Broadcast Thought Examines Batman Villains

(EndPlay Staff Reports) - Three medical professionals are profiling Gotham City bad guys to help dispel myths about mental health treatment.

Comic book fan and forensic psychiatrist Dr. Vasilis Pozios, a physician specializing in forensic and adult psychiatry, and two other mental health experts, Dr. H. Eric Bender and Dr. Praveen Kambam, formed Broadcast Thought .

On Thursday the trio teamed up with retired FBI agent Mark E. Safarik for a panel discussion at the San Diego Comic-Con, titled "Detecting Deviants in the Dark Night: Profiling Gotham City's Serial Killers," reported The Huffington Post .

Pozios believes such discussions about the fictional characters can help comic book fans gain a better understanding of real-life mental health issues. The trio wants to use such opportunities to remove stigmas attached to mental health treatment and remove myths about serial killers.

"There is still a misunderstanding to the portrayal of insanity in the Batman films and movies and what it means to be legally insane," Pozios told The Huffington Post. "For instance, the Joker has been repeatedly hospitalized at the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane, even though, in real life, he probably wouldn't qualify."

Pozios, Bender and Kambam spoke at last year's conference about mental health issues facing Batman, the Hulk and Spiderman.

"We hope that the audience gains a new appreciation of the Batman characters through our examination of them," Pozios said.

The Comic-Con website reported that they are using these discussions to examine questions such as: Are serial killers psychotic, psychopathic, or neither? Are there real-world versions of Gotham City's serial killers? Do serial killers share common traits?

According to the FBI, a serial murder is "the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s) in separate events."

Motives for murder can include sexual gratification, attention, thrill, anger and alleviating anxious urges, among others, stated Pozios, Bender and Kambam in a guest blog on Wired.com .

Comic book killers sometimes mimic real-life murders. For example, In "Batman: Cacophony," the character Onomatopoeia displays masks of the heroes he has killed. Ed Gein, a real-life serial killer, possessed a mounted human head ready to be hung, according to the trio.