The Joker on the Couch

Abstract

Do tests for various mental illnesses work? How reliable are they and how well do they capture what we call “mental illness?” Since the infamous comic book character, the Joker, has often been called a “psychopath,” and this psychopathy is, culturally, conflated with mental illness, how would a model of the Joker be diagnosed using the current standard tools for psychiatric diagnosis? The authors tested this model Joker against DSM-5, ICD-10 and the PCL-R. They then discussed the results of these tests and concluded that the Joker as captured in Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's The Killing Joke is a psychopath according to current medical and psychiatric models. They also discussed issues with the models of mental illness used by these tests.