52 - Video Games and the Psyche: Agency, Anxiety, and Upbuilding

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Imagine that you have a set of decisions in front
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of you. Take the door to your left, take a
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door to your right. Embrace what seems to be the
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fate that is laid out for you, or attempt to
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defy that fate and forge your own path. You can
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choose to speak up when it's potentially dangerous to do so,
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or at least fraught with dramatic implications. Or you can
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choose to stay silent when you know that there's something
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that perhaps should be said. When you are faced with defeat,
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you can try again, think through where things went wrong
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and where they might go better next time. Or you
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can choose to give up and to walk away. Whether
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you're dealing with real primary world situations or real secondary
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world situations, the point is the same that you're dealing
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with an existential moment. A moment that calls something up
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within you, that causes you to, your body even, to
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tense a little bit as you focus in on possibility
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and all the anxiety that that compels. The anxiety which
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is ultimately calling you to exercise your agency, exercise your
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freedom to determine what path you will carve ahead, not
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only in the movement that you take in the world,
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but also the movements that you take with your soul.
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Every time you make a decision, you're changing that part
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of you that makes decisions. And this is true whether
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we are dealing with the primary world or a world
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of imagination. And of course, by imagination, I don't mean
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things that aren't real. What I mean is things that
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are happening in those mental spaces, things that are happening internally.
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And those things have a certain reality to them. even
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if the world that we're dealing with is only real
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in a secondary sense. We are real as we engage
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with those worlds. And that is what this fall season
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of Mythic Mind Games is all about, as we engage
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with the broader fellowship-wide theme of exploring the psyche. Welcome
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back to Mythic Mind Games, or welcome for the first time.
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And if you are joining us for the first time
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for this new fall season of Mythic Mind, then I
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am Dr. Andrew Snyder. I'm a professor of philosophy and theology,
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and I really enjoy dealing with secondary world. Whether we're
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talking about literature or video games or film, I believe
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that there is a certain reality to fiction that it
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might even be described as hyper real. And that we're
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taking narratives that we experience in the primary world and
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then putting them in a highlighted form where we can
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see them more clearly. We can see more clearly the
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metaphysical and the narratival structures that we deal with in
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the primary world set before us in a way that
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allows us to engage with them in a different kind
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of way. And so when I talk about video games
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as a medium for exploration, I don't just mean raw escapism,
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but I mean kind of what Tolkien says about fairy stories,
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that they provide escape consolation and recovery, meaning we do
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escape from the primary world, from the facticity of our
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everyday life, into the freedom of a secondary world, but
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we ultimately escape so that we can gain something of
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value that we can bring back into the primary world.
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I believe that all that we do should be oriented
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around the human purpose, which is multifaceted in many ways.
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But ultimately, we are made in the image of God,
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and our purpose is to reflect that image. And one
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way that we do that is through creativity and engaging
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with creative things. And I recognize, and perhaps especially so
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with my general or my core audience, which tends toward
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Christian and tends toward academic directions, that there's a lot
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of hesitancy regarding the value of video games. Are they
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something that grown-ups should be dealing with? Is this an
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adult enterprise? Is it something that's befitting the responsibility that
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adults should have? Is it befitting the kind of seriousness
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that Christians should have? Is it befitting the kind of
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seriousness that academics should have? And so I want to
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begin by dealing with those concerns. And really, this entire
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episode is going to be something of a justifier, something
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of a warrant for approaching video games in, yeah, of course,
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a fun way, but also a serious and an intellectually
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and a morally responsible way. And so let's begin by
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recognizing the suspicion that a lot of people have towards
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video games in general as an art form. First, of course,
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there's the charge that video games are simply frivolous, that
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This is just play. And of course, grown people have
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better things to do. And this is not a bad impulse.
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Time has a moral dimension to it. We are mortal.
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And what that means is that our time is precious.
