Psychology of Psychonauts | Cassie's Collection 

It’s wonderful that Raz is voiced by Richard Horvits(Zim) and Raz’s Archetype is voiced by Rosearik Simons(GIR)!

I love the dog walking in circles explanation for instincts. It's something almost everyone has seen, and it's impersonal enough that we can easily recognize it's just a silly behavior without getting defensive.

To be fair, Enablers can also buff Censors, which are typically considered a "normal" and "healthy" part of a mental system, so they can actually have positive Enablers.

Bob's Bottles is definitely going to be heavy. I also like that you can see Lily on an island, and she has a completely different voice to the norm as Bob has never physically met her.

13:36 missed opportunity to call it "Theory of Bee-haviorism"

Glad that Psychonauts videos are still being made.

Two thoughts occur to me; It's really sad that, even though they've lived so close to each other for decades, Cassie and Bob never talked to each other. I think it's nice that the Librarian is still around on return visits. Like you said, letting her have full control is an issue, but isolation after traumatic events, or even just on occasion for self-reflection [Book sorting, so to speak], is normal and healthy in proper amounts

I would like to add another neat detail. Cassie's personalities are bidimentional, just like Raz's summon. They are not full personalities, but shallow reflections of the person. Only when all these paper cutouts join together we see a full tridimentional Cassie with depth to her personality.

3:00 "Otto is too distracted by the opening of the MotherLobe to give her any *mind*." I see what you did there.

Your speech about the shadow archetype for the hero really got me thinking about the reflection of Raz with every other major antagonist in this franchise. Oleander and Raz both had a similar resentment towards their father, and towards themselves as they felt like an outcast. However, where Raz was able to grow, and eventually reconnect with his dad, and feel a sense of belonging, Oleander didn't, and slipped into a deep resentment for those who mocked him. Both Raz and Loboto were psychic whose families resented their powers, but where as Raz's family learned to accept them and move past the grudge, Loboto's decided to use an ice pick. For Maligula, I can't think of much other than this is what Raz could become with unchecked power. If anyone has anything else to add here, please do! Now for the main one, Gristol; Raz learns early on the dangers of irresponsibly altering minds for his own goals, Gristol and in turn Gristol's father, had zero qualms about what they did to Lucy. Even if it wasn't sudden like Raz and Hollis, and more of a slow manipulation, they were still ok in purposefully enabling somebody to become a killer. Something Raz could be if he didn't see the consequences of his actions other than 'suddenly rejecting the prodigy psychic.' I know Gristol's problems are a bit deeper, but it's still a comparison. I know this stuff was probably obvious, but it's still something I wanted to bring up.

What really ties all of this together is that when Raz asks if the Cassie formed from all the personalities merging is “the real Cassie”, she responds by saying she isn’t sure, but that she’s in there somewhere. It shows that she still believes she can never be 100% the real her, but able to still let parts of herself that she believes to be the real her escape when asked for it.

At 47:09 Cassie has in a way used silence, destroying, and loudened, semi represents the “speak no evil, hear no evil, and see no evil” through the fight

I don't particularly like how if someone likes being alone, people automatically assume that there's something wrong with them. I may be biased here, being a loner myself, but I staunchly believe that there's nothing wrong with wanting peace, quiet, and privacy.

I Have ADHD. This video made me realize that I have been socially isolating myself. And I have been hyper focusing on things and neglecting sleep.

new psychology of psychonauts?? and it's 50 MINUTES LONG??!??? LET'S GOOO

This was one of my favorite levels, mainly because of how the paper Cassies were modeled and animated. Normally for something like this a game would use 2D sprites on a single polygon always facing the camera, sort of like in Paper Mario. But here they're actual moving paper dolls with actively moving mouths and eyes. Very impressive!

I think we can all agree Cassie delivers awesome one-liners.

When you play though that library its good, then the level progress and suddenly it opens up to Shanghai is just beautiful.

