Spiderman; the developmental possibilities of a superhero for a young adopted boy

Abstract

This paper explores a three and later four-year-old adopted boy’s identification with the character of Spiderman in his first year of intensive psychotherapy. The paper draws parallels between observational material from the boy’s psychotherapy sessions and the Spiderman television cartoon series. The author suggests that Spiderman and the fictional world of superheroes resonate with the internal preoccupations of the young boy. The boy’s omnipotent identification with Spiderman functioned as a flight from his early traumatic experiences of abuse and a flight towards development. Playing Spiderman allowed the patient to express his potency, and receive narcissistic gratification, both crucial elements of the phallic-narcissistic phase. During the course of the treatment, the patient allowed himself to acknowledge the more vulnerable aspects of Spiderman and within himself. In this way the author suggests that the character of Spiderman provided rich developmental possibilities for his patient.