The Psychology of Traumatic Loss in The Last of Us - Therapist Reacts! 

I find it so fascinating and cool that The Last of Us is about finding our humanity again after trauma and The Walking Dead is about holding onto our humanity through trauma.

My son sat by my side as we played this game years ago. Having lost him in 2021 and as our only child what you said is a spot on representation of the grieving process for bereaved parents. I now see many parallels between myself, my wife and the grief process Joel is experiencing in the game. Very powerful game, emotionally. Thank you for the breakdown and know that you were not the only one in tears durring the explanation.

It's always so endearing when Georgia gets all upset talking about this stuff. And I don't blame her! The first time Joel called Ellie "baby girl" (when he was rescuing her from the cannibals) it hit me like a freight train. He was so wounded, so absolutely closed off, and this kid got past all that and thawed his heart.

Georgia, you never have to apologize for getting emotional when speaking on such topics as grief, loss, trauma, and healing. It is proof of what an amazing therapist you are because of how empathetic you are as a person. This is what makes your channel special and I am so happy to have found it

I can’t wait for the eventual video for the end of part II. Joel threw away the world to rescue Ellie because he loved her more than the world. That’s why he desperately tried to hand her off. Ellie resents Joel for what he did but when she begged him not to leave her with Tommy, that’s was it, he would never leave her even if it meant dooming the world. Ellie doesn’t fully understand this until it’s too late. No one else in that entire world loved her unconditionally like Joel.

You don't need to apologize for getting emotional, especially considering the subject matter. I like how you use various media as an example to explain different psychological concepts. I also appreciate the cosplay. It demonstrates the effort that you put into your videos.

I love the "cognitive dissonance" that Joel is going through while being with Ellie. He's pretty much battling two life lessons at the same time: 1. Only the cold blooded survive 2. What's the point of living without family? The 2nd life lessons prevails via Joel kidnapping Ellie during the hospital scene.

I've played The Last of Us at least 4 times and balled my eyes out every time. Every. Single. Time. Thank you for making this one 🙂

I know for a fact I'm getting older, that scene between them in the house hits harder now to that the point that I tear up as opposed to when I first played it as a young adult.

Georgia...I KNEW the tears would come. Your heart is as big as the great outdoors.Don't apologize. Yes, LOVE does not throw someone else under the bus to save itself from it's pain or potential pain. That's being afraid. Its being a coward. Joel was saying that he'd rather that Ellie have the pain of abandonment as long as HE minimizes his own pain BY abandoning her. LOVE takes pain head on to lessen the pain of someone they love. If it was LOVE...Joel would NOT WANT Ellie to feel the pain of abandonment, and would face EVERY harm to ensure that she would not have to. Glad he pulled his head out of his orifice. Also, I am one who is truly GRATEFUL for the people in my life even when I have lost them. And I rejoice and celebrate their memories.

"we see the world through the facets of what hurts us" went deep for me

U need to do another one for the last of us 2. I cried a lot! There's so much pain in how Ellie deals with the things happening in her life.

It’s really touching to see how moved you are, the relationship between Joel and Ellie is so touching and emotional and it’s shocking to remember it was created for a game

I'm not a gamer but have enjoyed watching the cut scenes like a movie. Can't wait for your reaction to the TV show... lots of character development there

That was such an intimate scene, just loaded with so many emotions. When ellie dropped the Sarah bomb, it just felt like I was not supposed to be there, even if I was some kind of ghost observing that I would just look around all uncomfortable and be like "wow this wall is so good at being a wall."

Ellie said it best. Anyone I have ever loved or cared about has either died or left me!! That is my life story. I refuse to get close to anyone. I live a very lonely life. The thought of that pain again is to much and I can't trust anyone that it won't happen again. After my whole family died and wife divorced me shortly after I can't deal with it. My kids are the only ones I talk and even as their father I have a hard time talking and being with them and it breaks my heart. Let alone when your ex wife and kids move into another mans home the idea that you are still their dad doesn't quite feel the same. I am forever alone.

I love Joel so much, he reminds me of my father. I love the original The Last of Us, hate part II. The original will always have a place in my heart.

My favorite scene in the entire game is early, while they are still with Tess. As they are planking from building to building Ellie does something snarky as she passes Joel, who looks down at his watch. To me, it was at this point when he started to see Sarah in Ellie and started this full journey for them both.

Don’t apologize for showing emotion, it really shows how empathetic you are

As a psychology student (I start my first psychology class next term) And also a gamer and last of us is one of my favorite games (I was even gonna take this kinda dive into it when I started learning more) I can't put into words how much I love this

I did not expect to cry today but hearing your breakdown of this had me in tears. Thank you.

