The Psychology of the Simpsons

Alcohol- The causes of and Solution to, All Life’s Problems

Within the Simpsons, there are three characters who have a “drinking

problem”. They each have different stages or different reactions to the alcohol.

Let’s dive a little deeper into the meaning of this. The three characters names are

Barney, Ned, and Homer. Barney’s drinking is so bad that everyone including

himself agrees that he has a problem with alcohol. Although he agrees to the

problem, he can’t keep being sober. Barney would be an example of extreme

alcoholism. Ned’s problems with drinking are minor enough to where he only

thinks he has the alcohol problem. In Ned’s case, he is identifying a “false

negative” but, its flipped. Ned is finding a “false positive”. This means that he is

identifying a problem that isn’t there. Homer is in the middle of the two people.

There are times when he is drinking and there is a problem with his usage, while

there are other times that there isn’t a problem with his usage.

The DSM and How it Connects to the Simpsons

Along with alcohol, there have been many connections to mental health

disorders. To help detect these disorders, there a DSM (American Psychiatric

Association’s Diagnostics and Statistical Manual). Within the DSM there is a

certain criteria that can be used for all substance use or abuse. The first one that
is often referred to would be alcohol dependence or dependence syndrome.

Dependence syndrome is often though of to deal with the psychological side of

the body (experiencing withdrawal and tolerance to the substance being used)

the in all reality the dependance syndrome when the substance you are suing

(alcohol, hallucinogens, and opiates) start to become your life or leads to

exclusion of other activities that might happen normally. This means that for

Barney and Ned, there is a test that could be administered. Within the test it can

tell if someone is dependent of a substance or isn’t dependent on a substance.

Others might use the symptoms given on the DSM base their usage of

substances that way. While in Homer’s situation, the DSM symptoms can be

helpful but, they also aren’t a checklist. For Homer, a good evaluation would have

to involve an interview given by a trained professional.

Pages: 75-81

What the Textbook Has to Say

There have been many versions of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical

Manual of Mental Disorders) with the fourth being the newest. Within the DSM,

there are the five major dimensions or axes. Each axis is a little different and

covers a different aspect of a person’s case. Axis I is where you can find the

substance abuse. Along with substance-related disorders, you can also find

mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and sleep disorders. Axis I is
used to “classify current symptoms into explicitly defended categories”. The

symptoms listed for substance-related disorders would be, “includes maladaptive

use of alcohol and drugs”.

Pages: 452-453

According to the textbook, there is only one set of symptoms that the DSM

uses for substance-related disorders. Both the Simpsons book and the text book

said the same thing. While the Simpsons definition wasn’t as correct, it was still

saying that the DSM uses symptoms to help classify an issue. The textbook’s

symptom for substance-related disorders was “includes maladaptive use of

alcohol and drugs”. This definition could be broken down further saying, “includes

the non-providing appropriate adjustment to an environment or situation”. The

Simpsons symptom was dependence syndrome; “when the substance you are

suing leads to exclusion of other activities that might happen normally”. While the

textbook gives a better explanation, both definitions could be stating the same

symptom, just in different ways. Not having the appropriate adjustment to a

situation is allowing the substance to become your life to the point that you

exclude other activities that were important. The Simpsons book was close but,

I’d rely on the text book more for the DSM information.

Dependence Risk in the Simpson Children

 There is no way of knowing for sure where mental disorders occur or how

they work for each person. Symptoms for one person could be completely

different for another. The same is also applied to alcohol dependance and how it

carries through genetics and how someone develops an alcohol disorder.

Although, the one thing that every alcohol user has in common would be alcohol

dependence. This is because they all are using alcohol one way or another. So,

where do the Simpson children stand with their risk of being alcohol dependent?

There are two general factors that will apply to all of the children: genetics and

family modeling of alcohol usage. The textbook describes genes as: “Basic units

of heredity. They are reproduced and passed along from parent to child.” Anyone

with a family history of alcohol, has a higher risk rate than someone who doesn’t.

Homer not only drinks but his family before him also had a history of alcoholism

which increased Homer’s risk rate and his children risk rate. Another factor that

plays into Homer’s children would be that hey are being raised in the family

environment where the alcohol dependence risk is increased. The textbook’s

definition for modeling is: “The process of learning behavior through observations

and imitation of others.” So, they are not only introduced to alcohol dependance

through genetics but, they are also being shown that behavior at home.

The Psychology of the Simpsons: Pages 83-88 Textbook: Pages 175 and 262.
 Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight

Antisocial behaviors are commonly known for a child, young adult, or just

any age person to be lacking in social skills but, there’s more to it than just that.