For the longest time I had no clue why I was so fascinated by Cassie’s level ad opposed to Bob, but I think this video made me realize it. Cassie is like me, Bob is like many of my family members. I already fully understood how bobs mind worked because I’ve been around alchoholics and depression my whole life, but never anyone like me. I never realized how much Cassie’s story helped me come to terms with who I am

That's a thought: The idea that the librarian not only representing a part of her personality, but her coping mechanism as well. Clever

I'm so glad to see this series is still going!! Lemme take down my thoughts as I watch: - I never knew the meaning to the Latin in the bees book! I hadn't realized Cassie was the first one to try confronting Maligula either. - I mostly see the term hyperfixation used in relation to ADHD, usually as "the ADHD version of Special Interest" bc Special Interest is a term coined by and for those of us who are autistic - And as an autistic person, I hate staunch Behaviorism believers with the passion of a million burning suns :) - (Jungian psychology is mentioned) ("I'll Face Myself" from Persona 4 intensifies in my brain) - RIP to Carl Jung, he would've loved the use of the Morphogenetic Fields theory in the hit psychological thriller game trilogy Zero Escape - I feel like we need to talk more about Raz's trauma and how he thinks he's so great at hiding it and pretending he's totally fine. The archetype he makes is his inner child that he threw away, likely the first time he felt rejected by his family for being a psychic - I think Cassie, though she likely wouldn't want to admit it, also felt a sense of power from her codependent relationship with Compton. She'd spent so long feeling helpless, and now she was being relied on by somebody for emotional stability. Maybe that's part of why her mental version of him is kind of pathetic and talks down about himself. - I'm so excited for Bob's Bottles! It'll definitely be a heavy one, but that just makes the lessons all the more important.

Further proof that psychonauts is one of if not THE most intelligent series

If my mental world was in this game, it would most likely be a battle arena of Regrets, Doubts, Judges, and Bad Moods

It would be cool if there was a series like this for the game No Straight Roads as its characters are an interesting exploration of creativity, how it's used, what inspires it and the connections it forms.

Love the minor detail that Cassie is "paper thin" in disguise and emotions, but is still flexible and talented

This video was helpful for me I’ve always had this weird connection with my different “personalities” I don’t have DID or anything, just this odd sense of multiple selves This helps

There's nothing more dangerous than a villain that thinks they're the hero. 🧐

You know, it's a shame that Otto Mentallis doesn't have his own level. It'd be really interesting to see just what makes him so different from the others. From being seemingly unaffected by the battle of Grulovia, to never using psychic powers directly, there are some mysteries in that head. Given what I we know of him I suspect he might be autistic, but it's impossible to say for sure without a deeper look.

One thing I loved about this level is raz’s archetype being voiced by Rikki Simmons who voices GIR from invader zim and raz is voiced by Richard horvitz who voices Zim. First time I heard the archetype speak and I’m like “GIR?” It makes me laugh every time.😂

Bringing up Archetypes, Shadows, and The Collective Unconscious reminds me of another game franchise that deals with these themes. Persona. I'd definitely appreciate a similar series describing the mental palaces and Personas of Persona 4 or 5. Maybe in future.

The one fictional character I found interesting was the knight and the dragon. I think especially in recent years people are judging characters more and are far more critical of characters. So a story of a knight fighting to slay a dragon that threatens the peace of the kingdom. Would be known as a tale of valor, but people would see it as the knight bullying a creature going off of instinct. Represented here as the dragon is a creature minding its own business, with the knight provoking the dragon. With Cassie's current mindset of isolation then she would appeal more to the dragon. As for the knight Cassie had issue with the police back home as they never fixed the problem, but put Cassie into a life or death situation for their own benefit. Which affected her view on the shining knight, a person that will come to the rescue. Probably putting more emphasis on her needing to take matters into her own hand. Making her attempt to connect with others to help all the more heartbreaking for her. It is probably why that she also feels that she has to be the one to look after Compton.

This was such a treat to watch, a full hour of Gaming University Psychonauts goodness! :D Thank you very much for your hard work on this video!

I was hype asf when I saw this but I was in class so I couldn't watch it at first :( so much care went into making this video and I'm so glad my wait paid off. I love the chapter transitions, they're so lovingly made and it definitely shows!

A full episode on my favorite mind from Psychonauts 2 on one of my most boring work days?? A true blessing ❤

I love watching these because they actually help me learn a bit more about my own way of thinking, and the psychological impacts of what I've done in my own headspace. Admittedly, I'm guilty of transference. One bad individual left an effect on me that I associate (usually incorrectly) onto others with a specific trait. As for the more important thing, I've noticed applications of archetypes in my own mind. Due to a rather serious stimuli early in my life, I created two specific archetypes in my own mind to help cover my conscious deficit in those areas. It's kinda interesting actually learning about the psychology behind them.

