Not an expert on this through reading materials or degree but thought of putting my thoughts on what happened and how mental health can be further broken down into
Arthur Fleck described chronic depression, saying things like, “All I have are negative thoughts,” and “The worst part of having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don't."
Depression is characterized by low interest, poor sleep, sometimes irrational guilt, low energy, poor concentration, increased or decreased appetite, and suicidal thoughts.
This is worse if followed by delusion.
Joker had the desire for being important and being connected to important people. For example, during his fantasy of being on the show, he demonstrated a desire for a fatherly hug and being told, “I wish I had a son like you.” When he had a fantasy of dating the woman in his apartment complex, within the delusion, she was at the comedy club laughing at his jokes, and was concerned about him during his mother’s stroke.
The movie pulls you into Joker’s experience of having the delusion, and even in the end people question what is real and not real.
For example, did he have grandiose delusions about him being loved by the people, or was that real? His erotic delusion about his neighbor being in love with him seemed to implode after he entered her apartment building.
What we do know is that Arthur Fleck realized the delusions were not real. This suffering was intense, realizing that the girl in the apartment was not someone that comforted him, didn’t love him.
Was it because of childhood trauma ?
He experienced childhood trauma and then continued trauma in how he was treated throughout his life.
He continued to have an odd relationship with his mother—one example was him giving her a bath, another was coauthoring her narratives (checking her letters). Early on as a young child, he clearly sided with his aggressor (his mother), while she neglected him and let others abuse him. Instead of being angry, he found it more adaptive to align with her, nurture her, and be her caretaker. His anger, resentment, and unhappiness was deep inside him. When trauma occurs at a young age, it often is not represented in the mind as a narrative, or something that is remembered like one thing leading to another. In his conversion his anger turned from being inward against himself, showing up as depression, to being outward to the point of a murderous rage when he kills his mother.
Are Murder Justified ?
The movie did a good job of not putting his violent acts as a consequence of his psychiatric influences. People who are mentally ill are more likely to be victims of violence than people who do violent acts.
The first two murders were in self defense. When the three men on the subway were being sexually provocative to a young girl on the bus, we feel a sense of compassion for her, and anger towards them. Then when they start beating Joker up, and he shoots his gun, we feel it is a reaction in self defense. Then the situation switches from a reaction to rage, which seems to come from deep humiliation. He shoots the third man as he runs away.
After some heartbreaking scenes where he discovers his past —that his mother has been lying to him and was incredibly abusive, he kills his mother. Someone commented online that maybe he was doing this to put her out of her misery, showing some are seeing this as more altruistic than just murder. He kills Randall, his former clown coworker, because he made fun of him and lied to their boss about him. He then kills Murray Franklin after being humiliated on television about his medical condition.
As the movie progresses, we begin to blur our idea of traditional right and wrong, and enter into his mind, and his reasons for murderous rage.
Unsure of my rambling’s. However it is a movie worth discussing the mental health and people should not be misled by some statements made by Joker as the philosophy .
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