The Freudian Uncanny in Psychological Horror Games

Repeating Despite Repulsion: The Freudian Uncanny in Psychological Horror Games Julia Jespersdotter Högman English Studies Bachelor Level 15 hp Term 6 2021 Supervisor: Berndt Clavier Jespersdotter Högman 2 Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………….......i 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………....…..1 2. Theory and Method……………………………………………………………………..….4 a. The Uncanny…………………………………………………………………………..4 b. Player/Avatar Relationship………………………………………………………........8 c. Interactive Fictions…………………………………………………………………..10 d. Cry of Fear…………………………………………………………………………...11 e. Silent Hill 2…………………………………………………………………………..11 f. P.T……………………………………………………………………………………12 g. Outlast…………………………………………………………………………….…13 4. Discussion………………………………………………………………………………….14 a. Internal and External Reality…………………………………………………...........14 b. The Symbolic………………………………………………………………………...21 c. The Familiar………………………………………………………………………….31 d. The Double…………………………………………………………………………..37 e. Video Game Fiction and Written Fiction…………………………………….............41 5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………....44 6. Glossary…………………………………………………………………………………....46 7. Works Cited………………………………………………………………………………..48 Jespersdotter Högman 3 Abstract This thesis explores the diverse and intricate ways the psychological horror game genre can characterise a narrative by blurring the boundaries of reality and imagination in favour of storytelling. By utilising the Freudian uncanny, four video game fictions are dissected and analysed to perceive whether horror needs a narrative to be engaging and pleasurable. A discussion will also be made if video game fictions should be considered in the literary field or its own, and how it compares to written fiction in terms of interactivity, engagement, and immersion. Jespersdotter Högman 4 1. Introduction I began my research with the purpose of defining the strange allure to horror games, the enjoyment in torturing yourself with graphically bloodied deaths and grotesque monsters designed to terrify you, and why we subject ourselves to this terror. There is an element to horror games that adventure games seem to lack, namely the adrenaline-filled rush of conquering the reaper, facing the worst, and emerging on the other side. The rectangular shape of the computer screen dissipates, bridging the gap between player and avatar, you become fully immersed in the goal to survive the horrors before you. Jeffrey Douglas writes: “There exists a sense of pleasure conflated with emulating the mastery of an unpleasurable experience, and the sense of pleasure generated by symbolically engaging death is predicated on the intuitive sense of despair one might feel in facing finality” (4). Douglas refers to the Freudian death drive, the compulsion to repeat despite repulsion and the enjoyment you achieve from this cycle. While researching this compulsive desire, the Freudian death drive was a theory that surfaced numerous times. Still, even more prevalent was the Freudian uncanny, describing the unsettling but pleasurable horror in doubting whether something is real or rooted in imagination (Brown and Marklund 4). This theory has been applied to horror games previously, specifically related to the video game franchise Silent Hills. Psychological horror games are usually analysed in psychoanalytic theory due to their focus on the protagonist’s mental turmoil. Anna Maria Kalinowski discusses in her article how game developers utilise familiar environments “which players can easily identify, but then alter them in ways to create a feeling of something being ‘slightly off’” (4). This sense of unsettling the player through uncanny elements is the focus of my research, specifically how utilising the uncanny affects the video game’s narrative. Interactivity, agency and relation between player and avatar are also interesting aspects of this subject. Are video game fictions—games with a fictional plot—a more interactive form of storytelling than text-based fiction due to the agency the player has? How does the player/avatar Jespersdotter Högman 5 relationship compare to the reader/narrator relationship? Should video game fictions be considered in literary theory or be a separate field? While this text will not answer all the above questions, it strives to offer a perspective on the relation between video game fiction and written fiction through the lens of the psychological horror genre. Psychological horror is a sub-genre separated from its predecessor of pure horror due to the intricate narrative elements stressing a singular protagonist’s psychological journey. Prioritising the narrative over terrifying its audience, psychological horror aims to unsettle rather than rely on sudden frights. In psychological horror games, the player