A Psychological Analysis of Fran Bow

topic of mental illness from its diagnosis to approaches to treatment has not been very positive throughout history it's not been until the recent past couple of decades that Society has started to scratch the surface of attempting to understand these different illnesses spectrums and even the usage of certain terminology to describe what a person may be struggling with in somewhat of an ethical manner such complex topics are explored in the 2015 psychological horror Adventure game Fran bow which is the game I'll be covering for this video published by kill Monday games the game follows the story of Fran a young girl who witnesses the brutal murder of her parents and is sent to a mental institution for youth determined to find her missing cat and uncover the truth about her parents death for an embarks on a dark and surreal Journey filled with psychological twists and turns through her eyes the boundaries between fiction and reality become increasingly hazy leaving you captivated by the ever blurring line as Fran continues to Grapple with her mental disorder this video will contain spoilers so if you haven't watched the gameplay yet be sure to check it out on my channel and if you enjoy this content remember to like comment and subscribe for more so sit back get cozy and join me as we explore Fran Bow's psychological horror at midnight let me provide a summary of the game before I dive into the analysis this game is divided into five chapters with chapters two and four having two parts each kind of like a dreaded math exam in the prologue we're introduced to the titular character who gives some backstory on how happy go lucky her life was with her loving parents her aunt's Grace and a trusty black cat named Mr midnight until one day something absolutely horrific happens she walks in on her parents who were brutally slaughtered hinting that it was the work of an evil force who also briefly peaked at Fran and her cat through a window just moments prior they both make a beeline out of the house and into the woods where Fran eventually collapses and totally blacks out from the shock of it all a couple of mysterious individuals find her and the screen Fades to Black before we see Fran Awakening in Oswald Asylum where she now apparently resides the Asylum psychiatrist named Dr dear and gives Fran some new medicine called duotine which gives her a severe psychotic episode causing her to faint have a mysterious dream about the evil monster and her cat begging her to take more medicine and then awaken in her bedroom which marks the beginning of chapter one Fran knows that she doesn't want to be at the Asylum anymore especially since her cat is no longer with her so she tries to find a way out as she explores more she once again obtains a Duo teen which when consuming it sends her into a state where she sees the other world which is an unsettling and disturbing alternate reality Fran must switch between reality and this Eerie realm to solve puzzles and uncover Hidden Truths about other characters like the other Asylum children but now armed with this new ability she finally manages to escape the Asylum and after navigating a monster-filled labyrinth finds herself in the dark and scary woods which is where chapter 2 starts the line between illusion and reality blurs drastically as the protagonist encounters giant talking insects and ghost heads tied to a key bearing tree in chapter 2. after jumping into a magical tree trunk Fran awakens in a house inhabited by surgically conjoined twins who are holding Mr midnight captive the twins Mia and Clara agreed to release him on the condition that Fran performs a specific ritual to separate them I guess she is instead instructed by a talking toe to purposely perform a faulty ritual because the twins are evil and also holding him captive so when she does that the twins disintegrate allowing Fran to free her beloved feline and escape the house with said toad in the woods the protagonist and her cat face an attack from the same evil monster from chapter 1 leading to a blackout and Awakening in a strange reality where Fran is a talking tree embarking on chapter 3 in a floating land in the Ethereal town of Bethesda Fran encounters a captivating array of inhabitants her journey starts with an audience from the King who informs her that she must seek out the great wizard so he can return her to her world along the way she meets palantras a doctor of assembling an axolotl Abba who utilizes a miraculous pink water capable of curing anything under palantras's care Fran undergoes a transformation from a tree to a more human-like tree with arms and legs with Newfound abilities Fran explores the landscape engaging with mechanics that allow her to manipulate seasons and time contributing to the puzzles she must solve as Fran traverses this mystical land she experiences unsettling hallucinations while collecting the items required by the great wizard to facilitate her journey back home eventually she gains access to a door that seemingly leads her back to her world however an intense Chase ensues with a troll monster in a dimension between Dimensions eventually culminating in her successful return to her own reality thus Begins the start of chapter 4. in her own world once again again Fran finds herself encountering Supernatural entities even without the use of the duotine drug which conveniently reappears in her position but let's be honest she's been seeing some strange occurrences without the pills even before this point it is here that she formally