Given that James Holmes is responsible for a massacre, calling his behavior "erratic" feels like an awful understatement.

But how else can one describe the way he's acted since his arrest? While some speculate that Holmes is showing symptoms of psychosis, others maintain that he's faking it.

The latest development: Holmes keeps spitting at jail officers. He was actually forced to wear a face guard to curb the behavior. And yes, before someone points out the "eerie coincidence," Bane wears an apparatus over his mouth in The Dark Knight Rises. Holmes told police officers that he was another Batman villain, The Joker.

In court, Holmes looked confused and glassy-eyed, but he's also exhibited signs of mania. When police officers put bags over his hands to preserve gunpowder residue, Holmes allegedly started using the bags as puppets. Is this a genuine display of a psychological breakdown, or is he putting on a performance?

Marissa Randazzo, former chief research psychologist for the Secret Service, told Good Morning America that Holmes could either be in the middle of a psychotic episode or coming down from a period of mania. But she didn't rule out that he's faking it.

It's possible. It is possible. We'll leave that open ... Let's keep that in mind that he was studying neuroscience. He was studying exactly the type of brain issues that we're going to be talking about throughout this whole case.

On the other hand, Randazzo explained that criminals who fake these symptoms are sociopaths, and Holmes' history "does not suggest sociopath at all."

Holmes is currently being held in solitary confinement.

[Image via AP]