This is a short critique paper I wrote about Two-Face's mental illnesses for my Abnormal Psychology class and I thought I'd share it here with the rest of you for fun.

The characters of the Batman universe have always had a large psychological component to their design. None so much as the villains who all seem to have one form of mental illness or another. These mental illnesses or the prevalence of their mental illness have all changed at one point or another in the villainous characters but the most consistently written character in regards to his mental illnesses would have to be Harvey Dent, more commonly known as Two-Face. One of Two-Face's illnesses is in his name as he suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) with two distinct personalities: Harvey Dent and Two-Face—previously known as Big Bad Harv. The other mental illness Two-Face suffers from is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (ODC). His obsession is two-fold, first he must do things fairly and secondly most everything he does must be related to the number two or reflect his dual personality. The compulsions by which the obsessions are relieved are as follows: to be fair Two-Face gives everyone he wants to kill an unbiased chance to live by a flip of his coin and most of his villainous actions are decided by a coin clip as well; for the obsession with '2' he hires twins, commits crimes on the 2nd day of the month, robs the 2nd National Bank, or anything that is related or can be related to the number two and often designs his lairs and costumes in the dichotomy of "bad and good" or "black and white".

To understand Two-Face's mental illnesses it is imperative to look at his backstory. The story of Two-Face's origins has remained relatively unchanged across the seventy years he has been a character but for easier referencing we will be focusing on the Batman: the Animated Series' and related spin-off comics' portrayal of this character. Originally Two-Face, as Harvey Dent, was a clean cut well-respected lawyer and District Attorney for Gotham City. Naturally this good man had a dark side, a second personality called Big Bad Harv who came out when Dent was angry. Being a responsible adult, however, Dent was seeking professional help to deal with his anger and Big Bad Harv. As a lawyer Dent was seeking to put the mafia boss Rupert Thorne behind bars and clean up the corrupted justice system but when Throne learnt about Dent's visits to a psychologist he tried to use it as blackmail. Dent refused to comply with Thorne which lead to Dent receiving major acid burns to the left side of his body. This trauma allowed Big Bad Harv, now calling himself Two-Face due to the scars on half his body, to take over Dent's body. Seeking revenge against Thorne Two-Face goes on a crime spree robbing Thorne's businesses and other sources of illicit income. Eventually captured Two-Face was sent to Arkham Asylum for rehabilitation from which he continually escaspes. There is a lot more that goes in to the story of Two-Face but any other relevant information to his mental illnesses will be explained when the time comes. (Batman the Animated Series: Two-Face)

The main mental illness that writers and fans focus on is Two-Face's DID but how accurate is it to real DID cases? Starting at the beginning, Dent's disorder began in childhood due to the physical and mental abuses his father delivered to him; Dent internalized the hate and fear he felt towards his father by turning it into another personality to take the abuse for him (Templeton, 1998). This is in line with classic DID cases were the disorder begins in childhood due to traumatic abuse (Sinason, 2002). Both Dent and Two-Face are aware of each other and they have a shared memory for most of what happens. Two-Face, however, is able to prevent Dent from knowing what he is doing or planning; this is shown when Two-Face, having pretended to disappear meaning Dent was cured, planned to have their body kidnapped while it was undergoing reconstructive surgery to fix the facial scars, as a convoluted way to escape Arkham Asylum (Batman the Animated Series: Second Chance). While DID cases can be aware of their alternative personalities, called cognitive awareness, Two-Face/Dent displays an extreme awareness to the point of having conversations with each other but could probably still happen (Comer, 2008). What is more unusual in a DID case is the shared memory, Dent not knowing Two-Face's actions is more in line with classic cases where one personality does not know the actions of the other, but the shared memory is more of a creative license by the writers as DID is characterized by amnesia between alternative personalities (Huntjens, 2014). What is in line in terms to memory loss is the third personality Dent developed after he became a criminal, a vigilante personality named Judge who neither Dent nor Two-Face knew existed and who even attempted to kill Two-Face with a trap in his desire to fight crime (The New Batman Adventures: Judgment Day).

