Is Batman, well, batty?

That's the central issue in a new book by Robin S. Rosenberg, a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, author, lecturer and certified hypnotist. "What's the Matter with Batman? An Unauthorized Look Under the Mask of the Caped Crusader" applies professional criteria to the questions that have always swirled around the sanity of a man whose response to tragedy has been to dress up like a flying rodent.

Rosenberg is precisely the person best suited to do it. She is also series editor of the "Superheroes" line at Oxford University Press and editor of "The Psychology of Superheroes." She is also a major Bat-fan.

Q Is Batman messianic, thinking he is so necessary for Gotham?

A In the film "Batman Begins," Gotham City ... is basically a mess, and the Gotham police [have] not been able to fix it. So if [Bruce Wayne] can fix it, then he's justified in his messianic beliefs. ... It's an accurate self-assessment.

Q Isn't his anger a problem?

A Anger can be a very powerful motivator. Anger in and of itself isn't a bad thing. When people who end up becoming doctors or cancer researchers have been motivated because they were angry that a loved one died of cancer, does that make anger bad? No. ... It's OK to be angry. It's really important being in control of it ... to make it work for you, vs. working against you.

Q In "Batman Begins," it's implied that the Bat-mask is a totem of sorts. Is it?

A I think partly it just depends on the wearer. [Bruce Wayne] chose the bat; it's not simply a mask that he's putting on. It's a meaningful mask, so it may be when he puts it on there is a totemic-like aspect, wishing to imbue himself [with] certain batlike characteristics.

Q What's your opinion of the Christopher Nolan films, from a professional psychologist's perspective?

A In "Batman Begins" ... I thought it was absolutely brilliant to have Bruce Wayne as a young child be an anxious and fearful kid, temperamentally. We know a lot about anxious and fearful temperament and here ... he fell into a cave of bats and was traumatized by that, and then he goes to the opera [which] has people dressed as bats going up the walls of the stage, and he has a panic attack.

And having that ... was absolutely brilliant, because that's the part about his guilt. ... He understands that if he hadn't had the panic attack his parents wouldn't have ended up in the alley with Joe Chill.

And they had him master his fear by the technique called exposure, where you expose yourself to what you're afraid of in a controlled way. And that's the totem of him taking on the bat as his animal costume. It added a whole other veneer to the Batman mythos, the meaning of his becoming Batman. ... That was absolutely psychologically brilliant.