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And of course, we don't want to throw it away
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on entirely useless endeavors. Likewise, our attention has a moral
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component to it. We are responsible for where we are
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directing our attention. And so that instinct to... and be
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wary of things that are frivolous is not necessarily wrong,
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or at least not entirely. Also, there's a recognition that
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video games can be addictive, and a lot of people
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have unhealthy engagements with video games, have unhealthy addictions to
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video games. And some games are engineered just to keep
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you going through the loops, through rewards, streaks of some
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kind or another, or a fear of missing out. If
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you've ever looked up from your screen and recognized that
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you've lost an evening that you should have given to
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do things that ought to take more priority in your life.
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Maybe you've missed out on family time, you've missed out
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on work, you've missed out on school, you've missed out
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on much needed rest. Somehow or another, you've lost something
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that you know you should have been engaging with. Well,
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if that's the case, then you know in your body,
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you know that unhealthy kind of anxiety that you have
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when you are fogging up your life with misplaced priorities.
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And so that captive attention that video games can hold
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on somebody. I mean, that's obviously a concern. Also, there's
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a concern from the academic side of things that this
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is not a rigorous medium, that we're not dealing with
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the text of a book, although some video games do
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have a good bit of text. You're not dealing with
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philosophical treaties in an obvious conventional sort of way. You're
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not engaging with real life, so-called. And so why should
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we give this medium the dignity of treating it as
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a philosophical or even a theological enterprise. And to be clear,
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some games do actively deform desire simply by the nature
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of the material that you're dealing with. Some games are
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just a thin escapism that won't actually provide you with
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anything as a return of your investment of time. And
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so I want to affirm that sometimes wisdom means saying
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no to things. That's discernment. But I do also want
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to affirm that that's not unique to video games. That's
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true of any art form. That some art is good
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and is naturally predisposed for the upbuilding of the soul.
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Some art is bad. Some movies are good. Some movies
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are bad. Some books are good. Some books are bad.
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Some art is good. Some art is bad. And, of course,
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by bad... I don't necessarily mean like it's not engaging.
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It's not attention grabbing. But for me, bad art is
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kind of like the siren that the worst kinds of art,
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the most nefarious kinds of art are those that are
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actually really attractive, but for the wrong reasons. They're like
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the sirens of Greek mythology in that they cast these
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apparently beautiful songs, but they end in you being consumed.
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that you're drawn in by your appetites, but eventually your
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appetites do you in. And so that's what I consider
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to be bad art in the most dangerous sort of sense.
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And video games certainly have some bad art to them,
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but I'd argue that the fact that there is bad
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art doesn't mean that there's not also good art, just
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as with other mediums. I've referenced this supposed quotation from
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Martin Luther before, in which he says that men can
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go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit
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and abolish women? The point being that just because someone
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can go wrong with something, or to kind of extend
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that a little bit, just because some aspects of this
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medium may pose potential dangers, that doesn't mean we need
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to cast out the entire medium. But I do want
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to point something out here, that the moment that you
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seriously worry that games waste you, addict you, or numb you, well,
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you've already recognized that games have the capacity to form you. Well,
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what if They could not only deform you, but what
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if they could actually form you in a positive direction,
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better equipping you to be an integrated self in the
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primary world, right? If a video game can deform you,
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then potentially it has the power to form you in
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an up-building way as well, so long as we're dealing
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with worthwhile material, and most importantly, I would argue, as
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long as we're dealing with a self who wants up-buildings.
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We want a self who wants proper soul formation. We
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want a self who wants to be intellectually formed in
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a positive and moral direction. I believe that you will
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find what it is that you are seeking. The Proverbs
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tell us that wisdom calls out in the marketplace. What
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that means is that we shouldn't scorn the wisdom of
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the marketplace simply because it happens to be in the marketplace,
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the place where people are. And there are a lot
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of people who actively engage with video games. It's one
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of the largest, most popular media today, and that spans
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generations increasingly. That includes males as well as females. like
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there are a lot of people who engage with this
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medium and so I don't think that it should be
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neglected but I think that there's a lot of benefit
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to us as individuals as well as with what we
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positively contribute to society to be on guard to be
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discerning to be looking for wisdom where it is found
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in the marketplace. And that very much includes video games.
