Video Games and the Psyche: Agency, Anxiety, and Upbuilding (Mythic Mind Games, ep. 52)

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
• Are Video Games a Waste of Time? Art and Upbuilding Value (ep. 10): https://youtu.be/C7g7z-PmVwU
• Why Video Games Repay Philosophical Attention (ep. 45): https://youtu.be/LaDAEZcs1AU
• Final Fantasy VII: Grief, Consolation, and Recovery (ep. 48): https://youtu.be/A_AOv8Jso04

Join the Mythic Mind Fellowship:
https://mythicmindfellowship.com

Exploring the Psyche: Anxiety, Video Games, and Kierkegaard

Hello friends, This is our weekly round-up, in which I tell you a little about what Mythic Mind has been doing and planning over the last week. This week, much of our attention has turned to anxiety, not simply as something unpleasant to be eliminated, but as something that

Anxiety Means You Can Choose (Mythic Mind, ep. 189)

Anxiety is usually treated as a disease to be eliminated. Medication and psychotherapy have their place, but what if, in our pursuit of so-called mental health, we are lobotomizing something essential to being human? In this Exploring the Psyche conversation, Andrew is joined again by licensed therapists Tyler Finders

What Is Anxiety? Kierkegaard and the Psychology of Freedom

As humans, we live as time-bound creatures with eternity in our hearts. We long for stability, but live in a world given over to change. We exist in this moving world, yet we also have the responsibility of determining how we exist in it, and how we relate to

Living Well, Dead Poets Society, and the Silmarillion

Hello friends, This is our Thursday round-up, in which I tell you a little about what Mythic Mind has been doing and planning over the last week. 1. The Silmarillion course is now open for Companions. Fellows will have access on September 14. If you are already in, the

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Exploring the Psyche: Anxiety, Video Games, and Kierkegaard

Anxiety Means You Can Choose (Mythic Mind, ep. 189)

What Is Anxiety? Kierkegaard and the Psychology of Freedom

Living Well, Dead Poets Society, and the Silmarillion