Freudian Theory

The Freudian theory is an interesting psychoanalytical theory that holds resonance to my observations of human behaviour and psychology.

In the simplest terms, the Freudian theory posits primarily that the human personality consists of three components—the id, the ego and the superego. A good imagery representation of these three components would be the frequent scenario in cartoons where a character has to make a moral decision and has a devilish and an angelic version of himself pop up on his shoulders, with both sides trying to influence his final decision. The devil side of the character always tries to persuade the character to make the decision based on his desires, representing the id, while the angel side always tries to persuade the character to make the decision based on what is morally right, representing the superego. The ego is represented by the character himself—the vessel of logical reasoning and connection to the world. I like to call the angel-devil scenario the devil-self-angel scenario.

The devil-self-angel scenario, while always presented in an extremely comical context, holds a lot of relevance to the decision-making process of a human. While most of us won’t admit, there is no denying that humans are constantly tempted by their desires and are allured by decisions that appeal to their desires. Then, there are the moments when we feel guilt for succumbing to our desires because they go against our morals. Our consciousness—our ego—is always following either the id or the superego.

The Freudian theory is useful to the game designer because it allows him to craft decisions in his games so that it is difficult for the player to decide one or the other at a glance. These kinds of decisions are meaningful because they are resonant of the decisions that we make in life everyday, and they have the capability to make the game more meaningful and deep for the player.