CHERNONBYL ,
SUPERHEROES AND
MENTAL HEALTH ?
An Interview with Dr Janina Scarlet by Joseph Holmes
Clinical psychologist and author Dr Janina
When Dr Scarlet was 12-years-old, her Jewish
Scarlet incorporates pop-culture into psychology family sought refuge in the US to avoid violence
to create Superhero Therapy. But her origin story caused the economic crash when the Soviet
is as fascinating as any. In 1986, Janina was three- Union fell. “We were lucky to have the support of
years-old and lived about 180 miles from the family members and charities. I didn’t know
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Too far away to anybody and didn’t speak the language, so it was
be evacuated but close enough to pose serious tough. I was bullied and picked on in 7th grade
health risks from radiation. During a power- for being different and called ‘radioactive’. I am
blackout test at the Ukrainian RBMK reactor, glad we moved, and everything turned out
design flaws caused water to flash into steam alright.” Janina first fell in love with superheroes
leading to a steam explosion and a subsequent when she watched the very first X-Men film at 16,
open-air graphite fire. The fire sent considerable “I saw that superhero stories essentially show
plumes of nuclear fission products into the human suffering that we’ve all experienced but
atmosphere that were precipitated as far as in a fictional context and that what happened to
Western Europe. Radiation levels in the worst me was not a unique experience. A lot of other
parts of the reactor were more than 20,000 people had experienced trauma and showing
roentgens per hour, and those of us that aren’t that could be used to help others. I began
nuclear physicists should know that being understanding pop-culture as metaphors for our
exposed to 500 roentgens in 5 hours in lethal. emotional experiences.”
Radiation dispersed across Ukraine, but Janina’s
family only knew something had happened but
not how serious it was. They continued
breathing the air and eating the fruit because
they weren’t notified until it was too late. Dr
Scarlet remembers lying in the hospital seeing
people get sick, she recalls “wondering if I would
make it to adulthood. I was terrified. I
remember waking up in the middle of the night
with blood all over my pillow as a result of
intense nose bleeds. I had to go to the
emergency room because the blood wouldn’t
clot.” This could’ve been prevented if the
government had acted sooner. Janina still
suffers occasional migraines and seizures today
when the weather changes. Sky and HBO are
showing a ‘Chernobyl’ mini-series, Janina has
brought herself to watch the first episode and
thinks they’ve done a really good job. Nobody
can be sure what exactly happened, but HBO
has portrayed events how they very likely
occurred.