The psychological secrets behind our cultural heroes

Who hasn't engaged in a bit of hero worship from time to time? From the ancient Greeks right up to the modern era, the aspiration to become something more, something greater through our connection with others is a strong thread that has navigated the complex tapestry of our cultures.

Hero worship can take place on many levels from the personal to the professional; watching the latest contestant on “Bake Off” create something amazing or seeing an untrained celebrity performing an exemplary dance on “Strictly”, can bring a vicarious sense of success and joy to our hearts and minds.

Similarly in our professional worlds, reading an article or book written by a much-respected author in our field can be inspirational and shine a light that helps us to keep our focus and direction. Even from an early age, I remember looking up to many of my teachers at school, especially the ones who had the capacity to combine their own character and humour with a passion for the subject they were teaching; their capacity to make the subject sparkle and glow was inspiring.

Eric Berne’s framework for transactional analysis provides us with some structure into which we might be able to understand the phenomenon of hero worship and perhaps give us some insight into its significance in today's world.  

Developed in the early 1950s, Berne suggested that we might view a person's psyche through the lens of three separate ego states: the parent, the adult, and the child[1]. These states (often illustrated as three circles stacked on top of each other like traffic lights) are said to be places in our psyches where information is stored.

The parent ego state (situated at the top) contains the un-processed messages that we receive from those people in authority and in positions of power around us (and even perhaps our heroes). The child ego state (situated at the bottom of the stack) contains the subconscious conclusions we have drawn ourselves about the world around us and how to survive it during our early years. The adult ego state is the engine room of our psyche, our existence in the here and now. It gets rules on information from the messages stored and the other two states in order to best help us navigate our lives.

It could be argued that our earliest heroes are often our parents, or perhaps that crazy uncle that comes to visit at Christmas! These are people that exist in the reality of our lives (although our understanding of them may not be entirely realistic). They represent an example of the sort of person we might become, or what we might hope to be. Perhaps you can remember finding yourself in a difficult situation in your youth and asking the question “What might my dad do (or say) if he were here?"As fantasy is an important part of our creative selves, it isn't long before those heroes that we worshipped in our youth either become fictionalised or come directly from fiction itself.  

In Greek mythology, the likes of Hercules, Prometheus, and Perseus were celebrated for their achievements and power to overcome the greatest adversity. My earliest memories of fantasy involved the crew of the Starship Enterprise and their unswerving capacity to swoop in and remedy any trouble with a combination of their tenacity, determination, and treasure trove of futuristic gadgets. The idea That such people could even be conceived of often provided a salve in the midst of seemingly hopeless situations. Hercules, Prometheus, Perseus, and Captain Kirk were unbroken heroes.

As I've gotten older, I spend less time in the world of fantasy and more time trying to understand myself as I exist in the world of today. That said, my love of sci-fi still lives on and for those who share the joy of the stories still told, the development of the Marvel franchise on the recent movies released cannot have escaped attention.

In particular, my attention was drawn to the characters portrayed in the Avengers movies. A series of films where we encounter a range of characters with superhuman powers who are ultimately drawn together to defeat a common enemy. Some of these characters' powers are with them from birth, some as the result of scientific experiments gone wrong, and others through the application of intellect and engineering.  

These modern-day heroes are far from the unbroken image of perfection painted in past narratives, they are flawed, and troubled, and their weaknesses as well as their strengths have a clear impact on how the heroes’ tale unfolds.  

The character of Tony Stark (Iron Man) comes to mind; a genius-level engineer, weapons designer, billionaire and self-proclaimed narcissist creates an iron suit that can fly, defend against all manner of assault, and has a veritable ‘swiss-army-knife’ like ability to produce the right tool for the right job at any given moment. The man who wears the suit, however, is a different story. Troubled by memories from the past, he struggles with friendships and romantic relationships; while performing his heroic duties we also see a story of a man who doesn't feel that he fits in and doesn't particularly want to belong. As the story continues, we come to understand that he sees his suit as the one thing that will protect him, without which he cannot function.

Our modern-day heroes have become broken heroes, no longer perfect without blemish. Instead of winning the day without a scratch, they emerge from the battle, scratched and bleeding.

It seems to me that the previously ingrained cultural narrative of perfection has broken down to such an extent that we can no longer bring ourselves to worship the unbroken hero. It is simply beyond belief that such a person can exist. In some senses, this may be seen as a great sadness, perhaps even the death of hope, but I choose to see it as an awakening. The fact that we now understand heroes (be they either factual or fictional) as overcoming pain to achieve a victory, the fact that we better connect to a fantasy that speaks (at least) in part to the bitterness of reality gives me hope.  

It gives me hope because it suggests that, as a culture, we're coming to a place where we understand that being a hero is no longer about being perfect or unblemished but rather encountering everything that we are, achieving a victory through that realisation and not in spite of it.  

May therapy and increased self-understanding yet make heroes of us all?

Reference

• [1] Berne, Principles of Group Treatment.