Polite Dissent

Looking at the location of Jason Todd’s head wound — and assuming it is not just a superficial cut — it appears that Jason has sustained an injury to his frontal lobe.

The frontal lobes, as the name suggests, are at the front of the brain. They are a key part of the brain and play a part in motor function. They also influence with memory, language, and problem solving. Finally, the frontal lobes play a large role in personality, judgement, impulse control, spontaneity, and social and sexual behavior. Because of this, it should come as no surprise then that injuries to the frontal lobes can cause severe personality and behavioral changes.

Traditionally, left frontal lobe injuries have been noted to cause pseudodepression (apathy and indifference without a sense of depression). This doesn’t seem to apply to Jason (but now that I think about it, he was showing these symptoms when he was living as a homeless man in the recent Batman Annual #25). Injury to the right frontal lobe often manifests in psuedopsychopathy (lack of impulse control and restraint without the emotional components of psychopathic behavior). To some extent, this seems to apply to Jason, but I suspect he is more of a true psychopath then pseudopsychopath. (Don’t worry too much about the left/right aspect. As with many brain injury syndromes this can vary from person to person. Frankly, most patients never meet the exact criteria for either specific condition and show a mix of symptoms.)

The post-Crisis Jason Todd was always a bit wild, but not to the extent seen as the Red Hood. His more agressive and sociopathic nature has many possible explanations. Writer Judd Winick suggests it is due to a sense of betrayal and abandonment by Batman. There was also his dip in the Lazarus Pit, known to cause psychosis. Still, one cannot discount the fact that brain injury plays a role in his new behavior. There is evidence of a left frontal lobe injury, but remember he was caught in an explosion and likely suffered more brain injuries that are not visible to the naked eye.

Admittedly, Jason doesn’t seem to manifest any of the non-behavioral aspects of frontal lobe injury such as loss of fine motor skills and difficulty with language, but it seems reasonable that his poor impulse control and increase in risky behaviors may have tipped an underlying pathology over the edge.