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The science behind Psychonauts


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Censor: the censor that occurs in our subconscious acts as a filter to keep objectionable material from reaching our conscious minds while in the dream state. Latent dream thoughts must undergo condensation (compression to avoid the lengthy comprehension of the dream thoughts when our minds could be used in better ways) and displacement. So the censorship process occurs when dream thoughts are too literal and frank to be exposed in a dream.

 

So maybe the censors interpret Raz as a lengthy, unfiltered thought (seeing as how he's so detailed and could shed a light on the conditions of the mind) and so he needs to be stamped out.

 

Collective Unconscious: another term Freud used to describe the foundation of everyone's psyche, the basis which is the same. This metaphorically links us all together, which of course was turned literal for the game.

 

Yes, I am reading too much into this.

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They're were many mental "things" (for lack of better words) explored in the game. This ranged from extremely scientific to the literal sense.

 

An easy one to get at would be that the mind is a door waiting to be opened.

 

A harder one would be the example you gave as the collective unconscious.

 

And still others are purely analytical. Case in point would be Boyd's widely disscussed Milkman level. Sure, we know a few facts that his condition is caused by paranoia and he relates his fear to milk. However, we can interpret why he chose milk to be used as a channel for his aggression and why the milkman was so important to him.

 

So no, I don't think you're reading too much into it. We had a lot of disccussions like this before.

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Milkman... milkman... I think he was just a joke. Naturally Boyd would assume someone is out to get him after losing his job so Schafer said "how about he blames... uh... the dairy industry!" and DF was all like "lol, k."

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Milkman... milkman... I think he was just a joke. Naturally Boyd would assume someone is out to get him after losing his job so Schafer said "how about he blames... uh... the dairy industry!" and DF was all like "lol, k."

 

I think part of it was that, but there was always a seedy undertone to it. Perhaps I see it simply because I want to see it but its good old nerdy fun all the same.

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You peeps. Boyd didn't really use milk to blow up his department store. He used Molotof cocktails in milk bottles, maybe milk bottles were all he could find. Then, yada yada yada Boyd's at the crazy house. Oleander gives Boyd milka and cookies to rekindle why Boyd went nuts, cows......

 

Also, the government was involved. And knitting den mothers to girl scouts that G-Men play with at the park.

 

Psychonauts is very Fraud-ish. Sasha himself is Sigmund Fraud(In my mind)!! AH HA!!! They basically created Sasha as the psychological interpriter of the collective unconscience and all this other psychological mumbo jumbo!! But....why didn't sasha have a beard. I'll have to ponder on that one.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Interestingly, I found massive psychological parallel in the theatre psyche. It seems as though the three main characters represent the deepest, most basic part of one's psyche: Parent, Adult, and Child. Jasper the Critic represented Gloria's harsh inner critic/parent, and ceaselessly controlled the actions of Bonita, the actress/child.

 

It was postulated by esteemed Psychologist Thomas A. Harris in his bestselling book that every human alive has three different personalities within them; a parent, an adult, and a child. The Child was the first to develop in a person, around age 0-5, and represented that person's joy, excitement, and love, as well as their deepest hatred, fear, and remorse. The child was that person's behavior from their earliest stage, and is oft referenced in advertising, hence the saying "fun for the kid in you".

 

The Parent, next to develop, is the force which tells someone what is and isn't acceptable. It is primarily recorded from about 5-7 (around the time that Gloria was in acting school, demonstrating that she developed it from Hagatha), and in most people, acts as the controlling force, telling the child when and when not to come out.

In the majority of people, 1 of 2 scenarios occur:

 

A. The child contaminates the parent, and tells the person that whatever they want is okay.

 

B.The parent contaminates the child, and it is "never play time" (Jasper).

 

Finally, the Adult is the last to develop, at age 7-10. The Adult is the rationalizing factor in the Im Ok You're Ok triad, and, in an OK person, acts as the resolve between the parent and child (Becky). However, more often than not, the adult is either frazzled (In Becky's case) or completely incommunicado.

 

To Summarize, Bonita (the child) developed both intense happiness and intense sadness at an early age, but still manages to let her OK child control her with positive feelings whilst acting, until "Gloria's Mother hit the stage... Kersplat!" thus devastating her falsely contented child, opening her eyes as to the true nature of her life, ushering in a masssive theatre critic (which constanly tries to control and otherwise manipulate the "child"), and nearly eliminating Becky, the inner Adult and the only person who can intermediate between the two hostile parties.

 

Thus, Gloria, constantly switching between her comic and tragic lifestyles, by day a thespian, by night a psycho (unless under the light), and never given a chance for her inner child to shine.

 

Raz acts as a sort of Secondary Adult, aiding the Primary Adult, and serving as a peacemaker by eliminating the Parent, and freeing the child, leaving only Becky, the Adult, and making Gloria sane again.

 

I'm Okay, You're Okay

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I'm not really the scientific type, but I have some interesting theories and scientific things of interest to do with character personalities and such. I might share a couple more of them if asked, but I've found something interesting about something that could have happened with Sasha. You know how he ran away from home as a kid after seeing his father's memories? Well, I found some interesting stuff about child psychology and personality thingummyjigs. Sasha's irrational running away could be due to a character trait of middle children. There is no real evidence of Sasha being a middle child, but this theory could support well why he ran away if he was. Middle children generally feel disjointed from the family, and can't wait to get away from home. If Sasha was having a miserable time in his life already, then it would have made sense that that trait kicked in properly when he saw those memories. Sasha would have been compelled deeply to leave home, and hence there is a feasable explanation for his quick departure. Anyone want to hear more character trait ideas or anything else, I have some good ideas of reasons for things in Psychonauts happening. Thanks for listening, Pyro.

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I'm not really the scientific type, but I have some interesting theories and scientific things of interest to do with character personalities and such. I might share a couple more of them if asked, but I've found something interesting about something that could have happened with Sasha. You know how he ran away from home as a kid after seeing his father's memories? Well, I found some interesting stuff about child psychology and personality thingummyjigs. Sasha's irrational running away could be due to a character trait of middle children. There is no real evidence of Sasha being a middle child, but this theory could support well why he ran away if he was. Middle children generally feel disjointed from the family, and can't wait to get away from home. If Sasha was having a miserable time in his life already, then it would have made sense that that trait kicked in properly when he saw those memories. Sasha would have been compelled deeply to leave home, and hence there is a feasable explanation for his quick departure. Anyone want to hear more character trait ideas or anything else, I have some good ideas of reasons for things in Psychonauts happening. Thanks for listening, Pyro.

 

Ummm...but Sasha's mother died when he was an infant. How could she have had any other children after him? From the "Sasha's Second Sight" memory vault, it would appear that he's an only child. Sorry to disprove your theory.

 

 

"My name is Yan Yanssen, I live in Wisconsin, I work in the lumberyard there..."

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Sasha could have an older brother. Take it he lived in a country where many children don't live past infancy. Maybe that's why Sasha's skin it tinted green. Some kind of German illness or whatever country he's from infected him as a baby and left him with tinted skin and the need to constantly wear sunglasses. Also, how do you think his mother died? AIDS? I think not.

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yes the brilliance behind it is one of my favorite parts of the game! I can't think of any that weren't already stated/blaringly obvious but yeah.

 

And I think Sasha's powers might have developed during childhood when he started to learn the meaning of death... Sorry no floating babies as far as I can figure! :-P Tho that would be freaking adorable...

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