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lifestreamblack · 13 days ago

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An Attempt to Clinically Analyze Sephiroth's Psychosis at Nibelheim

Sephiroth has fascinated me as a villain for a long time, but I’ve also struggled to “figure him out” for just as long. For all the simplicity of his villainous goals (i.e. become a god, destroy the world), it’s really the heart of his breakdown in Nibelheim that confounded me regarding his motives and the causal factors behind how he becomes what he becomes. I think Sephiroth's story can be interpreted in drastically different ways depending on how you see the explanations for his breakdown preceding the Nibelheim Incident. Not to mention, there’s the multiple retellings of the incident within the Compilation and the inconsistencies that come with it.

I’m still in the process of unraveling how to approach Sephiroth’s psychology, so this won’t be a regular analysis. Rather, this is mostly going to be a stream-of-consciousness type of piece, where I just let my thoughts flow. Definitely expect some stuff to sound rough or disjointed, and possibly some inaccurate facts due to my terrible memory (please let me know). Also, for the sake of the most updated canon, we will go with the Crisis Core version of events.

~Major FFVII and Crisis Core spoilers ahead~

Psychosis

Firstly, I want to address the clinical term that can describe what happened to Sephiroth at Nibelheim. I’ve heard people call it a mental breakdown or psychotic break, among other things. If we want to be consistent with the psychiatric language of the DSM-5, we would say that Sephiroth experienced the onset of a psychotic episode.

Psychotic episodes are a state of significant psychological disturbance that involves a loss of touch with shared reality. Historically, what we now know as psychotic episodes were once called madness or insanity. The duration of an episode affects what type of psychotic disorder would apply, but overall, psychosis can be either transient or continuous.

It’s hard to say which is the case for Sephiroth, specifically because of how his prognosis transforms pre- and post-Lifestream dip. Pre-Lifestream, it’s clear that he went into an abrupt and severe state of psychosis. Even though there were already warning signs prior to when he holed himself up in the Shinra mansion basement, Sephiroth’s behavior change still occurred in a short amount of time and marked a drastic change from the anguish and confusion he initially experienced upon first learning what Jenova is. He is experiencing a psychotic episode that marks a clear departure from his prior functioning.

Afterwards though, Sephiroth learns what Jenova truly is and makes a conscious decision to use its power and influence over the Lifestream for his own means. At this point, we can’t say that it’s a temporary condition. Not to mention, the question of how much Jenova is influencing Sephiroth also complicates how we understand Sephiroth’s psychology. At best, I would say that post-Lifestream Sephiroth is experiencing an ongoing psychotic disturbance.

Delusions

At the heart of Sephiroth’s turning point to villainy is a delusion, a fixed and false belief that is resistant to change even in the presence of contradictory evidence. Although I've seen it used a lot in casual contexts, delusions are in fact a clinical term for distorted beliefs. Essentially, delusions exist beyond reason and cannot be logically refuted. Delusions are a hallmark feature of psychosis, involving a resistance to the facts of reality that conflict with one’s beliefs.

There are several reasons that someone might develop a delusion. Obviously these reasons aren't always mutually exclusive, but I think what reason you attribute to Sephiroth's breakdown influences how you understand it.

Certain people are genetically predisposed to delusional thinking. Jenova. Injected in the womb. Supernatural prenatal development. Need I say more?

People come up with distorted ways of explaining the unexplainable. This is the type of thinking that is linked to an inclination for conspiracy theories. Sephiroth was searching for answers about his birth and origins, and with false, piecemeal information, he formed the erroneous conclusion that he was a Cetra. I wouldn't say this is the driving force behind his decision to burn down Nibelheim, but you can see the gateway to vengeance through this avenue.

People have trouble coping with life and preserving their self-esteem, therefore they use delusions to attempt to uphold it. This is the most sympathetic perspective, mainly because it boils Sephiroth down to the misunderstood savant that is mourning the loss of his self-worth. More on this later, since this is the angle I see portrayed most in Crisis Core.

People experience significant life stressors, such as low socioeconomic status, trauma, and drastic life changes that heavily influence how they perceive and understand the world. We could create a whole list of known or presumed "life stressors" in Sephiroth's life, but if we want to highlight a specific one, it would be the discovery of the Jenova Project files. It could be argued that it was deeply traumatizing to him, enough to rock his worldview.

Reasons aside, there are also several different types of delusions classified in the DSM-5. I think Sephiroth shows features of at least two types. You could say Sephiroth experienced a grandiose delusion, or what you might know as a delusion of grandeur. This is defined by the belief that one is extremely powerful or important. Sometimes it even takes on a religious bend, leading to the belief that one is omnipotent or holy. Sephiroth believed he was the last of the Cetra race, one that was more connected to and respectful of the planet compared to humanity. He was "the chosen one to rule this planet," someone exceptional and superior to everyone else.