meets its word this distinguished skeleton man who offers to take her back home using his flying machine saying I don't even know what it is to Aid itward in repairing the contraption Fran utilizes her duotine ability to gather the needed items once in the air it word reminisces about their childhood acting as Fran's imaginary friend even though he insists that he was always real he delves into the existence of multiple realities that Fran has experienced shedding light on the malevolent intent of the shadowy figures known as the kamalas who have relentlessly pursued her throughout the game but during their flight home Kamala attacks the ship prompting Fran to use water to defeat it successfully how however after the attack itward reveals to Fran that she cannot return home as the screen Fades to Black Fran reflects on her history with Edward before Awakening near her home with joy but with itward mysteriously absent she encounters Dr diren her former psychiatrist from the Asylum who urges her to accompany him to the cemetery revealing Sinister occurrences at Oswald Asylum driven by suspicions of illegal experimentation on the children he seeks evidence from the graves of Fran's family to uncover the truth behind a falsified account of her death published by the Asylum despite Fran's attempts to explain her experiences with multiple realities and her dual teen induced abilities Dr diren dismisses them as mere imagination which I don't know how he can dismiss it when she accurately recounts his childhood with his abusive father but that's a skeptic for you so upon reaching the cemetery and Digging Up the Bodies their efforts are futile so Dr Dion agrees to take Fran home but their plans are are interrupted by remor the very monster who has been chasing her throughout the game captured by remor in a brief cutscene the final chapter of Fran bow begins in chapter 5 Fran awakens and yet another Twisted reality bound to a bed and confronted with the shocking Revelation that her own aunts Harbors hatred towards her determined to break free from these chains Fran Ventures into another reality seeking assistance from her past self to unlock her restraints she traverses this distorted environment reminiscent of her own home and the Asylum and her goal is to eventually meet mother mabuka who apparently holds the key to unraveling the truth about her existence after solving different puzzles she finally enters the doctor's office here she encounters Remora who then reveals to Fran that she was actually the one who brutally murdered her parents deeply Disturbed she Ventures further into another room and discovers Dr diren unconscious and tied up in an electric chair desperate to revive him Fran injects him with a vial containing red liquid hoping to reawaken him from his unconscious State because that's what you do to wake someone up you just stab them with a needle and you don't even know what's inside right to her surprise Fran is confronted by Dr Oswald Harrison the founder of the Asylum and her aunt who are both indeed performing human experimentation they revealed their involvement in using Fran as a subject for testing the effects of the Dual teen drug on the human mind in a whirlwind of events Fran attempts to strangle her on after she kills Mr midnight but is interrupted by Oswald's gunshot they are both then tossed aside as palantrous and Edward come to her rescue palanchos revives Fran and she is then whisked away to happiness the end that was a confusing Whirlwind wasn't it be sure to hit that subscribe button now that I've blown through the summary of this game let's take a step back and walk through some of these psychological themes presented to understand what's going on in Fran bow it's important to discuss the real life history of how mental illnesses were treated throughout time mental illness has historically been misunderstood and stigmatized often leading to harsh and inhumane practices from ancient times to the Medieval Era and even today in some cultures individuals with mental disorders were viewed as either possessed by evil spirits or punished by some higher power this misguided belief system led to torture and confinement in dungeons or asylums where they were subjected to neglect and abuse now this game does not explicitly state which country Fran is residing in some say she might be in Sweden because the development team is from there others say could take place in Germany because of the twin experimentation similar to how the Nazis performed extensive research on them which also included attempts to surgically join them and lastly there are some who say it could take place in England because there's a reference to Alice in Wonderland in the game and that story takes place in England I'll throw in a random take and say that the game could also take place in the US because the conjoined twins in the game look eerily similar to another set of twins but in the end we don't know so let's just say Europe the game does tell the player that it takes place in the 1940s this decade witnessed a surge in the construction of Mental Hospitals intended to provide treatment and care for individuals with mental disorders however many of these institutions fell short of their intended purpose because of limited resources overcrowding and insufficient staff so they became places of neglect and mistreatment focused on confinement rather than genuine therapeutic interventions these hospitals used a variety of controversial forms of treatment including electroconvulsive therapy or ects lobotomies and