These examinations of the game have actually helped me poke at my own mental hangups by laying out the different ways of resolving issues mentally. There's a particularly nasty memory from highschool that I was able to unpack and quiet by looking into my thought processes then vs now, so thank you for that 👍

I think another way to conceptualize the process of sneaking the other archetypes into the die-brarian is as pushing it back towards the shapeshifter, able to be a librarian when needed, but also a teacher, or a writer, or a survivor

Always a treat when one of these comes out. Don't worry too much over the people griping about it taking 3 months to come out. About the same amount of time the last one took. And the one before that. And the one before that too. Honestly, you're one of the more consistent upload schedules on my subscription list. Great work and I definitively _can_ wait for the next one.

goddamn. almost a full hour of psychonauts psychology? damn!

Let's go! Another episode of what I wish was called "Psychologynauts". 😁

Oh Please remember to do Bob's Bottles next, it shows how grief can cause the same thing with Cassie but he is also drowning himself to block out reality and how much pain a widower can go through emotionally like agent Sasha 's father.

29:20 Dean says I'm not a friend confirmed. 😢

me just after finals sitting down to more classes: oh yeah it’s big brain time

This episode was so well put together, and I loved the longer run time. Definitely worth the wait.

As always, love your psychonauts videos!

A great choice of video for World Bee Day!

Cassie's internal conflict follows the Internal Family Systems model in all but name, with a shiny paper covering. The IFS Model describes that everyone is made up of parts, each of which is created and utilized to help a person in certain contexts. The Librarian specifically is a manager, a part that’s built to help control the archetypes in a way that would keep the self and the other parts safe. The librarian did this through rationale, strictness, condescension and snappiness, which could have been helpful during the battle. But after the battle of Maligula, she was hurt by the guilt of having been the first to fail, so the librarian began to rise into power in order to keep her safe again. As she failed again and again to absolve her guilt by trying to talk things out with the Psychic Six, the Librarian's case grew bigger than the other archetypes The Librarian believed the only way to protect Cassie was to effectively shut down all of the emotional parts of herself and thus sought to use Raz to help lock away the parts she saw as detrimental to her. As a part of you grows out of control, it starts showing up in inappropriate contexts and trying to perform tasks it’s not well-suited to perform- your parts are two-dimensional in their aspects (and literally 2D in their representation in the game). A rogue part can even convince you that it is your conscience, that it is the real you. But people who use the model know that even an out-of-control archetype is good in certain situations and has a role in the person’s life. It just needs to be taken down a peg. The three other archetypes invading the Librarian represent something incredibly traumatic- dissonance. By getting an understanding of and trust from her other archetypes, Raz could help her Being faced with evidence that the Librarian’s two-dimensional worldview may be untrue represented itself as physical trauma for the librarian, enough trauma to unravel her and get her into a healthy position. At the end of the battle, she’s shrunk down to the same size as the other archetypes, but none of them are mad. They all still care about Cassie and want to work with her to do that, and upon realizing that, the Librarian works with them to help Cassie rediscover her true self (represented as them forming a 3D Cassie manifesting in her own mind) and become self-directed again.

I remember watching the milkman conspiracy a long time ago, I really enjoyed it and recently I found this video. After that I decided to watch the entire video series and brought the Psychonauts game series as a whole because of how much I enjoy this video series.

Personal archetypes are one of the critical reasons why outsiders are terrifying. They will not just screw the truths about you due to error, but diligently. Whatever they think, it is crude and repulsive, and I can never tolerate that.

Ah I missed this series! Thank for the hard work!

Its been 84 years...

I like how the other Psychic Six are in a high place that's very inaccessible and looks down on her.

This video was awesome! Well worth the wait! Im glad my favorite Psychonauts level received a big video like this

thank you i always confused by her level . i never understood what was going on .

Glad we got another one of these, amazing as always!

Wow, nice try making a video subtly calling me out for all my behavior! Haha, that was a good one. Anyway, please make a video about Cassie next time, because I’d really like to know what makes her tick

yooo i am replaying psychonauts 2 and i literally just finished this level yesterday! what great timing

I've been looking forward to more of these Hey thanks for making these, I'm glad you take the time to research and treat the matters discussed in the game with respect.

love these psychology videos. im very excited for bobs bottles. i loved that level so much and feel for bob

Great video as always ! Cassie is truly my favorite of the 6 and also my mind probably looks a lot like hers ! The next one is going to be painful I fear ! Can't wait !

It is good that you return with another Psychonauts video, Cassie's mental world is my favorite

*applause* Amazing work as always! One thing that puzzled me about Cassie is that she's clearly Chinese, but has a name that is very much not Chinese. But now I think about it some more my guess would be she changed it in case Fanny sent people after her.