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And so don't sleep on this. Don't put this to
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the side. This is a culturally important thing, but also
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can be important for you as an individual. Now, that
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being said, my argument is not that everybody needs to
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play video games, but my argument is that, well, there
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are positive ways to play video games. There are positive
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ways to incorporate them into your lives. that don't cause
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you to have mismanaged desires and mismanaged priorities. All things
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need to be in order. Now, I'm just gonna go
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through a number of reasons why video games as a
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medium relate to or can contribute to our broader exploring
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the psyche seasonal theme at Mythic Mind. First of all,
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there's emphasis on agency that we've already been talking about
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on the main Mythic Mind show as I've been speaking
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with Tyler Finders and Jeremy Key a couple of licensed
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therapists about things related to selfhood and anxiety and the
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choices that we make, the real choices we have in
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front of us. And video games very much help to
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promote a sense of agency or the recognition of the
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agency that we have. And so in most stories, whether
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talking about literature or movies, you engage as an observer.
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You simply see things unfold in front of you. And
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there's a certain benefit to that. Now, obviously, in your imagination,
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you still kind of put yourself in the story. But
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for the most part, everything that you do is strictly cerebral.
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Like you're not in any kind of bodily sense getting
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involved in the story. You're not making decisions in the
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story regarding what's happening in the narrative. You are simply
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an observer. Well, in a video game, it's a little
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bit different in that you aren't simply watching wills at work,
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but you're actually exercising your own will. Even when the
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paths are designed in a linear format, you still lean in.
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You hesitate. You commit to things. You make decisions of
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some scale or another. And that matters psychologically. Choice practiced
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is different from choice observed. Now, my point in saying
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that is not that video games are somehow better than
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books or better than movies, but they do something different.
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And that different thing that they do is good in
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its own right. And so video games have a particular
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contribution to the way that we engage with art. And
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I don't think that's something that we should neglect. Also,
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we're able to engage with danger. We're able to engage
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with important themes of courage and determination and sacrifice in
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ways that don't have the same real-world fallout. And I've
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seen many people talk about this as the value of
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stories in general. C.S. Lewis has talked about this. I've
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seen Kierkegaard talk about this. That one benefit of engaging
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with stories is that you're able to live different lives.
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You're able to have experiences that you would never have
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in your primary world existence. And as you engage with
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these kinds of experiences, well, you're allowed to get things
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that you wouldn't otherwise have access to. and bring them
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into your primary world experience. And so engaging with secondary
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worlds is important. And this is something that Mythic Mind
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has always cared about. We've always cared about engaging with
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secondary worlds. We pursue wisdom through primary and secondary worlds.
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Or as Tolkien says, that we engage in sub-created worlds,
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which have a certain veracity. They have a certain truthfulness
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to them that allows us to engage with truth in
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a new kind of way. And so you're able to,
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in video games, you're able to explore courage and cruelty, patience,
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or panic without having the same primary world fallout. And
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this can be cheap, of course, depending on, again, the
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medium that we're dealing with, the video game that we're
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dealing with, or it can be a potential, an existential
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or a psychological laboratory. And in large part, the difference is, again,
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it's not so much the game, although that's important, the
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material you're working with is important, But the major difference
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is you as the player, as a person engaging with
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these worlds. The difference is how awake you are when
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you play. Now, as I say that, I don't necessarily
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mean that every time you play a game, you need
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to be working out some kind of philosophical treaties in
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your head or, you know, working out like the kind
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of content that you would produce to talk about the
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value of the game. I'm talking about more of an
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embodied kind of experience. And the reality is everything that
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you do should be oriented around the task of wisdom.
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And that includes entertainment. That includes fun. It includes the
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healthy kind of escape that we're talking about. And so
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part of being awake means simply being awake to the
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value that you're getting in exercising your agency. and intentionally
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using games, as entertaining as they may be, like using
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games to trigger a deeper part of yourselves than mere amusement.
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You move away from amusement to musing, that you muse
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on wisdom. You muse on the kind of decision-making that
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you can actually bring into the primary world. You muse
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on the imaginative world that you're dealing with to help
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you become more expansive and to consider possibility in new
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sorts of ways as you engage with the primary world.
