Insanity Manipulation (self) – The ability to use one’s own insanity as an asset. Insanity Manipulation (self) is also known as Insanity Affinity, Madness Affinity, Madness Empowerment and Pandemonium Empowerment.
R.D. Laing suggested that madness can be a breakthrough rather than a breakdown.
I am quite sure that the Joker (DC) would agree with R.D. Laing.
A psychiatrist suggests that the Joker may have super sanity Arkham Asylum-A-Serious House on Serious Earth HC (1989).
Harley Quinn probably gained the same “super sanity” as Grant Morrison puts it as the Joker via an acid bath like that of the Joker! Super Sanity is the state of mind where you’re so “sane”, that you look like a insane person in the eyes of other people. The Joker knows he is in a comic book occasionally and there may be a relation between metafictional awareness and super sanity. The Joker KNOWS he is a Comic Book character and in that sense saner than Batman if sane is the accurate perception of reality and not just some normative system.
Joker falling the vat of acid in the comic book in his pre-Joker persona of the Red Hood.
In the last episode of Season One “The Final Joke”, of Harley Quinn, the animated series. uses an acid bath to erase the Joker persona and create a new sane but square and bland character. The Joker was going to erase the Harley Quinn Persona via a acid bath but Harley Quinn turned the tables on the Joker. Ironically, the new sane but bland persona finds love and happiness in the burbs. However, only the Joker knows how to reverse a spell and bring back the Justice League which are needed to stop the parademons that Harley Quinn unleashed and now regrets. In episode 12 of season 2 the sane persona is given an acid bath and transforms into the Joker who according to Grant Morris has super sanity.
Shade, The Changing Girl (DC) has madness described as a power in her description issue in #1.
Brainiac 5 (DC) goes insane inexplicably in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes V1 #250.
Maximus the Mad (Marvel) shows that there is a thing line between genius and madness in Fantastic Four V1 #54.
Crazy Jane (DC) has multiple personalities with different powers in Who’s Who in the DC Universe #6.
Legion (Marvel) has multiple personalities and multiple personalities means multiple powers in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe V2 #7.
The DC universe has the Joker and the MonkeyBrain universe has Maul Santa in Edison Rex #8 (2013).
The Black Werefox is from the Werefox Universe (Cosmic Super-Duper Werefox Team).
Other memorable mentions include Deadpool (Marvel) and the Moon Knight (Marvel) but in these two cases insanity may not be super sanity is more of a hindrance than a help in most adventures. Overall, insanity interferes with functional behavior which is why scientists are preferable to the ever popular character in speculative fiction, the mad scientist. Dead Pool does have very functional metafictional awareness!
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