I absolutely love this series! You do amazing on each video and i can't wait to see you do the next video!

Can I just say that I absolutely LOVE these videos!

Hey I just wanted to thank you for doing these deep dives I have been struggling with my mental health for a long time and your videos help me understand my mental health and behaviors I seriously believe that this series should be used in colleges once again thank you because you have helped me understand myself

Also a SPOILER for the other Psychic six to keep in mind: Pay attention to Bob’s flashback of Truman firing him. The man is looking like he’s about to burst into tears at the idea of having to make his own uncle leave the base. Given we don’t know anything about Lili’s grandparents, that has a implication about how he and Bob could have been

Love your Psychonauts videos, really appreciate all of the work you put into them. Well done!

This was wonderful, a perfect initial vid to watch, glad my friend introduced me to the channel.

Been in 4 crashes and near miss twice (all passanger except 1 of the 2 near misses, darn seinors) being on a car is so damn terrifying a 20 min ride ends up making me stressed and scared enough to sleep the rest of the day away no matter the time of day, any age you can be conditioned not just young, just try to catch these things

Always love these videos, im terrified to know how much research goes into a video

My favorite mind! The wait was worth it!

YEAAHH NEXT PART! man I’m always so sad with how long these take

absolutely brilliant installment and well worth the wait! i gasped when i got the notification for it lol. keep doing what you're doing, i just can't get enough of it!

Alan Wake video: 2k views uploaded a month ago. Psychonauts Video: 8k views uploaded a day ago. The people want more psychonauts.

I like to think I’m pretty good at deciphering abstract concepts like this, but I’ll admit I did really get this level. That’s for helping me understand.

The particular concepts in this video are interesting to me. Im taking an ecology and conservation course at university and one of my current subjects is evolutionary ecology which has brought up learned verses instinct or genetically inherited behaviours. I dont have anything to add to the video i just find it cool how despite being different fields theres some overlap.

Jesus. I feel horrible for Little Albert. How do you do that to a kid, barely able to think for himself, to make him fear the most basic things a child shouldn't fear? In the name of science only goes so far until you're remembered more negatively than progressively.

I think that something potentially very interesting got glanced over in this video! Coming from someone with OSDD-1b, I'm fairly certain that Cassiopeia is showing very notable symptoms of OSDD-1 (Not easily falling under A or B, but in fact both, there's a reason it isn't officially separated anymore!). Her mental state functions in such a way where her outwards personality is affected by the internal system of personas, or, alters that she is using that have a basis in the various different times and ages in her life without any kind of episodes of visible amnesia associated. From experience, a certain alter having power over the others and even negatively keeping others out is, very possible, but also her narrative of helping her fight her demons is to put her on the path of healing via working together with these various parts of her. What really spoke to me personally was that context of them not really knowing who the 'real' Cassie is, they just know she's in there somewhere and they'll find it out together.

Been enjoying this series! Looking forward to the analysis of Bob's Bottles and the rest of the game!

woo more to watch. having fun watching the psychonauts psychology then a lot of things.

been waiting for this one

Scientists really used to get away with anything, huh?

Despite studying Latin, I completely glossed over the book because I thought it was a lorem ipsum. The Latin is... far from fluent. Things like the tense and word order are jumping around all over the place. But I think your translation is probably close to what they were trying to say. I think "The wasp did not love him" was probably meant to be more like "she didn't care for it", specifically mistaking "eum" as a neuter pronoun because of the -um ending (should have been "id"). My condolences to the Helmut/Lucrecia shippers.

Wait... If Aperception is a filter mechanism and we never see the REAL reality, how can we actually ever see things/people unfiltered? Is there even a way?

Everything can be measured theoretically, it's about whether we have the tools necessary to effectively measure them. I personally very much subscribe to the thought that humans don't have some supernatural component to them, we're creatures in the physical world, so we are dictated by the rules of the physical world. Humans aren't truly all that different than any other system. The collective unconscious is an external stimuli in a way, as we are created physically by our parent's bodies, and the archetypes are embedded inside us as part of this system, they are instincts just the same, but broader strokes of instinct of how those more specific instincts best interact on average historically. Humans do not need a ghost to function in ways we do not yet understand, and assuming there needs to be randomness to have a more complex process behind our decisions we don't yet understand, is a blind assertion that rejects the scientific method entirely Humans in-theory, can be engineered to behave certain ways, whether we should or not is another question, and why this process works or not is also a thing, but we do have evidence of this being factual, with you even explaining one such example of someone doing just that, engineering a behavior

There it is. :) Can’t wait for the next one next year.

