Freud on super-heroes and super-villains?
The man who, in consequence of his unyielding constitution, cannot fall in with this suppression of instinct, becomes a ‘criminal’, an ‘outlaw’, in the face of society – unless his social position or his exceptional capacities enable him to impose himself upon it as a great man, a ‘hero’.
‘Civilised’ Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness (1908)