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Video games can reveal the psyche much like dreams, myths, and fairy tales do.

The stories we crave, whether hopeful or tragic, can hint at what our inner life is working on.

Video games may be one of our newest mythologies: stories we don’t just hear, but live.

Growing up in the '90s, I can assure you that video games had a reputation problem as they moved into more living rooms across North America. In my small Ontario town, my parents raised a few eyebrows for letting their three boys play the Nintendo 64. Despite the collective worry, video games did not turn me into a menace. I grew up to become a law-abiding taxpayer, a recycler of (mostly) clean containers, and a therapist who deeply values imagination, creativity, and compassion.

To this day, some headlines warn against video games, and people worry about gamers. Many therapists have also quietly assumed that a client who games a lot is a client who is pathologically avoiding something. However, a 2024 article in the peer-reviewed journal Psychological Perspectives offers a different view.

Jungian analysts Pamela Power and Sheryl Corchnoy argue that games are not only entertainment; they are also a place where the psyche shows itself.1 Corchnoy recalls a case consultation where a colleague mentioned, with concern, that his client played World of Warcraft. The room apparently nodded gravely, whereas Corchnoy felt the opposite: curiosity. She wanted to know who the client played in this game, and why.

That curiosity is worth sharing with anyone who games, or........

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