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And so that itself is beneficial or at least potentially beneficial.
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And also when you play a video game, unlike perhaps
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when you are reading a book, your body is more
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in it. You can feel more of your heart rate
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at times, particularly tense times. You might lean in a
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little bit. You get that little spike when you almost
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make it. This isn't pure intellect. It's embodied attention. And
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existential questions always involve that kind of embodied attention. That
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it's not merely an intellectual exercise. It is intellect. It
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is spirit It is body, it is soul, it is
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an integrated self working together when we are approaching it correctly.
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And so those existential moments, whether in the primary world
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or in a secondary world, are important. They're revelatory and
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they are forming. And that is one potential value of
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video games. And now let's talk a little bit more
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about the psychological, the existential yield that video games can have.
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Because if what I've said so far is right, then...
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Games really do press on the same nerves that philosophy
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and Christian psychology really care about. And I want to
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highlight some of those points right now. First, there's the
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possibility that anxiety reveals. Every prompt that you have is
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a potential avenue for a decision. It's a fork in
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the road. And interactive media like video games concentrate possibilities.
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You can do this. You can do that. You can fail.
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You can quit. You can try again. You can think
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about where things went wrong and load a previous aid.
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You can start again. You can find out the pathways
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of meaning, the pathways of decision making. And just considering
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different possibilities allows us to break through the potential despair
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of finitude that we often have as we become overly
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preoccupied with the things that are and we forget the
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things that could be. And asking that question of what
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could be? What could I have done different? What can
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I do different now? What are the possible consequences of
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my decision making? Like just engaging in that kind of
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thinking exercise about possibility. helps us to break out of
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the realm of pure facticity that we often deal with,
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where we give ourselves over to the tyranny of order
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that says things cannot be other than they are. And
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it's very easy to do that, to become a victim,
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not simply a fortune or a fate, but a victim
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of ourselves, of our own stagnant thinking that says things
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can't be different, I can't be different, I can never change,
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my situation can never change. And so engaging with possibility
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is a very helpful exercise. considering different paths. And so
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this video games can give us something of the dizziness
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of freedom that comes before and during and after a
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meaningful choice. And that's close to how Kierkegaard talks about anxiety.
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That anxiety is not the fear of a concrete thing,
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but it's the vertigo of freedom. And I'm not currently
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teaching the concept of anxiety from Kierkegaard in this video.
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That's for our Academy course in October. But I just
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want to emphasize the point that games can do a
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good job of giving us exercise in that vertigo, that freedom,
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that dizziness of freedom that anxiety provides us with. And
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it puts these decisions in your hands in a very
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literal kind of sense. Also, there's the idea of identity
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or a role. Who am I when I play? Am
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I myself playing the game? Am I putting myself within
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the context of an avatar of some kind, the the
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leading protagonist? Am I creating a character and deciding who
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I'm going to be in this world? And why am
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I drawn to certain archetypes? If you're playing a game
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with a character creator, very often people are drawn to
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certain archetypes, whether you're the sword and board type, you're
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some kind of sneaky thief, you're a wizard of some kind,
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magic user, mage. We're all drawn towards certain things and
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it's worth asking the question, why? Why do I gravitate
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toward this kind of character, and what does that reveal
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about me? What does my decision-making in the game reveal
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about who I already am under pressure? Or also, and
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maybe more times than not, we can consider, what would
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it be like to be someone who is very much
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unlike me, That's a very helpful exercise. What would it
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be like to engage with the world in a fundamentally
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different sort of way? Either way, whether you're putting yourself
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into the game or you're putting yourself into somebody else,
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there's some identity work that's happening here that could potentially
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be a set of very useful exercises. Then there's the
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idea of desire and habit. that games, in some sense,
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they teach you what to want next. You obviously bring
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your own desires into the game, but games also train
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you in desires. And this is, of course, where things
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can potentially get dangerous, in that games teach you what
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you should want next, whether it be some kind of upgrade,
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some kind of achievement, some kind of goal that you're
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trying to achieve. When this is naturally part of the narrative,
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this tends to be more up-building, as you're trying to
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overcome some evil save something that's worth saving, do something
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of nobility and courage. These are good things, but also
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there's just the endless superficial grind that you can engage
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with with a lot of games. That's not necessarily such
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a good thing, although achievement itself can be a good thing.
