Magneto
is Max Eisenhardt alias "Erik Lehnsherr”, who is a villain from the famous
comic book series “X-Men“ and is one
of the most famous comic book villains ever created. The character Magneto is a
villain with a goal of preservation of the “superior mutant race”. To gather a
grasp of a complex villain such as Magneto, I will use each one of the three
“School’s of Thought” (Psychoanalytic Theory, Behaviorism and the Learning Theory)
this will help us learn more about his psyche. First, I would like to take a
look at the Psychoanalytic theory to understand how the conscious and
unconscious mind of Magneto shapes the actions and reactions he expresses
throughout his life. There are three different categories of the unconscious thought;
first one I will discuss is the “Id” which is driven by impulse or immediate
satisfaction and desperation. Magneto went through very tragic incidents during
the Nazi’s rise to power from (1928 – 1944). Magneto and his family were
trapped in the Warsaw ghetto where the Nazi’s took him and his family in front
of a trench to be executed by firing squad. When the Nazi’s fired their shots
at Magneto and his family they fell into the trench left for dead. Magneto was unscaved, because their
shots were no match for his unconscious mutant powers to blunt/slow down the
bullets so that they would not inflict wounds. The “Id” displayed by Magneto
could be translated through his desperation for life, as he was on the brink of
death this unconscious super power, which had never been seen before came to the
surface and saved his life. After escaping to Poland he was put into one of the
most ruthless death camps, “Auschwitz” during his stay at Auschwitz his powers
stayed dormant due to starvation, over-work, torture, and disease. This shows
that the unconscious thought of Magneto’s “Id” where the disease, over work and
lack of food kept him from being able to use his mutant powers. This could also
be linked to “Maslow’s Hierarchy of
needs”.
The second category of unconscious thought is “Ego”. Ego
goes hand and hand with ”Id” because Ego rationalizes the feelings and impulses
that are deprived from Id, this is by controlling these urges so they are
socially acceptable. After escaping the camp they moved away to the Carpathian
Mountains in the Ukraine. Coming back from a day’s work Magneto realizes that
the Inn he has been staying at has caught fire, with his wife and child inside.
With out further a due he is reconnected with his mutant powers. This must have
been through the “id” of saving his family and then the control from the “Ego”
which helped him harness this unconscious supernatural ability. After emerging
from the fire he was restrained from going back to save his only child from
burning to death. After repeatedly trying to get back in the mob of people kept
restraining him from saving his daughter. The anger built up from being
resisted has therefore forced his “Ego” to lash out by disintegrating the
entire mob to try one last attempt at saving his daughter.
The third and last category of the unconscious thought is
the “Super Ego”. This category deals with the moral and social standards you
wish to achieve. There are two sides of the “super ego”, one side is the
goodness of feeling the satisfaction from doing something nice to one another.
The other is the feeling of remorse or conscience from doing something that was
not accepted. This was
evident In the story of magneto because after killing that mob, his wife fled
in either fear of him or the fear of his mutant powers. Whatever the case,
Magneto must have felt a large amount of remorse because after his out lash his
life fell into pieces. He continued for many years trying to track down where
she fled to, and also hiding from the law who were trying to track him down for
his mass murder. The guilt of letting his daughter die and being the reason his
wife ran away, this leaves him very depressed because he is not meeting his
social goals and he is what you call “lost”.
The next School of thought I would like to discuss would be
Behaviorism this is a crucial area in the psychoanalysis of Magneto. The school
of Behaviorism leads to his life
of evil and anger. Magneto being a child raised through the holocaust there
were a lot of unfair rules and practices used on a daily basis. He would see Jewish
people disabled and gypsies killed in the most brutal way. This would make such
an impact on a younger developing boys mind. To have you’re world come crashing
down on you at such a young age where everything that is yours has being
stolen. The idea of seeing your parents killed right before your eyes could put
a sense of guilt that he could have saved the lives of his family. Also when he
was in Auschwitz he was a “sonderkommando” this is someone who helps lead other
Jewish people into gas chambers, and their bitter end. This could have an
affect on Magneto because he is betraying his entire religion, and this would
have an affect of guilt on his psyche. This guilt could be linked to Magneto in
his later life of leading the “brotherhood” which is the group of mutants who
are focused on the mutants being better than the humans. I believe this was
invoked because of the betrayal he showed towards the Jewish people during his
time in the camp. This is his second chance to save a race. That is why Magneto
is so persistent on fighting against the humans, which symbolize the “Nazi’s”
suppressing the Jewish people.
The last school of thought in psychology I would like to
discuss is the Learning theory. This theory is important to the school of
psychology because there is a lot of truth to this theory. This is because it is a lot easier to
learn by seeing something unfold in front of you. A huge example of something
that has been learned would be the ability to take the life of another living
being. I believe that this skill was evolved through the years of darkness and
tragedy. Magneto has been numbed to the idea of death because he has grown up
with the loss of his parents, siblings, wife, and the loss of his only child at
the time. Especially at a young age you are much more likely to absorb the
anger and sadness from these losses and direct them into a hatred towards an
entire race. Such as magneto wanting the humans to be the puppets of mutants
because he has seen what they can do to each other and he thinks they are too primitive
to have the same power that the mutants have.
Cognitive Dissonance
An example of cognitive dissonance in Magnetos life would be
when he creates a super mutant to attack the humans. Instead it attacks magneto
turning him back to infancy with Dr. Xavier. After he raided labs and army
bases getting technology to blackmail the world. His plan being foiled by the
X-men and he realized that he hates what he has become and Magneto renounced
his life of terrorism. He disappeared making one final attempt to find his
wife.
Two Psychological Theorists:
1.
Erik Erikson would have been a good
psychoanalyst of the super villain Magneto because Erik looks at the affects of
social interaction and experiences, which determine the different stages of
development that Magneto was going through from birth to death.
2.
Sigmund Freud would have also been an excellent
psychologist to study Magneto, because Sigmund focuses of the unconscious and
conscious thoughts of a child. This would be perfect because a lot of the
events that affect magneto would have deprived from early childhood.
Bibliography:
Bryan Singer.
(August, 1992). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0001128/bio
Jack. (N/a).
[Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.xmen-supreme.com/magneto.php
Sheldon Turner.
(july 2000). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://marvel.com/universe/Magneto_(Max_Eisenhardt)
