Carl Jung’s life work…turned into a game about being a pimp and jumping into TVs
Karakuri and I go in-depth for our episodic posts about the Persona 4 anime, but every now and then I realize that I have something to say that would become too much of a tangent if I tried to squish it into a normal post. Transitioning from my thoughts about the episode itself into a big discussion of Jungian psychology just doesn’t seem effective. My thoughts would end up scattered over the weeks, and never truly form a whole concept. Better to put everything in one post and form an overall, cohesive statement. After sitting through the anime (episode 25 post coming soon!) as well as many psych lectures, I can attest to the overwhelming simularity between the terms in Persona and the theories of the famous psychologist Carl Jung. Sound like a far-fetched connection? Well, let’s take a look.
NOTE: Spoilers if you haven’t beaten the game OR watched up to episode 24 of the anime.
The entire namesake of the franchise is a nod to Carl Jung’s theory of persona and shadows. The latin word personae means ‘mask’, as it was used to describe the masks worn in ancient Greek plays. A persona is exactly that – a mental mask that someone wears depending on what situation they are placed in and how they feel they need to act to deal with it. Although it’s described as a mask, by no means is donning a persona considered to be hiding from the truth. A persona takes an important aspect of that person’s true identity and then blends it with a social identity to fit in. People tend to naturally become slightly different people based on their surroundings. You can tell the difference yourself, most of the time. At a party, maybe you’re more wild. At work, perhaps you obediently do whatever you are told without a thought. Perhaps the reverse is true and you swing from the ceiling at the office and clam up around crowds. It all depends on the person – but everyone has their own set of persona to help them belong in the world and interact with others. While it can be taken to extreme where it becomes a caricature of the true self, this isn’t the usual, healthy way people use a persona in real life.
Although Jung probably didn’t mean for a persona to take the physical form of a badass demon (…I think), Persona 4 goes the extra step to make things a little more clear. Picturing demons instead of different personalities is pretty sick! Not only that, if you think of the persona in the way Jung does, you can see the demons as visual representations of the coping strategies of all the characters. They only have one persona, while most people have several masks that they don in real life, so things are simplified. For example, Naoto has a cool, suave persona to go with the persona she uses when dealing with the police. She identifies as more of a controlled person than a moody schoolgirl. Likewise, Chie’s persona is incredibly strong and masculine to show her protective side without the jealous, controlling nature that was so evident in her shadow (more on that later). Basically – you can do a lot of character analysis by just looking at their persona.
Yu is a very special case. He has a huge number of persona at his disposal, and he can switch between them at will. What does this say about his character? He’s not really a flighty kind of guy who changes his personality like a chameleon. Instead, I see it more as people rubbing off on him. With each person he helps and gets closer to, he understands both their persona and their shadow. He takes a little bit of that knowledge with him for everyone he gets close to, thus understanding the different masks that his friends wear. Looking at it from the video game side of things, it’s a perfect move to have the main character be so malleable. Yu is literally the vehicle of the player’s will – and that player could be anyone. It could be any face and any persona. Yu is an empty vessel for us to fill up with our will, and since he can have any persona, the experience is that much more immersive. You are Yu, and your persona in Yu’s as well.
Please take a break from reading this to say ‘you are Yu’ out loud, shake your head, and continue on. Yes, very good.
Yu’s not the only one with an interesting persona. Look at Adachi…his persona is basically the same as Yu’s, except it looks a lot more malevolent. Izanagi and Magatsu Izanagi are two of a kind. Yes, I know, it’s typical for the villain to just be a darker version of whatever the hero is. However, this is different than superpowers or wearing a spooky cape instead of a heroic scarf, this is about personality traits. Why are they so stunningly similar? How did Adachi get a persona right away like Yu did? Is there a hint that Adachi and Yu actually both see the world in similar ways? Perhaps Adachi is like this because he never formed the types of bonds with others that Yu did. He never tried to understand everyone and their own persona or shadow. Somewhere along the line, Adachi just took a VERY wrong turn and gave up on morality.
