wants to be on the right side and may stick to an ideal that they have held for so long because to look at things from another perspective may mean that they would have to admit that they were wrong, but to hold onto and idea without considering alternative viewpoints would mean you will only ever be stuck in the same place. In order to change and grow we need to try to look through a different set of eyes, even if it doesn’t quite match up with what we have always believed.