Presentation Schedule
Interactive Catharsis: PTSD, Survivor’s Guilt, and Coping Mechanisms (103016)
Session Chair: Stephanie Meyers
This presentation will be live-streamed via Zoom (Online Access)
Wednesday, 7 January 2026 15:20
Session: Session 2 (Parallel)
Room: Live-Stream Room 4
Presentation Type: Live-Stream Presentation
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Video games may not be obviously linked to processing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet they offer unique opportunities to address traumatic experiences in a safe, cathartic environment within an interactive contemporary digital culture. This paper focuses on two Life is Strange games: True Colors (2021) and Double Exposure (2023), examining how computer games navigate and represent individual trauma, particularly PTSD, survivor’s guilt, and the long-term effects of unresolved emotional wounds. True Colors centers on Alex Chen, whose empathic abilities allow her to literally see and experience other people’s trauma and relive moments of heightened emotions. Drawing on aspects of her diagnosed PTSD, she is able to use this power to stay safe. Double Exposure explores how Max Caufield’s undiagnosed PTSD causes her to alienate herself and then develop coping mechanisms by using photographic skills rooted in her trauma. The protagonists’ PTSD eventually manifests as their coping mechanism, which is revealed to the audience after they witness the violent death of a loved one. The player takes on the role of Alex or Max as they futilely try to change the present or past respectively. The narratives show that trying to reframe or change the past to undo trauma has the same deleterious effect as the trauma itself. Yet by utilizing a version of Foot’s ‘trolly problem’, these video games act as a form of catharsis, demonstrating that the work of recovery is not to undo trauma but to have agency in gaining a new perspective on what has happened.
Authors:
Doan Morgan Vassaf, The Gregg School, United Kingdom
About the Presenter(s)
Doan Morgan Vassaf is the Lead Teacher for GCSE Media Studies at The Gregg School in Southampton, UK
See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule
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