Psychological development is a popular topic within social sciences. The most essential part of the study might be the child mentality development. To investigate how the tragic childhood eventually influences the adults, the works of Piaget, Erikson, and Vygotsky were implied. The object of the investigation is a fictional character Rorschach, a vigilante and one of the main protagonists from Watchmen comic book. The results show that the early years and continuous abuse of the character resulted in his twisted and unhealthy world perception, and he could have become an average grateful person if his upbringing differed from the given.
Walter Joseph Kovacs, whose alter-ego eventually becomes known as Rorschach, is a fictional character of the original Watchmen comic series. The vigilante lives in a dystopian world of superheroes with no supernatural powers, where the emergence of vigilantes causes major shifts in history. The changes include different outcomes from significant American events, such as the Vietnam War, Assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the Hippie movement (Moore, Gibbons, & Higgins, 2008). Rorschach is the key character who investigates a series of vigilante’s murders and is involved in the main comic’s events.
The character’s above-average intelligence level allows him to investigate complex cases with a qualitative approach. His special features as a person include highly strict temperament, overall seriousness, and negative life perception. The latter is the main result of child abuse and his psychically traumatic childhood period. Walter was left by his father and lived all his childhood with a mother who began working as a prostitute for survival. The child experienced much abuse, witnessed explicit scenes of his mother’s intercourse and suffered from bullying (Moore et. al, 2008).In accordance with some of the recognized theories of child psychological development, the following theory aims to analyze the reasons from the early years of Rorschach’s personality formation.
A variety of psychologists dedicated their works to the issue of a child’s personality formation and psychic development. Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist whose area of expertise was child development, established his theory on the matter. According to Piaget’s Four Stages of Cognitive Development, at the first stage, a child learns to think symbolically, at the second one, the thinking becomes logical, then a child adopts an ability to classify, at last, analytical abstract thinking emerges (Rider, 2017). In Rorschach’s first two years of life, which refer to the first stage, he formed an ideal image of his father. The illusion eventually was ruined and caused Kovacs’ suspicious attitude toward the surroundings. At the second stage, he discovered about his mother’s job and the logic then began to build upon the fact of injustice. Having experienced an unpleasant episode with his mother during the third stage, Kovacs properly structured his life views and classified them as the “good” and the “bad”. As a result, at the fourth stage, he had a formed pessimistic view on life.
Another author to develop the childhood psychological theories was Lev Vygotsky. He conducted his studies within the Social Learning Theory and concluded that processes of development and learning are both separate and interactive (Manichander, 2016). According to the Vygotsky, the changes in a child’s thoughts and behavior are continuous and are influenced mostly by the closest surrounding (Manichander, 2016). Another author’s assumption is that a perception and intelligence level are genetically prescribed and can differ significantly (Manichander, 2016).The theory approach to Rorschach’s psychic development gives the following results. His childhood was a period when the character absorbed the most of abusive and immoral actions of the adults and, because of his overall high intelligence level, became able to comprehend people’s malicious motives. Having become an adult, Kovacs could conduct investigations of high complexity and counter crime due to the formed life perception. Rorschach often sees the worst-case scenario, searches for the most effective counter-measures and applies force if necessary. All of the above might have resulted from his early life learning and development processes.
A competent German-American psychologist Erik Erikson also dedicated his works to children’s development. The scientist formed a nine-stage life value theory, where the first five stages are responsible for a child’s attitude toward life (Nevid &Rathus, 2016). The most significant stage is the first one, trust versus mistrust, as its outcomes can either result in trustful relationships with parents and the environment, or lead to a sense of total mistrust (Nevid &Rathus, 2016). As this theory approaches Rorschach and his tragic upbringing, it becomes visible how his mother’s accusations and the random men’s neglect of her made Rorschach asexual and constantly suspicious. As he was rejected by his father and abused by the mother, the consequences of being pessimistic and violent are obvious.
In conclusion, the authors’ theories and thoughts have a common idea that the appropriate attention to a child and the process of developing and learning are the pillars of developing a healthy stable personality. At the same time, the studies of the authors proved that inappropriate care or its absence might cause unexpected and unpleasant consequences. With an appropriate family attitude, Rorschach could have become an average person without a deep psychological trauma.
References
Manichander, T. (2016), Advanced educational psychology. Maharashtra:Ashok Yakkaldevi.
Moore, A., Gibbons, D., & Higgins, J. (2008). Watchmen. New York: DC Comics.
Nevid, J. S., &Rathus, S. A. (2016). Psychology and the challenges of life: Adjustment and growth. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Rider, E. (2017). Life-span: Human development. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.