Positive Psychology through the Superheroes

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Why Superheroes? “The answer is pretty simple: because superheroes show us who we are and what we are capable of achieving (O’Connor, 2013).” Dr. Patrick O’Connor is a clinical psychologist that has mastered the art of psychotherapy through comic books and superheroes. He has managed to use the hobbies and childhood heroes of many of his clients to help them overcome mental health problems as well as childhood traumas. Dr. O’ Connor’s form of therapy has been so successful among his clients, that he currently teaches others how to help their patients in a course at The Chicago School of Professional Psychotherapy: “Geek Culture in Therapy”. In an attempt to help those who are not able to access “Geek Therapy” Dr. O’Connor also started an online database, Comicspedia, which describes hundreds of comic book storylines and matches them to themes which include being different, losing a loved one, family relationships, difficult decisions, and facing fears to name a few.

Although, it may be difficult for some to understand exactly how a comic book story line can help those struggling with their mental health, Dr. O’Connor accredits Positive Psychology. Studies done by Dr. Ed Diener, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, claim happiness is found through people. This claim is made with the assumption that being around other people increases our mood, reading about others and their trials inspire us, and learning about others and their stories energizes us. In essence, human beings want to trust one another, and as trust is gained so is happiness. Lets take a look now at the main focus of this paper, superheroes, and the influence they have on their audience. Superheroes thrive on doing what’s best for all mankind. They a...

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...John was able to use him as a model to embrace his own differences as strengths and use them to overcome his challenges.

John is one of many success stories where clients have been able to overcome challenges by looking towards superheroes and their problem solving skills depicted in each comic. Mental health issues were once seen as weird and uncomfortable topics to be dealt with in society. As a matter of fact, as global and an American society, people are still struggling to understand and face mental health issues. Comic Books have also been seen as uncanny and inappropriate in society. Ironically, they are both being used hand in hand to strengthen and heal many who have not been able to find help anywhere else.

Works Cited

O'Connor, P. (2013, May 22). Comic books and psychology: The comicspedia blog. Retrieved from http://comicspedia.blogspot.com/

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