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# Video Games and the Psyche: Agency, Anxiety, and Upbuilding (Mythic Mind Games, ep. 52)
- URL: https://mythicmindfellowship.com/video-games-and-the-psyche-agency-anxiety-and-upbuilding-mythic-mind-games-ep-52/
- Published: 2026-09-12T02:03:04.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-12T02:07:58.000Z
- Author: Andrew Snyder

Video games are not only amusement. They are structured existential experiences: forks that press agency, anxiety, identity, desire, and failure on a real self, whether the world on screen is "primary" or secondary.  
  
In this Mythic Mind Games season opener for Exploring the Psyche, Andrew makes the case for approaching games with seriousness and discernment. Drawing on Tolkien's fairy-stories (escape, consolation, recovery), C.S. Lewis and Kierkegaard on living other lives through story, and Kierkegaard's vertigo of freedom, he asks what play does to attention and desire: if games can deform the self, they can also upbuild it when wisdom is what we seek in the marketplace.  
  
Topics include choice practiced vs choice observed, embodied attention, character archetypes as self-revelation, noble goals vs grind, failure and grit (including Clair Obscur), and why "sticky" decisions make play feel moral. A first season conversation on grief in video games is teased.  
  
Related Mythic Mind Games:  
• Fairy-Stories / Tolkien subcreation (ep. 1): [https://youtu.be/lYzzMFDus9U](https://youtu.be/lYzzMFDus9U?ref=mythicmindfellowship.com)  
• Are Video Games a Waste of Time? Art and Upbuilding Value (ep. 10): [https://youtu.be/C7g7z-PmVwU](https://youtu.be/C7g7z-PmVwU?ref=mythicmindfellowship.com)  
• Why Video Games Repay Philosophical Attention (ep. 45): [https://youtu.be/LaDAEZcs1AU](https://youtu.be/LaDAEZcs1AU?ref=mythicmindfellowship.com)  
• Final Fantasy VII: Grief, Consolation, and Recovery (ep. 48): [https://youtu.be/A\_AOv8Jso04](https://youtu.be/A%5FAOv8Jso04?ref=mythicmindfellowship.com)  
  
Join the Mythic Mind Fellowship:  
[https://mythicmindfellowship.com](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/)