It’s Mental Health Awareness Month, and I’m excited to for this next article in our series, Mental Health and Pop Culture with Dr Eric Bender. In this column, we discuss Superman, the psychology of his character, and what we can relate with.
Superman has always stood as a symbol of hope—but in the most recent Superman we get a closer look at his story. Clark Kent is caught between two identities. He carries the expectations of a world that both depends on and questions him. The film explores themes of responsibility, never fitting in completely, and the pressure to live up to standards.
I have this debate with friends a lot, a nerdy debate of who’s better, Batman or Superman. I don’t know which one’s better, but with Superman, there are some universal experiences that he has that everybody has. Not fitting in. Superman was born on another planet. He’s never going to be a human. He’s never really going to fit in. He tries to fit in by being Clark Kent, this guy that he dresses up as, wearing glasses, being somewhat clumsy. That’s not who he is.
He is Superman. He has abilities others don’t have. He can do all kinds of things. He’s never really going to fit in. Yet he also really cares about people. He feels a responsibility to take care of them for various reasons. That’s another interesting part of Superman that people can identify with. Why am I driven to do what I’m doing? Is this because this is what I want to do? Or is this because somebody told me I should do this? Or because I have the ability to do this? You might find athletes who are really good at what they do, but they don’t actually want to do it. Why are they doing it? That’s an interesting theme in Superman that really came out in the 2025 movie. You see in the beginning, this message he gets from his Kryptonian parents to be in this place, to be on earth, where you could live as a god, you could rule over everybody.
That’s not his parents saying he needs to do that, but there’s a hint in there that he is better than people there, or he’s someone who has abilities that other humans don’t. There’s a question—Does Superman do this because his parents have directed him and guided him to do it? And that’s very much mimicking adolescence. When we are young, we have the rules; we have the guidance from parents or caregivers. Over time, we learn how to make our own decisions. What I really liked in the Superman 2025 movie was the Earth parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent; they let Superman be Superman. He doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to.
There’s a moving scene where Jonathan Kent says to Clark, parents aren’t for telling their kids who they’re supposed to be. Clark is going to be Superman because Clark wants to do that. Then the mother comes out and says, “Oh, I polished your boots,” knowing her son wants to go out and try to save the world. This isn’t them saying, “Hey, man, get your boots on; let’s go.” It’s him being who he is. There’s that push and pull of, who are you? Who are your parents trying to tell you to be? What is it that you want to do? Why do you want to do it? There are themes here that people can relate to.
Another thing with Superman is this burden of responsibility. He feels like he has to take care of people, and he wants to, but sometimes there is that burden. The people he loves will get hurt because of the responsibilities he takes on to protect everyone. People can relate to and identify with the burden of responsibility, whether that’s having to care for elderly parents or having to care for people in your life that you love, that you wish sometimes you didn’t have to. That’s also very human. Another line from Superman is, “I’m just as human as everybody else.” In some ways, he really is. He has these same emotional reactions.
What does this story reveal about the tensions we experience in our own lives?
The tensions we feel in our own lives are played out in Superman’s character when we talk about his parents and that idea of what his Kryptonian parents want for him to do, what he wants to do himself, what do his earthly parents want him to do. There’s always this push and pull.
As we grow up, we realize that we can have a life that maybe our parents don’t want for us. Maybe they wanted something different, but that’s part of growing up; you have to live the life that you want for yourself. We see this in a lot of the superheroes, but in Superman in particular, in this most recent movie and depiction of him, it’s how he wants to go about having his life and what feels right to him. That’s important with our own lives, what feels right to us.
Please note we’re not diagnosing but using familiar stories to talk about real mental health experiences. There is help available if you need. Check out our list of trusted partners for non emergent mental health support.
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doctorericbender.com
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