Looking forward to Bob's video, Bob's Bottles is my favourite level and I'm looking forward to you talking about Bob and Helmut's relationship

This gives more weight when thinking that the enablers in bobs mind aren't just the enabling from his co-workers, but represents his own alcohol habits hindering his ability to work, thus creating these enablers.

FINALLY I CAN SEE THIS also WHAT THE HELL SOME PEOPLE GET IT 2 DAYS EARLY!?!? NOT FARE lol either way as always very informative Dean a good listen while i eat my breakfast (So....whos next?)

I missed a lot of things while playing this for the first time, most notably the symbolism of enablers being introduced here.

Long video, but a very good one.

Thoughtbubble’s video for Bob’s bottles showed in the suggestions under this and for a sec I thought they were posted out of order

keep it up! love these

Now I finally understand what the term echo chamber means

Because of the persona series whenever i hear shadow or persona i automatically think of the games

The Shadow. I have an original character I created named Shadow Zero. He is one of a group of 9 individuals called The Wielders of the Staves of the Multiverses, or just simply, The Wielders. Shadow Zero is the Wielder of the Staff of Villainy, Wickedness, and Destruction. He serves as the influencer of every villain. He takes on many forms, some physical, some psychological, and some Spiritual. His true form is in his very name. He is a Spirit of Shadow, a being that shows no morality of any kind, and his soul purpose is to consume the Multiverses in Darkness, all in service to the True Enemy, The Devil/Satin. Shadow Zero has many names. The races of Zepho Universum call him Zod Illkilmord, the Haysean Races call him Monkilador, and the Zarvanian Races call him GothDum. But no matter how he is named, he is The Shadow of the Multiverses, the ever present darkness that seeks to rule everything in complete and utter totally & death. Illuminar Solaristar, or Luminar Solaris, is the Arch Enemy of Shadow Zero. He takes on a more human like form, but is a beacon of hope for lost people. He states that his power comes from The Lord, the God who gave him and most of the other Wielders their staves and powers. Luminar Solaris is the wielder of the Multiversal staff of Heroism & Purity. He and Shadow Zero are in constant strife against one another as while Shadow Zero seeks to dominate everything in Darkness, Luminar wants to quell the evil and darkness once and for all (and one day, that will happen). For now, however, there is still war across the Multiverses as war is waged on all plains from the Physical, to the Psychological, to the Spiritual, and to the Unnatural and Mystical.

What I want to know is; does the Assistant Librarian represent anything, or did someone at Double Fine just want to put a cute mouse in a Victorian dress? Hm. I suppose that would still represent something...

Since you’re mentioning personas, when you’re done with Psyconauts, how about a series on the Persona games? Specifically 4 and 5.

Since you’re only 2 to 3 videos from fatherland Follies a few things about that mind the first the crew has stated that they were going for a Peter pan syndrome I don’t know if that’s a real thing or not maybe you can discuss the second. I think the first two parts the mind deal with nostalgia. The first part is making something seem better that may have actually been the dialogue in the first part makes it clear that’s what’s going on. It’s all about how great his homeland is under the rule of his family and how much his family was love and on the fridge brilliant part of TV tropes. Called this part a Potemkin façade, how distorted his view of his homeland is basically what that means just when something is made to look better than really is basically constructing villages that are meant to impress people more than anything. More personal example is when you buy an expensive hat when you had a lot of money and when you’re no longer prosperous, you keep the hat looking nice to show that you haven’t come down the world gets to the end and confronts Nick when Ras points out that the country wasn’t great. Nick says we were great because he had a cotton candy maker in his bedroom and When Raz points out, people hated his family Nick points out if that was true why did they always unanimously for them in every election The second part shows aftermath of losing that thing nostalgic for, and things are worse off when really they may not be as bad his family going through dangerous environments when really they were living in a luxury hotel Raz even points out when talking to a I think part of Nick razz even points out that doesn’t too bad and Nick misses this and the last thing I think the reason Nick plan seems kind of rushed is because technically it is. It’s clear that his plan was just to use ford to find Lucy, the fact that Lucy showed up where he was with something he didn’t plan for, but he was so excited that he didn’t actually plan to do to change his plan and decide to accept return dealing with stuff

Cassie is just like me!