You could also say that Sephiroth was experiencing a persecutory delusion. This is when someone believes he is "being conspired against, cheated, spied on, followed, poisoned, maliciously maligned, harassed, or obstructed in the pursuit of long-term goals." Sephiroth drew the conclusion that he had a duty to punish humanity for persecuting the ancient Cetra. He believed he had to pursue vengeance for Jenova and for Cetrakind. People with persecutory delusions tend to demonstrate significant anger and violent behavior, which also checks out with Sephiroth's subsequent decision to burn down Nibelheim.

Obviously, both the grandiose and persecutory delusions transform a bit when Sephiroth learns about Jenova's true nature as an extraterrestrial, not a Cetra. But that's a conversation for another time; remember, we're talking about the psychotic episode that became the gateway to Sephiroth's villainy. So, let's backtrack a bit and talk about how Crisis Core chose to lean into a sympathetic portrayal of Sephiroth's psychology.

Self-Concept

We still know very little about Sephiroth’s childhood and upbringing (although it looks like Ever Crisis may change that?), aside from several key facts. We know that he was born an experiment, having been injected with Jenova cells in the womb. We know he was essentially raised by Shinra and did not get to experience a normal childhood. He was known to be a prodigious fighter and was the reason that the SOLDIER program was created. As a teenager, he fought in the Wutai War and gained his status as a war hero.

This is all to say that though Sephiroth knew little of his childhood, he knew one thing for certain. He was a very good fighter, and a hero to Shinra. Sephiroth’s established self-concept revolves around this fact. He was likely praised and lauded for his wartime achievements, and even before then, we can presume that Shinra scientists noted him to be an exceptional fighter. He was the epitome of prestige and strength.

Let’s contrast that with the information he gains right before the Nibelheim Incident. When Sephiroth sees the monsters at the reactor and begins to question his connection to them, he began to mull over his identity and existence. Sephiroth knew he was unusual and exceptional even as a child, and he said so himself that he doesn't know what it was like to have parents or a hometown to speak of. Genesis then reinforces what Sephiroth feared, that he is a monster and a product of experimentation. He was told he was subhuman, repulsive, an abomination.

Sephiroth’s self-concept started as that of a prodigy, someone who is an extremely capable fighter. After the war in Wutai, he was labeled a war hero. Once he was led to believe that he was a monster, this shatters his worldview. He went from seeing himself as a prominent hero to seeing himself as subhuman. This is further driven by the fact that Sephiroth had already lacked answers about his origins and craved a sense of home, of parental warmth and connection. Because of this gap in his history, the premise that he was no more than a monster was eerily plausible. With his self-concept dramatically rocked, he was left starving for answers to what he is. This is what led him down the rabbit hole, seeking an explanation that would either tell him that he was not a monster, or that his initial self-concept can still be upheld somehow.

And thus, Sephiroth was in a vulnerable place where a grandiose or persecutory delusion can uphold his self-esteem and self-concept. If Jenova is truly the last of an ancient race, then Sephiroth is exceptional, not an abomination. If the Cetra had powers that humans didn't have, then Sephiroth was powerful, not just a monster. The delusion takes hold because it is something Sephiroth needed in order to preserve his worldview, his belief that he is special and important.

This is how Crisis Core gets you to sympathize with Sephiroth. He's painted as a lonely savant that lacked a home and a family, and so when he was told he was a monster, his self-concept was shattered and radically warped. In order for him to protect it, he needed to come up with a delusion that would uphold his understanding of the world. Sound familiar? I don't think it's a coincidence that Sephiroth's psychology here sounds parallel to Cloud's, especially since I've considered delusional disorder for them both.

It'll be a while before I gather enough thoughts to move onto how Sephiroth progressed from this state to his post-Lifestream-dip, Meteor-summoning, god-seeking self. But for now, I think this helps paint a picture of how I've been trying to conceptualize him.

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lifestreamblack · 17 days ago

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Coming out of the depths to rant about Sephiroth and his religious ties. Super uber inspired to finally post this because of @runerapier's post about Angeal and Genesis' ties to christianity and the story of adam and eve. you can read that here!: [ https://www.tumblr.com/runerapier/752596997647843328/if-you-dont-mind-me-asking-what-makes-you?source=share ] Please give it a look. It's very well put together and completely ate. ______________________________________________________________

But! onto the rant itself!

Aside from obvious visual design parallels (which I will get to in a bit), Sephiroth's role in the world before his "fall" is very similar to Lucifer's in a sense that he was his creator's most beloved angel. Lucifer was an angel whose type was debated for a while, but it's theorized he was a seraphim. Seraphim are angels with six wings and who are the lord's agents of purification.

