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In my psychology class, I have a project to psycho-analyze a fictional character with a certain type of psychology. I choose using Freudian Psychology to analyze Rorschach, as he is one of my favorite fictional characters and would be easy to do since he was basically psychologically analyzed in the story. Here is what I have so far. For those who are familiar with Freudian Psychology, any ideas to change/add anything?



"Walter Kovacs a.k.a. Rorschach is a vigilante from the graphic novel and movie Watchmen. He is a moral absolutist, and distributes justice in a very violent manner. To him everything is black and white, good and evil, and clear cut. He had a terrible childhood because he had no father, his mother abused and neglected him, and she was a prostitute.

Freudian Psychology


5 Stages of Psychological Development

1. Oral Stage – Kovacs likely wasn’t breast fed much or at all because his mother did care about him. According to Freud, this would lead to a pessimistic outlook. Rorschach sees the world on the brink of destruction and sees many people as “human cockroaches.”

2. Anal Stage – Kovacs was a very controlling person, dealing out justice himself and was very self-disciplined, with a goal in mind. According to Freud, during the anal stage, Kovacs was likely one to hold his bowels and to control them.

3. Phallic Stage – Kovacs grew up with no father, and his mother abused him. He would have no father to fear castration, and seemingly would have no lust for his mother. Although his mother’s prostitution job might have made him have feelings in his subconscious for his mother and jealous of his mother’s clients.

4. Latency Stage – At age 10, Kovacs beat another kid severely because he made fun of Kovac’s bad life. This might have sparked a conscious lust for violence and brutal justice. He seems to have no other interests besides his narrow-minded goal to bring about justice.

5. Genital Stage – After the savage beating, Kovacs was taken out of his mother’s custody and was in a more controlled environment. Kovacs likely turn asexual sometime during this time, as it is the time of sexual identity. He never showed any attraction to anyone, especially women, likely due to seeing his single mother as a prostitute and a horrible person, showing him a bad example of love.


3 Parts of the Mind

Rorschach developed many violent urges as a child from living a bad life, becoming part of his id. His ego satisfied those urges via his vigilante justice to criminals, while meeting the demands of his good-natured super ego.


Defense Mechanisms

Rationalization – Rorschach rationalizes his violent actions because he says that he is punishing evil.

Projection – Rorschach claims others are evil, yet his actions could be considered evil and even claims when he started fighting crime, “I was to soft on criminals back then. I let them live.”

Identification – Walter Kovacs takes on the persona of “Rorschach” to feel better about himself and to feel like he has a purpose.

Sublimation – Rorschach redirects his violent urges into crime fighting.

Rorschach seems to have made an imaginary hero figure in place of his father. How does that factor in?

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This is truly a madhouse. And I'm the lunatic running it. I've spent three years wondering if I should be proud or ashamed.

Ahhh, good point, forgot to put that in.

Is your analysis based on "freudian psychoanalysis" or just "psychoanalysis in general" ?

If it is the latter, then you'd have to go with what Lacan said about the father figure, that it isn't always the biological one, and that there always is a father figure, who would that be in Rorschach's case ? Not. A. Fucking. Clue.

By the way, if I was you, I wouldn't include "sublimation", Rorschach does not redirect his agressivenes through other means, he IS violent and aggressive with other criminals.

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Father figures: President Truman. Comedian.

He seeks to avenge the Comedian. By avenging, he puts himself in the Hamlet position, ergo Comedian = father figure whose mantle he wishes to inherit. What troubles Rorschach seems not to trouble Comedian, a condition to be admired by Rorschach. Hence his shock when he discovers Comedian showed weakness to Moloch. etc.

In terms of father figure / home life he substitutes Dan Dreiberg and the Nite Owl Cave.

I'd disagree with you here. Rorschach himself says that Nite Owl is "a good friend." I don't think he sees Nite Owl as a father figure so much as an equal. Though he probably held a much lower opinion of Dan prior to the prison break.

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This is truly a madhouse. And I'm the lunatic running it. I've spent three years wondering if I should be proud or ashamed.

Yep that is the weakest of my list for sure.