Antisocial personality can be defined as the pattern of disregard for, violation of,

the rights of others. The textbook describes people with antisocial personality to

“treat people as objects—as things to be used for gratification and to be cast

aside coldly when no longer wanted.” The second Robin has antisocial

personality in which he never out grows. With the patterns of Robin and todays

juvenile offenders psychologists have learned that people in a group of friends

(good or bad influence on you and your choices) have a higher rate of recovering

from being antisocial or growing out of it. This is because they are still developing

friendships, some social skills, how to defend others, and how to trust. While on

the other hand, juvenile offenders who are alone with no friends have a harder

time growing out of being antisocial going into adulthood. This is simply because

they have no one to learn the sociable skills from or because their family

situations. When problems arise from the family it is because the parents have

severe marital disharmony, instability, alcoholism, antisocial behaviors, and other

problems that occur occasionally. Because Robin never outgrows his antisocial
personality, he leads a life full of crimes and eventually becomes Batman’s

enemy.

Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight: Pages 98-99,

101-106, 144. Textbook: Pages 475-476

Bipolar Disorder is another disorder that is commonly known throughout

society today. The definition from the textbook would describe this disorder as: A

type of mood disorder in which individuals are excessively and inappropriately

happy or unhappy. In the book it describes people who have the bipolar disorder

to alternate between depression and the extreme mania cycles. Mania or the

manic phase is when a person experiences elation, extreme confusion,

distractibility, and racing thoughts. As Robin was the character that fit antisocial

personality, The Joker is the character that fits this personality disorder. Like

many people in the real world today, when they go on their own or into a sulk, it is

in response to a specific circumstance. This behavior occurs many times from the

Joker throughout the many series of Batman. In the textbook this behavior is

describes as “A patient will alternate between frantic action and motionless

despair. Some people experience occasional episodes of a manic-type or

depressive-type reaction, separated by long intervals of relatively normal

behavior. In the Joker’s case, going off on his own was a normal case when a
specific circumstance went wrong or not as he thought it should have. For most

cases, mania can be traced back to the same biochemical disorder that is

responsible for depression. Another behavior that the Joker would go through

would be doing what he wanted when he wanted to. If the Joker felt like killing a

person, then he would go ahead and do that. This can be described by Sigmund

Freud. In the psychodynamic approach, Freud explains behavior in terms of

unconscious motives and drives, viewing human nature essentially as antisocial,

biologically driven by the id’s of pleasure.

Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight: Pages 153-154.

Textbook: Pages 471

There are many different ways we can become stressed in our lives. For

most teenagers, high school would be the number one stressor but, for most

children, the loss or fear of losing their parents is the number one stressor. In the

textbook stress can be describes as: the anxious or threatening feeling resulting

from our appraisal of a situation and our reaction to demands placed upon us.

Bruce Wane (Batman) went through the loss of his parents at an early age. This

naturally, resulted in a lot of stress as a child along with a series of hassles and

pains. Growing up Bruce Wane had a lot of coping strategies that are mentioned

in the textbook. Active coping (taking additional action to try to get rid of the
problem), planning (Coming up with a strategy about what to do), acceptance

(Learn to live with it), and sometimes mental disengagement (Turning to work or

other substitute activities to take ones mind off of things). From Bruce’s

experiences, he learned distress (bad stress) and eustress (good stress). Bruce

always accepted the fact that his parents were gone but still used their loss as a

motivator. There was always a change in Bruce Wanes life and for most people,

this is the recurring theme of stress. In his list of stressors mentioned above,

some help with that change while others don’t.

Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight: Pages 37-38.

Textbook: Pages 413-414 and 430-431.

Abraham Maslow is known for his hierarchy of needs and how it can help

someone become self-actualized. For Bruce Wane this hierarchy of needs starts

to tie in with his nature vs. nurture. Every one of us is becoming the best person

we can be through the things we have been taught and through the experiences

that we experience. Bruce Wane was taught by his parents when they were still

alive. While they taught him, they did their best to make sure that he understood

them though their teachings and their actions. After they were killed, he also

learned from their murder. Later on in Bruce’s life, both sets are bringing out his

best qualities and teaching him to be heroic. So for most people they would say
that nurture would be the strong case for Bruce Wane. What is the actual

definition of nature vs. nurture? The textbook says: “Nature refers to the

characteristics that a person inherits— his or her biological makeup. Nurture

refers to environmental factors, such as family, culture, education, and individual

experiences.” Nature plays a greater role in some things and nurture exerts more

power over others. In Bruce Wane’s case, I think nurture had more power.

Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight: Pages 95-97.

Textbook: Pages 175.