Streamers and the ego-ideal: who are you when the camera turns on
The streamer's persona: the ego-ideal, Winnicott's false self, and the cost of the mask.
Read analysis →Latest analyses
Why the monster that stares back scares you more
Lacan's gaze (Seminar XI) in horror: the terror of becoming the object of the Other's gaze.
Read analysis →Why we keep playing what stopped being fun
Jouissance: the satisfaction that goes beyond pleasure and insists, even when the game no longer entertains.
Read analysis →PlayStation is killing the disc, and the illusion that the game is yours
Sony ends physical media in 2028. Non-ownership, the transitional object, and the collector's fetish.
Read analysis →Resident Evil and the abject: why the zombie terrifies
The zombie as Kristeva's abject, the uncanny of the mansion, and the fear of losing your self to infection.
Read analysis →Alan Wake: the story that writes the author
The creative act as a descent into the unconscious, light against darkness, and Mr. Scratch as Freud's double.
Read analysis →Life is Strange: what if you could undo everything?
Rewinding time as the defense mechanism of undoing (Freud) and the mourning that can't be reversed. Spoilers.
Read analysis →Warhammer 40,000: an empire that worships a dead father
Totem and Taboo on a cosmic scale: the corpse-Emperor, the death drive as government, and fanaticism as jouissance.
Read analysis →A Plague Tale: the dead mother and the marked child
André Green's dead mother, the child marked by the Macula, and the maternal fantasy of the "damaged" child. Contains spoilers.
Read analysis →Hellblade: what psychosis looks like from the inside
The voices as symptom, mourning that becomes a journey to the underworld, and the persecutory superego. Made with real patients.
Read analysis →BioShock: "Would you kindly" and the illusion of free will
The subject spoken by the Other, Rapture as narcissistic utopia, and the commanded parricide of Andrew Ryan. Spoilers.
Read analysis →Gears of War: the muscle is armor against pain
Masculinity-as-shell, Klein's manic defense, and the grief beneath the armor (Dom and Maria).
Read analysis →Kratos killed his own gods, and his own father
God of War as Greek tragedy: the Oedipal parricide, narcissistic rage, and the ashes of guilt that won't come off the skin.
Read analysis →Red Dead Redemption 2: Arthur finds out he's going to die, and starts to live
The finitude that awakens, Klein's reparation, and what it means to die a whole man. Contains spoilers.
Read analysis →GTA 6 made $1 billion before it even existed. That's called FOMO
Why do we pay for a game that only comes out in November? FOMO, the desire of the Other, and the pre-order machine.
Read analysis →Silent Hill 2 isn't about monsters: it's about guilt
The town as a projection of the mind, the return of the repressed, and Pyramid Head as self-punishment. Contains spoilers.
Read analysis →The Last of Us Part II: why the story falls apart from within
Joel's death, the construction of Abby, and consent at the hospital: why the second game sabotages the meaning of the first. Contains spoilers.
Read analysis →The Plucky Squire: what if your life were a story written by someone else?
Behind the children's-book visuals, a precise metaphor about growing up, the end of fantasy, and taking authorship of your own story.
Read analysis →GTA doesn't sell crime: it sells a desire that never ends
Why do good people steal cars laughing? Freedom, the drive, and the object that never fills, via Winnicott, Freud and Lacan.
Read analysis →Death Stranding: a world without the Name-of-the-Father
The fragmented world as a psychotic mind, transitional space and holding: Kojima read through Lacan and Winnicott.
Read analysis →Death Stranding 2: the grief that can't be worked through
Mourning after trauma, PTSD, depression, and rebuilding through bonds. A psychiatric reading. Contains spoilers.
Read analysis →Samurai and ninja: the superego and the shadow that live in you
Why have these figures fascinated us for generations? The samurai as superego, the ninja as id, from Kurosawa to Ghost of Yōtei.
Read analysis →Ozzy Osbourne and Brütal Legend: the subject who doesn't repress
A tribute to the Prince of Darkness in video games: excess, jouissance, and the return of the repressed.
Read analysis →The lenses we read games through
Desire & jouissanceThe object that never fills, GTA, grind, loot boxes.
Grief & traumaLoss, finitude and working-through, Death Stranding, The Last of Us.
Fatherhood & the lawName-of-the-Father and superego, God of War, Kratos, Sam.
Transgression & the shadowPlaying and the id, GTA, ninja, The Sims.
Repetition & masteryDying, trying again, jouissance, Souls, Sekiro.
Gaming cultureFOMO, digital ownership, personas, hype.
The analysis continues on video
On the channel I read each game in real time, playing and commenting as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. Come for the streams.
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