The death of Bruce Wayne’s parents has been represented time and time again in movies, video games, and TV shows. Most often, the emergence of the Batman is attributed to this trauma. However, it wasn’t death that created the hero; it was a promise. Depending on which comic you are reading, young Bruce Wayne made a promise to God, his parents, or himself to avenge their deaths by spending the rest of his life warring on all criminals. However, this oath is seldom represented in media. Viktor Frankl, renowned Jewish Psychiatrist who survived concentration camps of World War II wrote, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” In the space between his parents’ death and his first patrol, Bruce Wayne made a choice. That choice was to take an oath and commit to it, fully. With this oath, Bruce gives his parents’ death and his grief a meaning that would drive every action he takes from that moment on. In this panel, I will discuss the power of having a purpose in life, how it makes Batman a superhero, and how it can help the rest of us be super-versions of ourselves. The presentation will include Viktor Frankl’s theories of how to find and create meaning, as well as some highlights of the psychological research on purpose-in-life. Finally, I will provide the audience with a model for identifying their values and taking their own personal oath.
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