must interpret occurrences and form individual conclusions, at times questioning what is real and what originates from within the protagonist’s imagination. Jonathan Ostenson argues for video games to be considered in literary theory, he writes: “the games of today have come to rely more and more on the elements of fiction in their design, and they represent unexplored territory in studying the nature and impact of narrative” (2). Conversely, Tanya Krzywinska, professor in digital games, transmedia, and immersion, argues for the existence of ‘ludology’, game studies. As it strives to define the relationship between player and avatar, ludology aims to separate itself from literary theory due to the difference in medium and audio-visual rather than textual storytelling (Roe and Mitchell 2). Krzywinska writes: “I for one look forward to a time when I don’t have to smuggle games into my film courses under the rubric of genre” (2). Although I agree with Krzywinska’s perspective on studying games separately, it will still be practical to consider them in the context of written media, if only to prove their worth as a field of research. This thesis will take advantage of Sigmund Freud’s text The Uncanny to achieve this, exploring the psychological horror narrative and its effective and affective storytelling using narrative techniques derived from literary theory and traditional storytelling. Jespersdotter Högman 6 The games I will research in this thesis are staples of the psychological horror genre, Silent Hill 2 being a game that kickstarted this type of storytelling in 2001, adding psychological elements to its successful predecessor with the same name. P.T., meaning “Playable Teaser,” was an interactive teaser for the highly anticipated latest instalment in the Silent Hill franchise designed by game producer Hideo Kojima and film director Guillermo del Toro. However, the game was cancelled due to conflicting interests with Konami, the company owning the rights to the franchise. Outlast and Cry of Fear are games referred to as “indie horror,” meaning smaller, independent teams created them without the financial support of a corporate game publisher. As mentioned earlier, the Freudian uncanny is closely related to psychological horror, derived from Sigmund Freud’s book The Uncanny. The book discusses concepts that incite fear and uncertainty while also emphasising the separation of imagination and reality, the unfamiliar and the familiar. Horror in video games has previously been discussed in the context of Sigmund Freud’s The Uncanny in attempts to locate what makes us fear what we logically know does not exist. This thesis will further explore the concepts presented in Freud’s work concerning how the perception of reality is portrayed through the protagonist’s perspective, causing the player themselves to be lost in the inexplicable. I will also consider the views of Slavoj Žižek and Ewan Kirkland as they have contextualised and modernised the Freudian uncanny in film and games, while Freud is limited to literary examples. By utilising these theories, I will gauge what is rewarding and pleasurable in these video game fictions. How can I define the player/avatar relationship further? What effect do the uncanny elements in the games have on the player’s connection to the avatar they are controlling? What is the psychological component of psychological horror, and how does it relate to the Freudian uncanny? And finally, is video game fictions comparable to written text? Is one more interactive than the other? Jespersdotter Högman 7 2. Theory and Method a. The Uncanny The Uncanny is a strange phenomenon that has been the root of research both within video game theory and psychological horror as researchers attempt to navigate what incites this peculiar feeling of discomfort. I will begin in the scope of study that resides outside of video game narratives; Sigmund Freud and Slavoj Žižek are worth mentioning in this context, while Ewan Kirkland’s focus is on horror games. According to Freud, the uncanny “is undoubtedly related to what is frightening—to what arouses dread and horror” (1). He introduces the word as derived from the German word 'unheimlich,' meaning the opposite of 'heimlich,' homely, or 'heimisch,' native (3). Freud intends to present a common conclusion that what is uncanny must also be unfamiliar or that something must “be added to what is novel and unfamiliar in order to make it uncanny” (3). He then states that this is a shallow interpretation of the uncanny, originating from Ernst Jentsch, from which he concludes that: “It is not difficult to see that this definition is incomplete, and we will therefore try to proceed beyond the equation ‘uncanny’ as ‘unfamiliar’” (4). Freud proceeds to investigate the meaning of

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