The Jokder's Disorder

Uriel   Sat Aug 09, 2008 1:42 am GMT
Now we're really mixing and matching our genres; Arkham is from H.P. Lovecraft's horror stories, which have nothing at all to do with Batman. The costume designer must have been a Cthulhu fan....or should I say disciple? ;P
Nurse Ratched   Sat Aug 09, 2008 10:53 am GMT
Mixing and matching our genres? No way! Arkham has everything to do with Batman: it's where all the insane characters are incarcerated.

WIKI:
"The Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane is a fictional setting, a psychiatric hospital in the DC Comics Universe, usually in stories featuring Batman. Many psychotic criminals, including a number of Batman's enemies, such as The Joker and Two-Face, are held within the Asylum."

You're right about the Lovecraft connection though:

WIKI:
"Arkham Asylum was named in honour of the fictional city of Arkham, Massachusetts, one of the settings of H. P. Lovecraft's horror stories. In fact, when the asylum first appeared, it was actually in the city of Arkham; Its Gotham location, and the subsequent alternative explanation of the name, were later retcons.

Lovecraft's Arkham Sanitarium may have been inspired by the Danvers State Insane Asylum (aka the Danvers State Hospital) in Danvers, Massachusetts. Danvers State Hospital was erected according to the Kirkbride Plan devised by Victorian-era mental health professional Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride. In the comics, Arkham Asylum is often drawn with Victorian elements suggesting the Kirkbride model.

Arkham is similar to several real life mental hospitals. Ward's Island in the East River was the home of the New York City Asylum for the Insane, opened around 1863, and the nearby Roosevelt Island once had several mental institutions and prisons including the New York City Lunatic Asylum."


What's the deal with Cthulhu?
Guest   Sat Aug 09, 2008 10:57 am GMT
He is an evil monster.
Uriel   Sat Aug 09, 2008 5:01 pm GMT
Cthulhu was Lovecraft's great literary creation, the most ancient and evil of his "old gods". I think he made it a point to give his gods the most unpronounceable names he could, to emphasize their profound "otherness" to modern people -- and also, because they were supposed to have existed long before humans or their languages.

I guess I am not surprised that the creator of Batman gave a nod toward H.P. -- Batman was always supposed to be a dark, brooding, and tortured figure with an ambiguous relationship toward good and evil, just as his hometown of New York City was transformed into the dark, decaying, and multilayered gothic grandeur of Gotham. I think the second Batman franchise got that first part right, but the first franchise nailed the second one -- Tim Burton was right on the money with his sets!
Guest   Fri Aug 15, 2008 12:52 pm GMT
I'm having a very hard time remembering the name of the disorder when the patient starts imagining things that have never occurred in reality.
Dr Antimoon aka Guest   Fri Aug 15, 2008 6:07 pm GMT
"I'm having a very hard time remembering the name of the disorder when the patient starts imagining things that have never occurred in reality. "

_______________

Hmmm.. well, there are quite a few disorders, mostly the illnesses which fall into the category of "psychotic":

Schizophrenia:
Paranoid schizophrenics have hallucinations (hearing voices or other sounds, seeing things that aren't really there etc) and delusions (bizarre ideas which can seem utterly ridiculous to you or me but which they believe with complete conviction). That all means that it's hard for them to distinguish between reality and what's going on in their heads.

Bipolar:
Also known as manic-depression. When the person is psychotic, which tends to be less often than in schizophrenia, they can also experience hallucinations. Anyone who's hallucinating is going to have a tough time distinguishing between reality and internal stimulii (in their head).

Psychotic depression:
Depression with psychotic features: again psychosis (hallucinations, delusions).

Some Personality Disorders can also result in the person losing contact with reality, to some degree or other.

In your question, however, you appear to be asking about people who have false memories. This is somewhat different to psychosis, which relates to ongoing perceptions.

We all remember some things incorrectly, leading to false memories. This is normal and not considered part of a disorder; as time goes by, our memories generally become less accurate and we cannot recall particular events with the clarity we once could. If the false memories are dramatic or numerous, possible reasons for this include PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress) and brain damage.
Guest   Fri Aug 15, 2008 11:52 pm GMT
Schizophrenia of the name of the disorder that I was trying to recall. Thanks