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Unveiling the “Persona” Behind Persona 5 — How is it inspired by Jungian Psychology?
The Persona series captured my attention from the very beginning. It explores Jungian Psychology through its world-building, game mechanisms and writing so thoroughly, that it’d be hard not to catch it when you first hear the protagonist yell “PERSONA!”.
Today, I’d like to dive into how Persona 5 is built on a single concept of Jungian Psychology — the “Persona”. I thought it’d be a good opening for a potential series exploring other Jungian concepts within the game, and exploring the core of the franchise would be a great start.
A Slight Dive into Jung’s Concepts
Carl Jung was a Swiss Psychiatrist probably most known for his theories of Individuation — how individuals come to differentiate themselves from one another. In particular, his research formulates the idea that the human psyche comprises three things: the ego, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious.
What we will hone in on today is the collective unconscious, which broadly means that we all have some common innate characteristics that we are unconscious of. Within this framework, one influential concept that profoundly shapes our behaviour, often without conscious awareness, is known as the “Persona.”
