With my birthday being today, I was tasked over the past few weeks with creating an Amazon wishlist of all the things I wanted. On the list went a bunch of video games, some camping supplies, a LEGO Millennium Falcon set, and a bunch of books. (As if I didn’t have enough to read!)
I was surprised to find in my stroll through Amazon, a bountiful amount of geek x psych. The idea of doing geek therapy just truly became apparent to me this past summer and the Geek Therapy podcast had just begun last summer. I wanted to share my “discovery” in the hopes that the existence of these tomes becomes less surprising and more well read:
Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight by Travis Langley, Dennis O’Neil and Michael Uslan
The now Walmart Best Seller (I’m not kidding, look it up) has everyone wondering who is the Bat, really. The book promises to answer what seems like more obvious questions like “Does Batman have PTSD?” to more mysterious ones like “Why does this superhero without superpowers fascinate us?” and “What does that fascination say about us?” I’m looking forward to finding out what it means about my bat-obsessed fiance before I get myself in too deep. (j/k)
Using Superheroes in Counseling and Play Therapy by Lawrence Rubin PhD
Rubin’s book covers a couple of different tropes from Batman to Star Wars, the Incredible Hulk and back around to Superman. What I am looking forward to is the theory that he believes that, “not only can superheroes assist in clinical work with children, but Rubin demonstrates how they can facilitate growth and change with teen[s] and adults.” Play therapy is often defined as allowing younger clients to act and play out the thoughts and emotions that they can’t put words to. In reality the practice of using our actions to tell more than words is something that has no age limit.
Diagnosis and Treatment Planning Skills for Mental Health Professionals: A Popular Culture Casebook Approach by Alan Schwitzer and Lawrence Rubin
I’m really looking forward to having some guidelines for how to actually apply all of my musings about therapeutic geekery to my future practice. This larger tome is not for the faint of heart. It’s a legit text book. Rubin goes much broader to discuss in depth both a wider range of skill sets for practicing therapists including,“diagnosis, case conceptualization, and treatment planning.” Being able to translate geek therapy through these skill sets is absolutely essential to running your own practice as a geek therapist. Unfortunately I may have to wait until after I’m done with school to devour this book during my internships.
Reset: Psychotherapy and Video Games, 2nd Edition by Mike Langlois
Both the most targeted towards my personal interests as well as the least expensive, this e-book only text is actually the first up to bat on my personal reading list. It reveals some pretty significant findings like that the “military has discovered that video games decrease symptoms of PTSD in veterans” and others. I don’t have a kindle, but I do have the kindle app on my phone and will be sneaking in a few pages…er…screens between client work, school work and vigilante-ing…er…gaming…er…house cleaning.
If you’ve read, or heard rumour of any of these books please leave your thoughts about them in the comments on the individual page for this post! Thanks.