Superhero Psychologist Dr. Andrea Letamendi

Products of the Mind: A Conversation About the Intersection of Business + Creativity

Welcome to Episode 42 of Products of the Mind. On this episode, I speak with clinical psychologist, cosplay enthusiast, and life-long Batman fan: Dr. Andrea Letamendi.

“It’s important for us to see mental health representation from the point of a superhero experiencing that psychological struggle, but also from the perspective of mental health providers who could be demonstrating an accurate and positive portrayal of mental health delivery."

Today’s talk is with clinical psychologist Dr. Andrea Letamendi. Andrea is not merely a psychologist; she’s a lover of all things comics and superheroes, a cosplay enthusiast, and a tremendous resource into the mind of a superhero.

Andrea discusses a number of interesting topics related to identity, the ego, mental health, and trauma. Her experience and training as a mental health professional allow her to make psychoanalytic insights into the lives of people and fictitious characters alike. Just as in the real world, the superhero world has a psychological side-story that may not always be accessible or identifiable; and Andrea helps us get into the mind of superheroes and people alike.

Andrea touches on questions such as: What goes on in the mind of a cosplayer? Do superheroes experience trauma and how do they deal with them? What kind of identify conflicts do real people and superheroes experience? Do we properly balance our different identities or do our different identities meld to form our true selves?

We’ll also talk a bit about podcasting, Comic-Con, and how Andrea made her way into an issue of Batgirl.

Links from today’s episode:

• Andrea’s site
• Andrea’s podcast
• Andrea is @ArkhamAsylumDoc on Twitter

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The Credits

Products of the Mind is produced by Mana Monzavi.

The illustration accompanying these show notes is by Whit Harris.

The theme music for this episode was provided by Le Chateau. The track name is “Bury You.” Go buy it on Soundcloud!

This episode and these show notes © 2016 David Lizerbram