The opposite of the persona – the shadow – represents every thought or feeling in our pretty little heads that we simply do not want to accept. Yosuke can’t accept that he finds a murder case to be fun and Kanji can’t accept that he has some womanly tendencies. All of this directly opposes the persona, which is more like our ideal self. We reject the shadow because these thoughts take us farther away from this ideal self. Yosuke wants to be a morally just person, so he tries to deny his thoughts about enjoying the change of pace despite having innocent people die. Carl Jung called it shadow purposely to represent the duality of the shadow and persona, to hint at the darkness it brings, and to show that the shadow will always exist. You can’t have light with shadows. So how the hell do you live a happy life with a shadow looming around? Carl Jung says you just have to accept your shadow…therefore, accept your darkest thoughts. This is exactly what everyone in Persona 4 does – and they become better people as a result of it. They’re happier, they live fuller lives, and their personality is more balanced. Yu doesn’t have a shadow, so it can be assumed he already accepts all of his flaws.
Again, this mostly serves as a new light to cast the characters in, with Teddie being the special case. He is a shadow. Teddie is basically a side of someone they didn’t want to recognize. No wonder, because I would never want to admit that I was that bloody annoying. Anyways, Teddie said he gained human emotions somehow, which differentiated him from the other shadows. This explains why Teddie had his own shadow despite being…well…a shadow. My guess is that because he gained human emotions, he was able to form his own doubts and insecurities. When he accepted them, he gained a persona. When a shadow gains a persona, they essentially become a person. As a shadow, Teddie only has his bearsuit, but he’s hollow inside. After gaining a persona, he has a human body on the inside as well. The doctors may not be able to figure him out physically, but he’s really no different from a normal person at this stage. A true person is neither a shadow nor a persona…but both of these things in unison. I had a hard time believing that a shadow was close to a human for the sole reason that it had a “demonic summon it could use in the Tv world – just like us!” Not exactly the dictionary definition of homo sapien there. Seeing it more in terms of a persona and a shadow referring to Jungian terms instead of monsters, it’s easier to see what they were going for by giving him a human body and a persona to make him seem human.
The Personal Unconscious and Complexes
The collective unconscious is most likely supposed to be the TV World, but there’s really nothing exciting to say about that aside from “look, the two are similar!” The personal unconscious is a lot more interesting to discuss in the arena of Persona 4. The personal unconscious is said to be made up of one’s perceptions, thoughts and feelings. Every experience you’ve had is stored here, and usually stays in a dormant state unless the memory is specifically retrieved. The key point about the personal unconscious that is related to persona is the idea of complexes, which reside in the personal unconscious. Basically, a sort of trauma or misconstrewn concept about something.
It’s specifically stated in the game with ‘complex’ in bold text that Kanji has a complex about trying to be masculine. This complex represents the dungeon that is created when each person is thrown into the TV. Continuing to use Kanji as an example, because he has a complex about being called ‘gay’ for showing his feminine interests, his dungeon is a flamboyant sauna. His complex is so powerful that it has overtaken his personal unconscious and changes the way he thinks about everything, without him realizing it. His dungeon is a direct manifestation of whatever complex he has – and the same can be said for the other characters. Jung states that the complex “appears to be an autonomous development intruding upon consciousness.” meaning that this irrational way of seeing the world can actually act as if it were a totally different person. Sounds a bit like a shadow, doesn’t it? Complexes create shadows.
As a neuroscience student, I do have to take the odd psychology course here and there, so of course I nearly squawked (yes, squawked) when we started talking about the persona and shadows in class. It was perfect. I knew I had to write about it in that exact moment! Combining what you learn in school and anime is a surprisingly great way to learn, as well. I won’t be forgetting good old Jung for quite a while. Furthermore, looking at the Persona 4 franchise from this angle can reveal some interesting little gems. Hopefully you feel the same after reading this. :3 So, I guess this is the part where I ask what you think, because just reading my own opinion is boring. Do you agree (or disagree) with my connections? Did you make any further connections or revelations that I missed? Anything else to say about good old JungJung? Let it all out!
Bonus Fanart: Show ▼