Sephiroth, as a person, was created by Shinra to mimic the Cetra using Jenova's cells (who was believed to be a Cetra at the time). While he was seen to be a failure in that sense, he was a successful human weapon. He was raised to be a SOLDIER for Shinra, and was their main source of military propaganda and power. He was thrust into the role of Shinra's "hero" at a very young age (around 14 going by Ever Crisis' storyline iirc), and fulfilled that role dutifully.

He was Shinra's "Purifier", in a sense that he'd cleanse battlefields of people with his sword and flames, much like Seraphim, who are represented commonly by fire.

But his fall from grace happened when he learned the "truth" of his creation. A truth that, along with a few other factors, drove him mad with hatred for humanity. This was followed by the massacre and destruction of Nibelheim, before he left to retrieve Jenova from the reactor.

It was there that he was ultimately defeated. Weakened by Zack, and "killed" by Cloud when he thrusts him down into the lifestream. While this would have normally killed any other person, Sephiroth's body, highly composed of Jenova's DNA, could not return to the lifestream. This is because the lifestream will only accept those that come from the lifestream. Even though he was born of a human couple, because he is highly composed of Jenova's DNA he was unable to be taken back into the lifestream, and instead absorbed its knowledge.

Skipping a bit to character design, the first iteration of Sephiroth's winged form was in the final boss fight of the original ff7. The form known as "Safer Sephiroth" takes on a biblical angel's influence. This is Sephiroth after reaching a pseudo-godhood. A near divine state of being.

You'll notice, however, that he gains multiple wings at the bottom of his body. 6, to be exact. The same number of wings a Seraphim would have. However, matching his imperfect divinity story-wise, is an outlier to this design. What would have made him a perfect Seraphim is ruined by his right arm being a single, black wing.

This boss design is what eventually led to the single wing of Sephiroth's base design

His one wing was never present in the original ff7, because it was an edition added after his first appearance and design in Kingdom hearts. From this point onward, Nomura began to incorporate a single black wing into his design. A wing that would be later added to a few other characters, and explained to be a byproduct of Projects that put Jenova's cells into human beings.

The most notable other characters with a single wing are Genesis Rhapsodos and Angeal Hewley from Crisis Core. This is important to note specifically for their designs. They are both parallels to Sephiroth, but Angeal specifically is the only one out of the three to have white feathers instead of black. It symbolizes his inherent goodness, and role in the story. Angeal is the mentor to Zack, who inherits his buster sword after his death. Likewise, Cloud also receives the buster sword after Zack's death.

Both Zack and Cloud are loosely tied to the white angel wing motif, which parallels the angels that banished Lucifer into Sheol.

There is a paragraph that details the fall of Lucifer. It's translated in different ways, but the most fitting translation seems to be this one.

“How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit." (Isaiah 14:12-15)

Tying this to the passage, each line can now be clearly associated with a very important part of Sephiroth's "fall".

“How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations!"

This can be a descriptor for Sephiroth from before the fall. He was the star of Shinra, a beacon of inspiration and hope to the people who lived under Shinra's authority. Not only that, but "you who have weakened the nations" can be attributed to Sephiroth's role in the war with Wutai.

"But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’"

This describes Sephiroth's hatred for humanity and his desire for power and a status as a god in order to achieve his goals.

"The recesses of the north" is a phrase that can, funnily enough, describe where the fragments of his body congregated before recreating his body that had been scattered in the lifestream. Sephiroth's body is found at the Northern Cave inside the Northern Crater, which could be the "recesses of the north" described in that passage

As for the phrase "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High", this can be a descriptor for Safer Sephiroth's fight and design. The fight itself is seemingly above Clouds, but the design itself features a cloudlike mass near where his legs would normally begin/where his wings are tied to

"Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit."

This, to me, describes both instances of Sephiroth's defeat in FF7. The first time he's "defeated", he is thrown into the lifestream by Cloud. The second time he's defeated is after beating the Safer Sephiroth fight, where Cloud defeats the last of Sephiroth's mind in a battle within his own mind. Cloud wins, and Sephiroth is dissolved in the lifestream

If you had to tie Sephiroth in with the story of Adam and Eve, the character Sephiroth would most fit is the snake. The story has multiple interpretations, but in each, the snake is tied with the Devil (Lucifer).

The two interpretations are that the snake is the Devil himself, or a messenger of the Devil. Both would fit Sephiroth in a way.

The first being the easiest to understand, thanks to Sephiroth's designed parallels to Lucifer Morningstar. The other interpretation, that he is the messenger of the Devil, would make sense if you read it with the idea that Sephiroth is a "messenger" for the embodiment of evil". This "Evil" would be Shinra, of course. Sorry this post is a mess, I just wanted to put this rant somewhere solidly :}

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