I have appreciation and wonder when your emotions sometimes take the best of you and present itself. It shows how well in-tuned you are with your gifts in providing explanation and clarity by embodying the very person that your focused on.

My spouse and I are totally different when dealing with loss as Georgia notes - they want all the mementos, the reminders, the (my words) almost “wallowing” in it like a bath, and that helps them. I hate reminders, and only pull out reminders later after I’ve had time to deal with the loss, usually much later. It can sometimes be hard to satisfy my spouse’s needs while I’m trying to do the opposite to deal with mine.

Thank you so much for this video!

Damn this game... I cry every single time when I see the beginning. And just now I cried again watching your explanation of what's going on. Thank you though. It can be really hard for me to understand other people's actions/words, so you going through these scenes and explaining what they mean in context, all these subtle nuances in what they say and how they act, is really helpful :)

I'm so happy (and emotional) with this video. Great one

Great video. Definitely cover part 2 next. That is even deeper psychologically to me and deals with so much.

Coping with loss, especially shared loss, is a very strange ordeal. After we lost our dachshund of 14 years to congestive heart failure, my wife could not look at photos or videos of her for nearly two years without breaking down immediately. We were not able to have children of our own so we’ve poured all of that love into our pets. Sally was the first pet that we have lost, it was pretty traumatic for both of us. I found great comfort in those memories we captured of her, while it ripped open those wounds again for my wife for along time. Now, four years later, we both enjoy looking at her photos and videos together. Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry, but we can share those moments together now.

Your videos are absolutely incredible, Thank you!

I love your video's! Even though you're not my therapist I tend to get insight on my own issues watching so thank you!

Even me who played the game over idk how many times since it came out. I never noticed the head shaking of him making up his mind. Like always I love watching your videos and learning.

I love how you tried not to cry through the entire video but you still drop some tears like all of us that played and cried our souls out on this game. Beautiful analysis!

I would love one of this breaking down his decision at the end of TLOU1! Keep up the great work and happy new year!

Love the detail of the shirt, and it’s definitely an emotional game when you have a hard time taking about it and getting caught up in the emotions

I'm glad that I've found your channel through Arcane, as I've always been interested in human psychology, and these videos have given a lot of insight, which I'm very grateful for. I also happen to be a gamer myself, and while I may not have played The Last of Us, I still really like the analyses you make about its characters, and I think it's neat that you aren't limiting your videos to just shows and movies (I could see books giving some great material too, especially because you can use their audio versions for these videos). And if you want recommendations, I'd say that the iterators of Rain World, and Arthas' descent into madness in Warcraft 3 would make for some really good Therapist Reacts material. Though I'll warn you that the former's lore is somewhat hidden (though the game's community is very friendly, and would likely have no problems providing footage), and most of it is about world building and philosophy, rather than characters, but I still think there's a lot of interesting things about the psychology of those supercomputers.

Underrated cinematics and the part of her that he never gets rid of is the watch. During the horse scene I believe before he tells Ellie to give the horse back to Tommy and come along with him he takes a look at that watch before saying so, I believe. It's those little scenes within the scene that shows a lot about what's going on in the mind and emotions.

God this analogy on this game hits me right in the heart all over again. Loved this vid

this is my favourite game of all time!! thank you so much for making a video on it! really made me so happy to see the notification

I love your genuine emotions.

I played this game after having some extreme emotional turmoil and I found myself really attached to Joel when playing because I felt like Ellie and I didn't realise it at the time. Its only now in reflection that because of my own struggles with communication and finding it hard to see a father's love that I really attached myself to Joel in these moments you've shown here where he felt like that ideal father to me even as awful and horrible of a man he is in the overall narrative of the Last of Us games. He still manages to find a way to care and love Ellie which makes his story in the last of us 2 even more heart wrenching and hard to watch.

Oh man if you're able to put out a video that teases out why certain folks grief and anger from Joel's death in part 2 gets misdirected from the in game narrative into the real world... well tbh that'd probably get you death threats :(

Beautiful analysis

Thanks for sharing. Blessings on your day!

Wow thank so for your analysis and attention to detail! Such a powerful story.

God Georgia Dow. It's been years that I played this game and I thought that I was over these scenes but hearing your analysis on these scenes got me choked up again. Very impactful in every sense of the word.

I really appreciate you showing your emotions through this video. This game is the only one that can make me teary eyed just thinking about the parallels this game gives us.

These videos are everything I need now. Thanks Dr. Dow!

I was just as emotional during your video don’t feel bad you wanted to cry throughout. It’s overwhelming to think of these difficult feelings and having empathy for that. ❤

Last year I lost my partner I am still grieving heavily, this video helped me a lot with processing my feelings about jt thank you for making this.