prescribing psychoactive medicine procedures were often administered without fully informed consent and resulted in significant physical and psychological harm to patients it's certainly inhumane and since these practices were still in development there really wasn't a lot of Regulation or understanding back then I mean at the time lobotomy itself was invented just a decade prior and the Nuremberg code which is a set of ethical regulations to follow when performing human experimentation wasn't created until the late 1940s the treatment of mental illness in children has been particularly disturbing as many were subjected to cruel treatments including physical restraints isolation and even invasive procedures you can see this reflected in the game if Fran takes the time to talk to the other children in the Asylum sometimes Fran can read the backstories in the medical charts but while under the influence of dual teen she can see the evil kamalas highlighting the immense trauma the children are facing sexual abuse neglect mistreatment France sees it all and yet the supposed solution is to keep these children locked up in isolation for experimentation but even the act of locking these children up in this kind of environment has detrimental psychological effects on its own in a study conducted in 1951 at McGill University Dr Donald Hebb examined the impact of sensory deprivation on individuals the study involved male University students who were paid to participate in a simulated solitary confinement experiment lasting six weeks however the majority of participants dropped out after just a few days and none were able to endure the full duration of the experiment Dr hebb's study revealed that prolonged exposure to a monotonous environment had detrimental effects on the participants their cognitive abilities were impaired they exhibited childlike emotional responses their visual perception was disrupted they experienced hallucinations and there were changes in their brain wave patterns even the Central Intelligence Agency studied solitary confinement as a torture mechanism and as a result published the kubark counter-intelligence interrogation in 1963 which many dub as the torture manuals an excerpt from the manual details The observed effects of solitary confinement in a four-step process number one the deprivation of sensory stimuli induces stress number two distress becomes unbearable for most subjects number three the subject has a growing need for physical and social stimuli and number four some subjects progressively lose touch with reality focus inwardly and produce delusions hallucinations and other pathological effects with the subjects that Oswald Asylum being children who already suffer from numerous traumas the conditions in which they're placed in only add to their suffering and this also goes for the main character the 1940s also marked a period when the study of twins gained significant attention within the field of research one of the most notorious figures associated with this area was Joseph Mengele Joseph I'm sorry a Nazi physician whose unethical experiments on twins at Auschwitz during World War II have left in an indelible Mark in history his Pursuits were driven by his focus on genetics as he served as an assistant to Dr otsmar Von Berger something a prominent figure in the field keep in mind that these experiments primarily targeted young twin children which can serve as a disturbing parallel to this character in the game Dr Oswald Harrison the enigmatic founder of the asylum in Fran bow initially fixated on the study of twins his unethical Pursuits led him to attempt the disturbing Act of surgically conjoining them driven by a Relentless curiosity about their intertwined DNA tragically these ill-fated twins met their demise with their lives carelessly discarded Dr Oswald's Focus eventually shifted to exploring the intricacies of the human brain and conducting experiments to test the efficacy of psychoactive drugs it is within this Twisted narrative that franbo's Origins come to light with her mother and Aunt Grace themselves twins potentially entangled in a dark past with the doctor to subject Fran to this experimentation the theories diverged from here so I'll try and provide a summary one popular theory proposes that Fran was raised in a nurturing environment with her parents and Aunt Grace playing significant roles in her life it is believed that her parents having second thoughts about the experiment orchestrated by Dr Oswald chose a different path instead and gifted her now beloved cat Mr midnight this act of defiance against Oswald's intentions may have disrupted the experiment's desired outcome so in response aunt Grace harboring her own motivations covertly spiked Fran's drink with a potent dose of Duo team triggering a severe psychotic episode that tragically resulted in her murdering her parents how she could have possessed the strength to dismember them I don't know but confused and traumatized Fran fled from the scene eventually collapsing in the forest and subsequently being admitted to the Assad while the introductory scenes lend some Credence to this Theory there's another interesting one to note an alternative Theory suggests that Fran was actually born and raised within the confines of the Asylum itself with all the memories and encounters involving her parents existing solely as Vivid hallucinations induced by the Relentless experimentation this Theory gains traction particularly from a specific scene in chapter 5 where a 10 year old friend engages in conversation with a