Arkham Asylum: Patient Files

Harley Quinn

FULL NAME
Harleen Frances Quinzel

OCCUPATION
Psychiatrist (Formerly), Professional Criminal

BASE OF OPERATIONS
Blackgate, Arkham Asylum, Gotham City

AFFILIATIONS
Hugo Strange (former mentor)
Martin Joseph (formerly)
Joker
Mr. Hammer
Scarecrow
Amanda Waller/Suicide Squad
Poison Ivy
Catwoman
Deadshot

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

HAIR
Blonde (Briefly Black)

EYES
Blue

HEIGHT
5ft 7in (1.70 m)

WEIGHT
140 lbs (64 kg)

An Arkham Asylum psychiatrist, who begged and eventually convinced her superiors to treat The Joker, Dr. Harleen Quinzel became obsessively fixated on her patient, and believed herself to be in love with him. She helped him escape from confinement and took on her own criminal identity as Harley Quinn. Quinn was a violent and unpredictable felon whose only motivation, beyond general mayhem, was achieving the Joker's approval. Because of the Joker's cruel and mercurial nature, this in some ways made Quinn just another one of his victims - albeit a very dangerous one.

Harley was academically intelligent and gained a strong interest in criminology as her father was a criminal. As a psychiatrist, Harley was responsible, very caring, and strongly empathized with her patients, such as leaving a note in Calendar Man's cell saying: "Happy Holidays, Julian! - HQ." Despite her academic intelligence, Harley had distorted morals and lacked a great deal of common sense as she failed to see how dangerous and harmful the Joker was. In her sessions with the Joker, Harley also failed to see sense and overestimated her abilities as he was extremely crafty, which meant that he could easily influence her to feel sympathy and affection for him. For example, Harley did not realize that she was being manipulated to feel affection for Joker during her interview sessions as she was far less experienced in comparison to other Arkham Psychiatrists. Therefore, she inevitably began to feel fixated with him and underwent a drastic change.
Once Harley accepted that she was in love with the Joker, she demonstrated extreme signs of regression (as noted by Dr. Young) such as a higher pitch in her voice, becoming less assertive and appearing less intelligent - possibly to try to appeal to him. On a daily basis, Harley was cheerful and optimistic, but also sadistic and maniacal which she may have learned from the Joker. Unlike him, however, Harley often failed to reserve herself in combat and speech which she admitted to Penguin when she rescued Poison Ivy from the police station in Bludhaven. This often resulted in secret information being stated which was beneficial to Batman or resulted in her attacking him, only to be quickly defeated.