Has there ever been proof that Joker is insane?

[The Overlord]

He's very obviously not criminally, legally insane.
That does not make him medically sane. Very different concept.

You don't even have to be any kind of insane to qualify for legal insanity.

Then what kind of mental illness does Joker have?

Because to me is often written as just an evil psychopathic nihilist and that's not insane, he comes off as evil rather then insane, etc. I think sometimes comic book writers and fans confuse those two concepts.

[Quiet Raven]

Then what kind of mental illness does Joker have?

Because to me is often written as just an evil psychopathic nihilist and that's not insane, he comes off as evil rather then insane, etc. I think sometimes comic book writers and fans confuse those two concepts.

To answer what mental disorders he has... (quoted from earlier the thread)

"he clearly has APD, Antisocial Personality Disorder, but the comics themselves have even stated that he suffers from a kind of Dissociative Identity Disorder. Where he is constantly recreating himself, which is why sometimes he is a crazed killer and sometimes a mostly harmless clown robber"

In fact, Killing Joke certainly shows the dissociative identity disorder. He admits that, regarding his past, "sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another"

[Carabas]

Then what kind of mental illness does Joker have?

In canon: lots of them, none of which exist in reality.

Sometimes they even give names to them that don't match up with the real-world illnesses attacjed to those names.

"How is the Joker insane?" is a very similar question to "How does Superman fly?"

Plus, you know, it's not like the Joker has ever been written the same way by any two writers (yes, this is an exagerration, you'll probably will be able to dredge up some writers who wrote him similarily).

[Citizen Pain]

He's very obviously not criminally, legally insane.
That does not make him medically sane. Very different concept.

You don't even have to be any kind of insane to qualify for legal insanity.

This is true. I'm diabetic and read that a criminal action stemming from hyperglycemia could be interpreted legally as an act of insanity. Probably wouldn't work though.

[JBatmanFan05]

You always have to be sure what sense of the words you mean. Insanity is a legal concept, but of course has come to be used outside of that area to basically mean mental illness.

Joker would not meet the main US standard for legal insanity (less clear if he'd meet the other minority US standards, maybe with some clever lawyering he might).

So the question of mental illness is the main issue..personality disorder?...certainly APD (Antisocial Personality Disorder), which Tony Soprano and many or most criminals have. But does he have disorders/illnesses in addition to that?..ones that really distort his perception of reality?...that's where it appears many writers vary or just don't know.

[MichaelC]

He's Hollywood-insane, which is to say the embodiment of the creepy Other. Like the villains in Hannibal Lecter stories, he is a collection of Otherisms: ambiguously effeminate, ambiguously classy, ambiguously perverted, ambiguously lots of things that make the average person uncomfortable, and which Hollywood piles into one character when they want to make that character a disturbing creepy Other. Such characters tend to get labelled insane in Hollywood movies and books influenced by that mindset, but they don't remotely fit a realistic definition of insanity.