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Dedication to a goal, even if that goal itself is
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not necessarily terribly noble, that dedication itself can be a
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good thing. It really just comes down to having rightly
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ordered priorities, rightly ordered desires across your engagements with life.
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And so my point is simply that we need to
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be on guard. Video games can train us to want
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good things, to put the world into order. That is good.
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So long as we are awake to what's happening and
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that we bring that desire, set things in order, set
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things right to our primary world, those are good desires
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that video games can help to cultivate within us. But
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of course, they can also... tilt in the direction of
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superficial addiction, that's not so good. And so my point
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throughout this is not that video games are universally good,
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but that if we practice discernment and we simply ask ourselves,
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am I engaging with this in a way that's leading
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me in a positive soul formation? Am I following the
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path of wisdom here or am I not? Like if
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you're asking that question, odds are that you're already at
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least starting to move in the right direction because The
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Fool isn't very concerned about where the path of wisdom is.
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But if you are, perhaps sometimes questioning, sometimes you don't
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really know for sure, is this upbuilding? Simply asking the
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question is a good first step. And so games can
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cultivate desires for good things, for setting the world in
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order in various ways, for engaging in noble sacrifice and
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all these various virtues of human existence. Or they could
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potentially train our desires in the wrong direction If we're
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on guard with that, that's potentially a positive avenue for self-formation.
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So let's talk a little bit about what happens when
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you fail in a game. Perhaps one of the most
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iconic things in my head now is from playing a
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Claire Obscure, that music that plays when you die. Oh
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Claire Obscure It's just like it does something to you.
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It disheartens you, but also it makes you want to
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jump back in and make things right to engage with
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something that's more beautiful than the outcome that you received.
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And so games, very often, they make you fail. That's
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part of the game, that there's danger, that things could
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go wrong. And the way that you relate to that
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failure can have positive or negative implications. Failure can hollow
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you out into a kind of rage quit nihilism where
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if things aren't easy, I'm just not going to engage
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with it. And surely you can think of how dangerous
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that is as a life philosophy. If things aren't easy,
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I'm just not going to engage with it. Now, sometimes
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it is healthy to take a break, walk away for
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a little bit, but then come back and finish your task.
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And video games, especially the ones that are particularly difficult,
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can train you in that kind of dedication to thinking
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through where things went wrong and how they might go better.
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And that sort of strategic thinking is very helpful. It's
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kind of hopeful thinking that says that I know that
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there is a path forward if only I can find it.
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That is a bit of wisdom that we can take
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into the primary world. It can teach us that kind
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of failure. It can teach us patience. It can teach
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us attention, humility. grit, perseverance, it can teach us to
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think and to act in a way that is set
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on the goal of victory. And that's engaging with pretty
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high stakes on an existential level. Let's talk a little
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bit about the idea of seriousness. For many games, you
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can kind of save scum your way out of things,
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that failure doesn't have any lasting implications, but sometimes the
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decisions that you make, even the opportunities that you miss,
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stick and you can't undo something. And then suddenly the
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gameplay feels particularly moral. It feels serious. It feels like
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the things that you do in this world actually matter.
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And that can be good training in dealing with real
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life where obviously our decisions stick, right? You can't save
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scum your way through life. That sometimes you have to
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engage with the decisions that you've made. You have to
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engage with the consequences of your failures. of missed opportunities, right?
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Things that you missed that you simply can't go back to.