Two-Face's OCD is often made fun of by fans but it actually is a compelling part of his character. That being said the portrayal of OCD is pretty accurate to real cases. Except for the fact that they seemed to occur overnight. While Dent was always committed to being a fair man and lawyer he was not obsessed by fairness and he certainly did not think that chance by flip of a coin was the only fair way to determine something's or someone's outcome (Batman the Animated Series: Pretty Poison). The same goes for his predilection for all things binary, only after the accident that scarred his face and Two-Face became the predominant personality did he feel the need to show the duality between Two-Face and Dent (Batman the Animated Series: Two-Face). There is also the matter of his age, while no real age is given for Dent, taking into account that he is the District Attorney of Gotham city he should be well in his thirties when he becomes Two-Face while, traditionally, OCD onset occurs before the age of twenty-five (Comer, 2008).

The discrepancies between Two-Face's mental illnesses and real life cases, most likely comes from lack of or misinformation with a dash of social stigma thrown in. Dissociative Identity Disorder is often mistakenly portrayed as similar to schizophrenia which is probably how the writers of Two-Face got the idea that Two-Face and Dent could converse. At the same time they help perpetuate the myth that a DID alternate personality is violent and "evil" while the original personality is not. While Two-Face's OCD is written relatively accurate the humorous nature in which it is often portrayed (especially the 'two' obsession) reflects badly on the seriousness of OCD. Writers never show the distress that OCD inflects on Two-Face except when he loses his coin or cannot flip it to decided something for another reason but OCD is very distressful for those who have it and the writers tend to play it off as a joke (Puckett, 1994). There is also an overarching stigma of mental health that Two-Face and indeed most Batman villains perpetuate: that those with mental illnesses are dangerous. This is probably the worst crime that Two-Face commits as it is the reason why people are afraid to go to a psychologist and be diagnosed; they do not want the stigma of mental illness on them and it is the reason why people treat those with mental illnesses with such distain. Because we fear them, we fear their abnormality and think them dangerous. Overall though Two-Face is still one of the Batman villains that most accurately portrays his mental illnesses. Even though writers disregard the distress that his OCD must cause him they do showcase the distress and disruption that his DID causes both Dent and Two-Face. Therefore, on scale of one to ten with ten being the best most accurate portrayal of the mental illnesses, Two-Face would rate as a solid seven. An overall rating of the episodes and plots Two-Face is a part of they would earn an eight for quality.

Works Cited

Batman the Animated Series: Pretty Poison. Perf. Kevin Conroy, Diane Pershing. Warner Home Video, 1992. Digital Download.

Batman the Animated Series: Two-Face. Perf. Kevin Conroy, Richard Moll. Warner Home Video, 1992. Digital Download.

Batman the Animated Series: Second Chance. Perf. Kevin Conroy, Richard Moll. Warner Home Video, 1994. Digital Download.

Comer, Ronald J. Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology. 5th ed. New York: Worth, 2008. Print.

Huntjens, Rafaële J.C., et al. "Interidentity Amnesia For Neutral, Episodic Information In Dissociative Identity Disorder." Journal Of Abnormal Psychology 112.2 (2003): 290-297. PsycARTICLES. Web. 2 Nov. 2014.

Puckett, Kelley. "Good Face, Bad Face." The Batman Adventures. Issue 22. Canada: DC comics, 1994. Print.

Sinason, Valerie. "Attachment, Trauma and Multiplicity: Working with Dissociative Identity Disorder." Google Books. Taylor Francis Inc, 1 Jan. 2002. Web. 2 Nov. 2014.

Templeton, Ty. "Lucky Day." Batman Gotham Adventures. Issue 2. Canada: DC comics, 1998. Print.

The New Batman Adventures: Judgment Day. Pref. Kevin Conroy, Richard Moll. Warner Home Video, 1998. Digital Download.