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Good psychological games?
- Thread starter ROMhack
- Start date
Spukc
always chasing the next thrill
Casanova
Member
Hellblade, Bioshock, Alan Wake, Dark Souls, The Last of Us, Fallout, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Minecraft (for some fucking reason), Gone Home, Portal (not sure why), Undertale.
I'll preface these suggestions by saying that I am in fact a practicing child and school psychologist and have been a mental health provider with a focus on CBT and trauma-informed therapy, so three things:
1. Because of dealing with significant trauma with children, adults, and myself, maybe some games just hit different for me.
2. Mental Health is something that I feel very passionately about, and the representation matters to me. Thanks for making this thread.
3. Despite your own trauma or mental health, I feel strongly that experiencing these feelings/emotions in a video game is somehow helpful, like listening to a sad song. This may be why you, myself, or others enjoy them.
I find just about anything dealing with social isolation, serious personal conflict, pandemics, post-apocalypses, as well as anything dealing with childhood/adult trauma and mental health to be psychologically impactful, for lack of a better descriptor. Perhaps this is what you're looking for.
Now, for titles that have a specific focus on mental health issues, very few are coming to mind. Hellblade, Spec Ops: The Line, The Town of Light.
P.S. I hope I didn't sound pretentious or biased through sharing my own educational/professional background, I just wanted to share with you what might have influenced my list a bit - and maybe offer a bit of justification of why.
I'll preface these suggestions by saying that I am in fact a practicing child and school psychologist and have been a mental health provider with a focus on CBT and trauma-informed therapy, so three things:
1. Because of dealing with significant trauma with children, adults, and myself, maybe some games just hit different for me.
2. Mental Health is something that I feel very passionately about, and the representation matters to me. Thanks for making this thread.
3. Despite your own trauma or mental health, I feel strongly that experiencing these feelings/emotions in a video game is somehow helpful, like listening to a sad song. This may be why you, myself, or others enjoy them.
I find just about anything dealing with social isolation, serious personal conflict, pandemics, post-apocalypses, as well as anything dealing with childhood/adult trauma and mental health to be psychologically impactful, for lack of a better descriptor. Perhaps this is what you're looking for.
Now, for titles that have a specific focus on mental health issues, very few are coming to mind. Hellblade, Spec Ops: The Line, The Town of Light.
P.S. I hope I didn't sound pretentious or biased through sharing my own educational/professional background, I just wanted to share with you what might have influenced my list a bit - and maybe offer a bit of justification of why.
Kerotan Frog
Member
Hellblade is the first thing I thought of. You literally hear voices in your head the entire game. Its is really unnerving if you play with headphones.
GreenAlien
Member
That's a nice 24min docu that explains how and why and what they did, especially the mental disorder stuff.. Also spoilers.. so I would recommend playing the game first (~8hours).. but if you don't have the time or want to know more first, this is probably as good as it gets..
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LostDonkey
Member
Mind: Path to Thalamus
It's a stunningly beautiful trip through the pysche.
It's a stunningly beautiful trip through the pysche.
Dang. Looks a little janky but some beautiful scenes depicted in the trailer. Thank you for sharing.
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faisalasif
Member
Slings and Arrows
Banned
OG phantasy star online.
Bonus points if people can tell me why it is literally psychological
Bonus points if people can tell me why it is literally psychological
markusho3k
Member
Rime.
More than a game is a jorney with logical puzzles to understans the 5 stages of depression. Jusy play it until the end and you will understand.
ROMhack
Member
Interesting. I have it on my Switch wishlist but can't remember why - probably read about it once and it sounded interesting.