I’m currently playing Part 2, and I realised that you got it so right when talking about Ellie.

I can relate very much to the throwing away of momentos. After losing my father and sister I fell into a deep depression for about three years, and when I I lost my home because of covid I didn't even try to keep all the old pictures and memories that I had a treasure trove of. I let them be carted off to the dump. It was a shameful decision, and there is no taking it back.

Omg she's finally reacting again to the last of us. It's one of the most incredibly emotional games. The depth of these characters, their pain and loss, the relationship between Ellie and Joel and the way these characters act and form relationships in this post-apocalyptic world. I've been wanting her to talk about this game more because there is so much to unpack.

Thank you for giving us breakdowns on all our favorite characters!

Loved your insight about "girl" vs "little girl" and found your emotional reaction to these moments very touching. Thank you for brightening my day.

3:48 i have to applaud you for having such compassion, it's a heck of a weight to carry sometimes.

That Ms. is choked up by the emotions of The Last of Us speaks well of the game's story, the actors who brought it to life, and Ms. Gow's own humanity. Thanks for a great video!

This game was so powerful, everyone who plays it/watches it cant help but get emotional. My favorite part was when you get the M4 and start poppin fireflys

My favorite game of all time love these videos, thanks for making my day

I would love your thoughts on this. Given your psychology background. Even though it's incredibly understandable because he doesn't want to lose another daughter ultimately Joel is a selfish character. He gives up being able to save humanity to not cause himself pain. He stops Ellie from doing what she wanted to do which was give her life purpose because he didn't want to feel the pain of losing another daughter. It's incredibly understandable why he would feel that way. But ultimately incredibly selfish he didn't care about what was best for others or what Ellie herself would have wanted. That however is exactly what makes him such a great character because the ultimate question is how far are you willing to go to survive and what are you willing to sacrifice in order to protect those you love.

Yay new video!!!

I know that your goal wasn't to cry in this video, but honestly to me the fact that you were so emotional in and invested in what you were talking about you actually encouraged me 2 subscribe to your channel because it really moved me the fact that you really cared this much about the content you're talking about

I have to say that death of Sarah in part 1 was so so so so soul crushing… it took me a week to come back to the game.

I absolutely love that you are dressed as Ellie. I cried, too.

This is one of my favorite games. The journey Joel goes through is great. I can’t wait for the show to come out in a few weeks. Love this analysis.

I love that you get emotional, it shows you're human and is my reason for subscribing to your channel. Keep being you, you amazing person.

Girl your video made me cry several times

I love to see the therapist cry.. Its a beautiful thing

Don't be sorry ! Your emotional analysis of these great characters was fantastic & brave. So bravo & thank you 👏🏾

Ugh you tearing up is making me do it. This story effected me the same way, especially seeing so much of my dad in Joel.

I loved watching this and your insight into the different ways people deal with loss, and the self-protective measures Joel takes so he doesn't have to experience loss again, at the cost of being happy and finding someone he can love and care for, because he's afraid he can't protect them. The world he lives in is brutal and scary and is especially dangerous for a child and he doesn't want that responsibility for fear that he will fail in protecting Ellie and have that on his conscience, too, and it makes his decision at the end of the game make sense, as horrific as it was and there's definitely been plenty of debate about the morality of his actions among fans! With the upcoming TLOU TV series, I have a suggestion that would be very interesting for you to examine the psychology of--a movie called Prospect that came out in 2018. The three main characters are multi-faceted and complex, and a lot of their words and actions require the audience to read between the lines. The main characters in the movie, Ezra and Cee, have actually been compared to Joel and Ellie. And coincidentally, Pedro Pascal plays both Ezra in Prospect and Joel in TLOU's TV adaptation, which I think makes analyzing and comparing the two characters all the more interesting!

I am so happy you went over The Last Of Us. This is one of my favorite games and Joel is my favorite video game character ever. I am so happy, thank you so much!

The way everyone deals with loss is for sure different. I still have a box of my mom's belongings I haven't looked through since the year she died. Been meaning to, but that's still a pretty hard thing to do.

I'm the type who gets rid of things. I wish I had waited to purge things after various passings, but even though I know I should not be this way, I still can't be around pictures or things tied to memories of some people. Great video as always.

I remember when I was in the 5th grade and my teacher died, while I was trying to move on, my mother kept trying to "comfort" me by trying to talk me about it. I kept begging her to stop because it would just make me feel worse, not better. Some people want to comforted, I'm the kind of person that would want to be left alone and have some time to myself

Giiiiirl you got me cryin' in the AM!

