A01=Sharon Packer MD
Author_Sharon Packer MD
Batman
Bipolar Disorder
C. G.
Captain America
Category=AKLC
Celibacy
Dysmorphic Disorder
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eq_bestseller
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eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Feminism
Fredric
Homosexuality
Ironman
Jung
Metamorphosis
Myth of
Narcissism
Paranoia
Radiation-Acquired Superpowers
Seduction of the Innocent
Shadow Self
Social Anxiety Disorder
Subversive Sex
Syncretic Religion
Werthem
Wonder Woman
Product details
- ISBN 9780313355363
- Weight: 539g
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 14 Dec 2009
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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This comprehensive collection of essays written by a practicing psychiatrist shows that superheroes are more about superegos than about bodies and brawn, even though they contain subversive sexual subtexts that paved the path for major social shifts of the late 20th century.
Superheroes have provided entertainment for generations, but there is much more to these fictional characters than what first meets the eye. Superheros and Superegos: Analyzing the Minds Behind the Masks begins its exploration in 1938 with the creation of Superman and continues to the present, with a nod to the forerunners of superhero stories in the Bible and Greek, Roman, Norse, and Hindu myth. The first book about superheroes written by a psychiatrist in over 50 years, it invokes biological psychiatry to discuss such concepts as "body dysmorphic disorder," as well as Jungian concepts of the shadow self that explain the appeal of the masked hero and the secret identity.
Readers will discover that the earliest superheroes represent fantasies about stopping Hitler, while more sophisticated and socially-oriented publishers used superheroes to encourage American participation in World War II. The book also explores themes such as how the feminist movement and the dramatic shift in women's roles and rights were predicted by Wonder Woman and Sheena nearly 30 years before the dawn of the feminist era.
Sharon Packer, MD, is a practicing psychiatrist and an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Bronx, NY.