younger version of herself held captive within the asylum's walls while both fairies are speculative it is still tragic to see the Blurred boundaries between reality and illusion with Fran I also want to highlight another significant Divergence and theories surrounding the game which is whether any of these events actually happened at all one Theory suggests that all of Fran's experiences were genuine and that the pills she took allowed her to access alternate realities populated by actual beings such as it word palantras kamalas balokas and tree people this would mean that whenever the creature remor would appear and her eyes would bleed it signified Fran falling under the influence of the duotine pills this Theory gains further support when considering the connection between Fran bow and another game called little Misfortune which takes place in the same universe the other aspect that supports this is the fact that Fran knew additional information about people's past without anyone having to tell her like how did she know that the psychiatrist had an abusive father but let's pretend that we didn't know about little Misfortune if we consider Fran bow as a standalone game then the other plausible theory is that everything Fran had witnessed was a figment of her incredibly creative and drug-induced imaginative mind the creative chapter titles such as my sober day curiosity symptoms and double personality vegetative state my imaginary friend and doctor's prescription and the house of Madness reinforced the notion that Fran's mind was greatly influenced by the Dual team pills the theory suggests that as she consumed more of the medication her mental state deteriorated leading to increasingly intense hallucinations the chapter titled vegetative state could imply that she became paralyzed or slipped into a coma experiencing her entire journey through athersta as a hallucination or a dream the Thirsty itself May symbolize Fran's longing for Ascension to a Heavenly realm while still searching for the truth about her circumstances the creatures she comes across could represent trauma and fear or healing and restoration as the story progresses Fran allegedly experiences further side effects and receives additional prescriptions from the doctor unfortunately chapter 5 represents the point of no return symbolizing her ultimate demise with itward and polanchos representing her soul finding peace and ascending to Heaven while this theory is certainly more tragic it aligns more closely with the Grim realities of mental illness in the real world one last tidbit I'd like to mention is that the inspiration for Fran bow stemmed from the personal experience experiences of one of the game's creators as mentioned on the Studio's website it reads Fran bow is based on Natalia's own experiences during her childhood and teenage years and that the project has been a way of letting go of bad memories in life like therapy it is a game that deals with the topic of emotions we build up ideas in our head driven by these emotions and many times if we don't talk about them we will build these terrible walls inside of us and that's kind of what I wanted to portray in this game the amount of Gore portrayed in the game has been questioned but the blood represents something really deep and personal as it refers to Natalya's own experience of self-harm during a podcast interview with it's her game Natalia expressed her intention to authentically portray the theme of trauma within the game her heartfelt goal was to tell a story that resonates with players allowing them to connect with the psychological themes presented her gratitude is evident when she hears from individuals who can relate to the game's themes or whose perspectives have been positively influenced by playing it this highlights the remarkable impact that personal stories can have of and underscores the transformative power of video games as a medium for artistic expression Fran ball is such an impactful game that sheds light on the struggles of a little girl battling severe mental illness while also highlighting the historical mistreatment of such conditions it reminds us of The Limited understanding Society has had regarding mental health and the importance of empathy and support true progress comes from moving away from the notion of the I can fix them mentality and instead offering understanding and space for healing this game serves as a powerful reminder that mental health matters encouraging us to break down barriers and cultivate a more inclusive and compassionate Society while I may not have covered every aspect of the game's lore my intention was to emphasize the psychological themes explored in franbo and connect them to real life historical events if you're intrigued by The Game's story and want to dive deeper into its intricacies I recommend exploring the resources I will provide below these resources offer a comprehensive analysis that will hopefully enhance your understanding and appreciation of the game so I highly encourage you to check them out for more in-depth exploration but anyways I hope you enjoyed this video if there's anything you feel I've missed from a psychological analysis perspective please let me know in the comments below I'm interested to hear your take on the subject otherwise don't forget to like comment and subscribe I'll see you in the next game

Channel: PH at Midnight

Views: 193,123

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Id: ZlGePELEIa8

Length: 22min 4sec (1324 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 27 2023