It’s a great story that’s in such a gritty painful world, it makes me wonder how different or similar this story might have turned out if Joel knew from the get go what it was he’s truly taking Ellie to

Awwwww... Thanks for making that video. I cried a bit watching it.

Thank you for making me sobbing with you, this is my favorite sequence in part 1…❤

I cannot wait til you cover TLOU Part 2. My all time favorite game. It’s even more emotionally impactful than Part 1 if you can believe it.

I appreciate the emotion you put into these videos...and I'm super stoked about the upcoming Last of Us show. Huge shoes to fill to do this masterpiece correctly.

When watching the beginning's of this video and talked about how some people purge everything after a loss I thought of character Caroline Forbes. In the Vampire Diaries show the character Caroline avoids mourning the loss of mother by purging nearly everything of mother's and shutting down emotionally.. She realizes later what she did with great regret. When my family went through the loss of my father last year we did get rid of things but we held on to what things mattered. Obviously Joel's case is different. That one picture is probably one of the last images of Sarah. I'm glad Joel in the game eventually accepted the picture of Sarah, her picture deserves to be cherished.

Good lord, I adore this series. I love the setting, the voice talent, the gameplay, and the amazing writing… Neil Druckmann and Hailey Gross pulled off such an amazing feat in interactive storytelling, and that the series became so beloved also means the world to me. I followed the games production because I adored the Uncharted games (my son was named Drake 😂) I lost my parents when I was a teenager, this game’s story devastated me but I’ve played through it several times since, even got my teenaged stepdaughter obsessed with it (I gushed to her about the game and chosen family) Your empathy is endearing as hell, listening to you made me a) cry because you were crying and b) need to play the games again!! And I’ll say that I equally love Part II, Abby and Lev’s journey mirroring Joel and Ellie’s… the game is painful empathy detector but fantastic storytelling

Dmnn gorgia,,, you made me cry again :( ..i really love this game 😔

I truly wish there was more to that last moment of the last of us at the power plant cause it made me cry and was really great but felt like it went by a little too fast and the reconciliation wasn't all there

this is one of my all time favorite games, this one and TWDG both got me soooo hard in my feelings and the story is so well told!! hopefully you can cover TWDG too!!! (:

IVE BEEN EXCITED FOR MORE TLOU EPISODES!!

Your emotions do you credit. Watched this over on Nebula first but was drawn back in. I have my own issues with sublimated traumas, so I felt this one deeply. Please stop apologising for your feelings. And thank you for not reshooting but, rather, keeping your authentic responses in the video for us all to see. A powerful thing to do, by a person with widespread influence, normalising such feelings and, more importantly, making them okay for others to feel permitted to show. The only problem is that, by apologising, are you saying it’s not okay to show these feelings? Or is that simply a reference to the fact that you are being, “unprofessional,” in the context of a published video? If it’s the latter, then the fact that you decided to, “publish and be damned,” was courageous and I admire it. But I do hope you could speak to that, rather than leaving younger, impressionable people to think that it’s not okay to show depth of pain to others and that we should apologise for such demonstrations if we do? I feel sure you wouldn’t want to communicate that?

Immediate subbed. Thank u

your breakdown of Joel's grief in-game is impeccable! I wonder, have you or does it interest you to do a breakdown on Tommy in Part: II?

OMG I love your Ellie outfit. This is amazing.

Wow! I hope you'll react to Part 2 some time in the future

all of this video explains the build up to the one moment that was flood gates to my eyeballs. The moment joel finds and saves ellie in the burning restaurant after the fight with Nolan norths character. joels refers to her as baby girl or something like that and in that moment you realize the connection has been made and there is really no turning back from there. powerful stuff and frankly the first game being as good as it is in the build up is why I love the sequel to damn much.

Randomly found ur video. My first time seeing one of ur vids. This was a lovely video.

It took a year to clean out my sons room after he passed and now I have a closet full of boxes I am not strong enough to go through.

My goodness Georgia Dow is just so good at explaining what painful things the characters are going through so meticulously and clear. What they are Feeling emotionally, and how the express it verbally, but what they are really hiding... Georgia you're the best. Really!!

Maybe it don't matter but I appreciate the passion you clearly have and the way you fight how strong the story rises your emotion. Strong and informative. Thanks

Loved this video! I watch a lot of playthroughs, and people are usually confused as to why Joel would want to hand Ellie off to Tommy. I think as the player, people kind of project onto Joel and expect him to do what they want him to do, but they forget that he is a deeply traumatized man. His actions make a lot of sense given the trauma he's dealing with.

Absolutely love the content. Been watching for months and was overjoyed that you decided to do TLOU. I think doing analysis on the 2nd game would be a great continuation!!

Love that you have the exact top. Amazing cosplay as always.

PLEASE cover Part 2!