Book Review: Even A Superhero Needs Counseling
I have always been a bit of a superhero geek (more antihero) growing up. So, I was immediately drawn to Even a Superhero Needs Counseling.
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I was enlightened, as a child, by what a “good person” does through comic books. Therefore, as I got older, I realized that you have be careful about who you attempt to save.
Some people may turn into supervillains, whether you helped them, or not. However, being a therapist and a comic book fan, I often wonder what it would be like to have them sitting in front of me at times.
The Review: Even a Superhero Needs Counseling
In his book, Even A Superhero Needs Counseling, Daniel Bates has a good approach to analyzing these superheroes and supervillains. He suggests treatment options as if they were to see him for therapy.
His diagnosing the superheroes with disorders and proposing their treatment plans was interesting to ponder. I sense he investigated some differential diagnoses before stamping some of our favorite characters with a diagnosis.
I have no doubt that other therapists would say that he is spot on with some diagnoses. But others would disagree.
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How I Use These Lessons as a Therapist
Using this book to further investigate the minds of comic book heroes and foes could be useful in therapy sessions. Especially, when we have clients that identify with comic book characters or just to share an interest in a character to help understand why our client is interested in them. I find that the use of comics could provide a bridge to some of our clients that have not even heard of the comics. For example, they might be able to identify with the same struggles and find a similar coping skill that a character may have used.
I am not saying that we would recommend parading around as the caped crusader to avenge the people that cause trauma to others, however, we could look at the actions of comic book characters who are doing something healthy to help them cope with the dark worlds that we live in.
Maybe our clients could see themselves as their own superheroes?
To Find the book: Even A Superhero Needs Counseling: What Superheroes and Super-Villains Teach Us About Ourselves. By Daniel Bates, LMHC
Guest Post by Elijah Irving
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