#a character says my father was never present in my life and i am immeidately hooked

[diamondpython00]

I was watching videos on Psychonauts 2, specifically on the imagery and meaning behind Hollis’ mind, when I had an interesting realization: a lot of the characters in both Psychonauts games have family-related problems.

Oleander’s initial levels (the brain tumbler experiment and basic braining) don’t have much beyond initial foreshadowing for plot reasons, but meat circus is such a colossal mess of daddy issues that i think it makes up for it

Sasha’s main problems are the death of his mother and the memories of her he collected from his dad’s mind that freaked him out (nooo little german boy don’t use your psychic abilities to read your father’s mind)

Milla’s trauma has to do with her relationship to the children at her orphanage and her failure to protect them, something that while she has moved past, definitely still hurts her. She’s still working as a caretaker of some kind though, and it’s clear that she’s not eager to repeat that mistake.

Gloria was pretty seriously messed up by her mother’s emotional neglect and high expectations, her treatment at the boarding school, and her deadbeat dad. This trauma is only compounded with her mother’s suicide, which starts her downward spiral.

Fred’s problems have to do with his family legacy, literally being constantly berated in his mind by the image of his ancestor. To Fred, he’s failed at being a Bonaparte, and his ancestor has come back from the dead to express his displeasure.

Lili and Raz both have fairly complicated relationships with their fathers - Raz views Augustus as constantly pushing him in acrobatics and outright denying him his interests, while Lili has had to grow up a little too fast thanks to how busy her father is, and expresses some of that frustration with a tough front.

Loboto. (i don’t think i really need to say more. yikes doesn’t even begin to cover it)

Although Hollis’ family is notably absent from her mind, some dialogue from her and her mind’s NPCs implies a very fraught relationship with her parents. She acknowledges to Raz that “family is horrible”, and the maternity ward patients in her mind all express very bad reasons to have kids, ranging from using children as a proxy to having kids because your partner wants them. Couple that with the absence of her parents from her entire mind, and... well, it doesn’t paint a pretty picture.

Compton’s issues aren’t exactly related to his family, but they ARE hereditary. All three Booles in both games have both a connection with animals and some blastokinesis, although most of the issues seem to have skipped Sam. Dogen especially is very similar to Compton - both are socially anxious, get overwhelmed by their telepathy, and accidentally blow up heads when they get overwhelmed. It’s not hard to imagine that Compton’s parenting or influence may have had something to do with Dogen’s issues.

Ford doesn’t exactly have family issues, but boy howdy did he sure cause some.

The seed (heh) of Bob’s alcoholism seems to be related to his aunt’s alcoholism and death. His aunt dealt with her problems by drinking them away in her greenhouse, and now that Bob has gone through very similar loss, he uses the same coping mechanism - drown your issues under a lot of alcohol.

Gristol’s main problem is his overwhelming sense of entitlement, but his father plays a very significant role in his worldview. From Gristol’s perspective, his father ruined the inheritance Gristol was owed, and failed both Maligula and the country with his rule. Gristol believes he is entitled to rule of Grulovia thanks to his father, but also deeply resents him for his failures and is driven by the need to set right what he thought his father did wrong.

Nona, or Lucrecia Mux, had most of her issues brought on by the accidental killing of her sister and the false familial relationship she was deluded into believing was real her whole life. Although Maligula is the manifestation of her problems, Maligula very clearly would not exist if it weren’t for Marona’s death.

And these are just the people who’s minds we explore in some sense or another. There is the exception of Boyd, Edgar, and Helmut, but I’ll address that a bit later. None of the campers or the interns mention much about their family, but we can also infer from the way Loboto was treated that psychics are not exactly looked upon favorably. While certainly not all of the campers or interns have bad relationships with their parents, it is interesting that there is no mention that I can remember of a good parental relationship anywhere in either game. It’s either a bad relationship or it goes unmentioned (like Edgar, Boyd, and Helmut). While I can’t say definitively what this theme of complicated or bad familial relationships is intended to mean, there are a couple theories I have. It could be that Psychonauts is trying to tell us that mental illness is often a result of environment - children raised in non-loving environments rarely escape unscathed, and dealing with those issues often involves confronting that familial relationship. It could be that leaving your family trauma unresolved is very unhealthy: the only families we see recover from these issues, the Aquatos and the Zanottos, do so through honest communication. It could be that blood family does not obligate love, and that chosen families (like the psychic six or nona and augustus) are better because they actively choose to love each other. It could even be something completely unrelated that I haven’t thought of. But what I am pretty sure of is that Psychonauts 1 and 2 are definitely trying to tell us something with the family theme. What do you guys think? Is there something to this?