The Psychology of Until Dawn

The psychology of until dawn is fascinating story to say the least. If you manage to find all the easter eggs it is revealed to you that the reason Josh is acting so crazy is because he has skitzophrenia a rare psychological disorder that affects one percent of the world wide population and a little over one percent of americans.

Sadly, Josh was misdiagnosed with depression after the loss of his two sisters Hanna and Beth after a not so harmless prank gone wrong. Leading him on a destructive downward spiral that ends with him committing not so harmless pranks on his sopposed friends that also go totally wrong and end with him either starving to death in his parents ski lodge or being killed by an evil Indian spirit.

This game explores what happens when a person with this kind of disorder receives little to no help at all and is left to his own reckless abandon. And the butterfly effect Josh's misfortune onto his life and the lives of those around him.

But thats not all this game explores. The creators of Until Dawn have Inadvertently explored how it is to have dissociative identity disorder (DID) or split personality disorder. By having you play as eight different character's each having their own unique personality, desires and moral codes, it has you experience what its like to have conflicting personas floating around in your head.

The game focuses heavily on the butterfly effect. On how one harmful or harmless act can have unforseen, unexpected, consequences. With every story there is conflict but with this story it gets a little bit more interesting. Considering the game is about mental illness and the effects of it all, could there be a deeper meaning in the story of until dawn?

First of all there's the player choice mechanic. You, as the player, progress through the story by making choices that influence the story little by little until the game ends and you receive you respective ending based on the choices you made. This puts you in the front seat of the narrative and in control of where the story goes next. This puts you and your mind in control of 8 different characters who all have diferente personalities. Theirs Sam the considerate adventurous type and then their Chris the methodical protective type and so on... the thing is you have complete control of what they do. You can make them do things that would be against their charecter. Like Sam the considerate type whom, aperently, also likes snoop through peoples stuff when their not looking.

And thats where i make my point. This game could be sean as depicting personal struggle as you grow up. With each charecter being a basic set of assorted personality traits, the conflicts that arise between charecter could literally be a conflict between different characters you could be in real life. You could act like the jock Mike, or the nerd Chris, or the hipster Sam or the man stealer Jessica or the nice guy matt. Its all up to you and what you decide.

Because while this game could be just a horror story with a interesting plot with ties to mental illness, it could also be an allegory for growing up and building your character and balancing out your values and what it would take for you to give them up.

Which admittedly doesn't really tie in with the whole split personality disorder. Unless all the characters in the game are diferentes personalities arguing with each other and all inhabit the same brain but that would just be the equivalent of a "its all the product of a comatose dream" explanation right?...