Welcome to Arkham Asylum

Sharon Packer, M.D., is a New York City psychiatrist and an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Daniel R. Fredrick is an assistant professor of writing at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments

Foreword by Jason W. Ellis

Preface by Sharon Packer, M.D.

Introduction: Why Arkham, Why Now? (Sharon Packer, M.D.)

Section I: Clinical Psychiatric Controversies

The Differential Diagnosis of Elizabeth Arkham (Elyse D. Weiner, M.D.)

ECT in Arkham Asylum: Pacification, Assassination and Electrocution (Timothy W. Kneeland)

Hallucinations and Psychedelics in Arkham (Matthew Brown, D.O., and Fernando Espí Forcén, M.D.)

Section II: Forensic Psychiatric Controversies I’m [Virtual] Batman: Violence and Video Games (Ryan C.W. Hall, M.D., and Susan Hatters Friedman, M.D.)

Deadly and Dysfunctional Family Dynamics: When Fiction Mirrors Fact

(Susan Hatters Friedman, M.D., and Ryan C.W. Hall, M.D.)

Murderous Minds, Arkham Villains and Real (Not Reel) Life

Movie Massacres (Sharon Packer, M.D.)

Section III: ­Medical-Ethical Controversies Anti-Psychiatry and the Arkham Asylum (Fernando Espí Forcén, M.D.)

Harley Quinn and the Joker: Pitfalls of ­Doctor-Patient Romances (Sharon Packer, M.D.)

Unethical Experiments in Arkham and Elsewhere (Sharon Packer, M.D.)

Section IV: Big Screen Parallels Arkham’s Sinister Psychiatrists and the Continuum with Caligari (Sharon Packer, M.D.)

Haunted by Madness: Horror and the Supernatural in Arkham Asylum

(Michael Markus)

Breaking Out: The Escaped Mental Patient in the Batman Universe (Jeffrey Bullins)

The Suicide Squad: From Bad to Good and Back Again (Jaq Greenspon and Rasa Greenspon)

Section V: Small Screen Parallels Animated Arkham: Television and Children’s Perceptions of Psychiatric Treatment (Kristi Rowan Humphreys)

The Fine Line Between Sanity and Madness in Star Trek’s “Whom Gods Destroy” and Arkham Asylum: A Serious Place on Serious Earth

(Darren ­Harris-Fain and Eric J. Sterling)

Section VI: Video Screen Parallels If Walls Could Scream: Embedded Narratives and Mazes of Madness in the Virtual Space of Arkham (Asylum Shawn Edrei)

Excavating Arkham: The Mental Asylum as Horrible Homecoming

(Brenda S. Gardenour Walter)

Section VII: Literary and Artistic Influences

Bizarro Arkham, Bizarro World: The Looking Glass Looks Back

(Aaron Barlow)

The ­Neo-Expressionist Agony of Arkham Asylum

(Rosa JH Berland)

Surrealism’s Influence on Arkham and Psychiatry’s Influence on Surrealism (Sharon Packer, M.D.)

Poe’s Place in Arkham Asylum: Precursors and Parallels (Caleb Puckett)

H.P. Lovecraft, Literary Heritage and Batman: Arkham Asylum (Eric Sandberg)

Section VIII: Mythic and Religious Parallels Evil Clowns and Acrobats: The Joker and Harley Quinn (Adam W. Darlage)

Matricide and Myth (Daniel R. Fredrick)

Appendix: Unethical Experiments in Modern Genetics Research

About the Contributors

Filmography

Bibliography

Index