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You have to learn to accept loss. That's why one
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of the first conversations that we're going to be having
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this season is on grief in video games. Maybe sometimes
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the loss is scripted. And I think that sometimes video
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games can be particularly helpful in allowing us to engage
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with that kind of loss, with that kind of grief
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that is simply unavoidable. But we'll talk more about that
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when we get to that chat. And so as we
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start to move toward the end, why aren't video games
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a betrayal of seriousness and especially the kind of seriousness
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that Christians want to bring to things? Well, positive self-formation
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always cares about attention and desire, what you look at,
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what you reach for, what you rehearse. Well, in large part,
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that's what you become. that you move in the direction
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that you are looking for better or for worse. And
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it's true whether you're looking at a work of art
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or you're looking at a painting, you're reading a good novel,
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you're listening to good music, you're playing a good video game.
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If you're doing all these things in the right way,
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then your attention is being trained, your desire is being trained,
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you're being oriented in a particular direction. If that direction
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is upbuilding, then you are being built up. And video
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games are no exception to this. Games are simply another
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secondary world practice of wisdom, or at least they can be,
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with the added pressure of the agency that comes with
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your personal involvement in the medium. So to reiterate, especially
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for those who are still a little bit cautious about
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the potential artistic value of video games, what we're looking
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for here is serious attention, not uncritical celebration of frivolity.
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We are engaging with discernment that's willing to name what
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generally deforms within this medium, both in the material itself
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as well as the attitudes that we can bring into
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the games that cause for deformation of the self. The
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claim that I'm advancing is not that games are some
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kind of sacred entities. But the claim is rather that
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ourselves are being shaped in the way that we engage
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with games. And if we do that in a discerning way,
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they can actually be upbuilding, allow us to make a
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broader impact on our culture, which is so invested in
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this medium. And so I welcome you to join us
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with Mythic Mind Games, but I also encourage you to
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join us on the broader path that we're walking with
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Mythic Mind this season. Whether you're looking at essays in
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the Inkwells, You can take it in one of our
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academy courses, especially the upcoming course on Kierkegaard's psychology, life
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in anxiety and despair. Or you want to work through
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one of the courses that we've taught before on life, death,
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and meaning with Beowulf and Boethius. You can take a course.
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You can take a course. You can join these various
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conversations that we're having on video games, on literature, on philosophy,
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on film by becoming a member over at mythicmindfellowship.com. Become
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a paid member at any level to join the conversation.
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or just follow along for free. Again, you can become
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a free member in order to just keep up with
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all the various things that we're doing so you don't
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miss that. And because exploring the psyche is the season's
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leading theme, the games here are not just a side quest,
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but it's part of a bigger picture aimed at proper self-formation.
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And so I invite you to bring your suspicions, if
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you still have them, but also bring your curiosity. Maybe
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you'll learn something new, something beneficial to you, or at
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least you'll be able to look at games in a
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new kind of way. My goal here is not to
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make you like every video game, but part of my
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goal here is to get us to ask what our
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engagement with video games is doing to the self and
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what wisdom requires of us in response. And so in conclusion,
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video games are structured existential experiences. And if we care
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about becoming a self before God, as Kierkegaard would say,
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then we should take those experiences seriously for our sake
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as well as for the broader culture. And so one
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encouragement as we move forward in this series is I
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encourage you to play a game. Even if you're somebody
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who hasn't played a game in many years, pick up
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an old favorite or something new, whatever, pick something up
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and ask a few questions of yourself as you play.
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Whether it is successful or not, what does this game
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ask of my attention? What is it training me to want?
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And what did failure do to me? Did it harden me?
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Did it humble me? Did it hollow me? Did it
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help me to think about things in a different kind
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of way? And just asking those questions will help you,
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I think, to start to approach video games in a
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different kind of way, in a more inherently up-building sort
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of way. It will make you a person who is
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looking for wisdom. in this aspect of the marketplace. And
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so I encourage you to join us at mythicmindfellowship.com. You
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can become a free member to keep up with all
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that we're doing across the board, or you can become
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00:30:32.759 --> 00:30:35.759
a paying member at any level in order to join
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00:30:35.960 --> 00:30:38.779
in these conversations, get full access to our Discord server.
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And then if you become a member at the fellow
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tier or higher, you can also participate in any of
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our available Mythic Mind Academy courses. But that is it
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for now, and I will talk to you next time.