Welcome to Arkham Asylum

Essays on Psychiatry and the Gotham City Institution

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Edited by Sharon Packer and Daniel R. Fredrick

Type

Essays

Subject

Genre > Fantasy

Keywords

psychiatry, fantasy

Publishing date

2020

Publisher

McFarland & Co

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 311 pages
7 x 10 inches (18 x 25.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-4766-7098-0

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Book Presentation:
Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane is a staple of the Batman universe, evolving into a franchise comprised of comic books, graphic novels, video games, films, television series and more. The Arkham franchise, supposedly light-weight entertainment, has tackled weighty issues in contemporary psychiatry. Its plotlines reference clinical and ethical controversies that perplex even the most up-to-date professionals. The 25 essays in this collection explore the significance of Arkham’s sinister psychiatrists, murderous mental patients, and unethical geneticists. It invites debates about the criminalization of the mentally ill, mental patients who move from defunct state hospitals into expanding prisons, madness versus badness, sociopathy versus psychosis, the “insanity defense” and more. Invoking literary figures from Lovecraft to Poe to Caligari, the 25 essays in this collection are a broad-ranging and thorough assessment of the franchise and its relationship to contemporary psychiatry.

About the authors:
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.

Press Reviews:
• Honorable Mention—Ray and Pat Browne Award for Best Edited Collection

• "This collection excels in a scholarly, well-referenced survey that considers the wide-ranging cultural impact and influence of the Arkman Asylum. … offers an involving literary and multidisciplinary approach designed to appeal to a large audience of college readers interested in the Arkham legacy."—Donovan’s Bookshelf

See the publisher website: McFarland & Co