Children of Atom

The most simple concept of X-men is the fight between major (human) versus minor (the mutant). It is a journey to be accepted, not only by others, but by their own self as well. The psychology of being/ appear normal versus accept the different. Because even some mutants cannot accept who they are. Different mutant powers might develop a different psychologies to the characters. Some of them tried to hide their power/ from the people around them, some accepted and acknowledge their power.

Wolverine with his healing power, with Mystique with her blue skin colour. They had wanted to become normal, but with the different reason. Wolverine wanted to become normal, grow old, die, because he kept losing people he loves (but then why he did not take the cure in X-men 3 and become normal? Strange right...) In X-men Origins Wolverine (2009) he lost his wife and in X-men : The Last Stand (2006) or x-men 3, he had to kill Jean or she will destroy the world. Because of that, he suffered PTSD in his latest movie, The Wolverine (2013) which he kept dream nightmare about Jean. Mystique in X-men First Class (2011) with her blue skin colour and abilities to transform to different person. She wanted to become normal because of her strange appearance, she wanted to be fit in to the society. Then she covered it by transforming to someone else. Same with Hank, he tried to make his legs became normal by injecting himself with his own formula, but then it enhance his appearance and become Beast. Different with Eric and Charles who accepted their difference and should free proud of it. But then after they accepted their differences, they start to explore their power and control it, train together with their group. In the group, they feel normal as in everyone else are mutants who has different powers, so they felt accetable in the group not like with the normal people.

Another character that is interesting is Eric Lehnsherr aka Magneto. After the death of his mother, he tried to avenge to Sebastian Shaw, the killer. He was intentionally tortured, so that he could bring out the power inside him through anger. But when he became adult and met Charles Xavier, He helped to brings out the greater power, which is "between the rage and serenity". It was based on Yerkes-Dodson Law in which optimal performance on a task occurs with a moderate amount of arousal: not too much arousal will lead you to feel scattered and lose focus, and not enough arousal (because you are understimulated or bored) will cause you to lose focus. Charles is reframing the Yerkes-Dodson Law so that rage = overarousal and serenity = underarousal. The midpoint between the two is the sweet spot.

At the end of the X-men First Class (2011), the human start to feel threaten by the mutants and strikes them. Magneto tried to strikes them back with his power but Professor X stop him. It raise a question, does Magneto is a villain? What he does is actually not a bad thing, is not it? He tried to protect mutants, same as Professor X, but in a different way. In his point of view, he is doing the right thing. In other example, same as Poison Ivy (Batman and Robin, 1997) from Batman enemies, which she is trying to protect nature, mother earth from the cruelty of humans. From her point of view she is doing a right thing. What do you think?

Bibliography

Batman & Robin. 1997. film. Directed by Joel Schumacher. USA: Warner Bros.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-superheroes/201106/x-men-first-class-psychologist-s-review

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reel-therapy/200905/x-men-story-concealable-stigma

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJnUYcqrvK4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAFLNXIohXI

X-men First Class. 2011. film. Directed by Matthew Vaughn. USA: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.

X-men: The Last Stand. 2006. film. Directed by Brett Ratner. USA: Twentieth Century Fox Film Coroporation. 

X-men Origins Wolverine. 2009. film. Directed by Gavin Hood. USA: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.