EusReads

The Psychology of Zelda edited by Anthony M. Bean

I was wondering if there were any Zelda-adjacent books so I did a search and found this! The Psychology of Zelda is a collection of essays that tie concepts in psychology to aspects of the game. The essay titles are:

  1. Embodying the virtual hero: A link to the self
  2. It’s dangerous to go alone: The hero’s journey in the Legend of Zelda
  3. The nocturne of (personal) shadow
  4. The archetypal attraction
  5. Unmasking Grief: Applying the Kübler-Ross Five Stages of Grief model to The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
  6. The Protective Power of Destiny: Posttraumatic growth in the Legend of Zelda
  7. The Quest for meaning in the Legend of Zelda
  8. The Song of the Ritos: The psychology of music within the Legend of Zelda series.
  9. Triforce Heroes and Heroines: Transcending the opposites through the golden power
  10. The legend herself: From Damsel in Distress to Princess of Power

The topics covered here were really interesting, although the fact that I’ve only played Breath of the Wild hampered things a little. Still, I know enough of the series (thanks to my brother) that the game references made sense to me.

And by the way, the Rito people/birds aren’t actually discussed in The Song of the Ritos – the essay is more about how music is used in The Legend of Zelda.

I can’t comment on the accuracy of the arguments here because I’m not an expert, but I found the essays to be easy to follow along. If this is accurate, I can see this as being an interesting general introduction to certain concepts in psychology, for example, the five stages of grief; I didn’t realise they weren’t linear until the essay! I thought using Majora’s Mask was a good way to explain it.

The only thing I was a little disappointed in was the dominance of Western authors. I read through the author biographies after each essay and as far as I can make out, only one author is living in Japan (but not Japanese) and the rest are living in the West. I know that the interpretation lies in the player, but I would have liked to see a Japanese view on the game, especially when the essays were talking about gender roles and the change in Zelda through the games. Given that this is a Japanese game that is popular worldwide, it seems like a pity that this was so Western-focused.

Overall, though, I enjoyed this and finished it in a day. While I wish for more content from non-Western psychologists, I appreciated the introduction to various concepts in psychology through the game. It definitely made me want to return to playing it!

Featured Image: Photo from Canva Media Library

2 thoughts on “The Psychology of Zelda edited by Anthony M. Bean

  1. My husband plays Zelda, but I’ve never really gotten into it. That’s too bad there wasn’t more diverse viewpoints shared. I think that would make this all the more appealing.

    1. It’s a pretty interesting game, though it took me a while to get it too (still terrible at the controls haha). Yeah, I would have loved to hear from a variety of people, especially Japanese psychologists since it’s a Japanese game

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