The Psychology of Haru Okumura (Persona 5 Royal)

hi my name is john and for those of you who aren't familiar i'm working on getting my master's degree in clinical mental health counseling and so today i wanted to take a look at one of the most underappreciated and underrepresented characters in all of brazil five royal and that's haru okumura and why her story within the context of the game is so interesting and unique so if you like this kind of content you want to see more of it coming from this channel make sure to like the video subscribe and why even ringing that notification bell so you never miss another upload and why i'm even sharing this video wherever you like sharing things but with all that out of the way let's just jump into the video now we don't know all too much about what haru was like as she was growing up other than that she always wanted to be just like the superheroes that she watched on tv hoping to someday become a heroine of justice i mean this isn't uncommon for someone of that age to want to emulate what they see on tv and in their personal lives and while her aspirations never went away as she grew into the haru that we meet in persona 5 royal she began over time to accept that this dream was nothing short of an impossibility she grew to let her father and the people around her dictate the direction of her life without so much as a slight protest but how did this happen well i think a good place to start would have to be by looking at her relationship with her father kazu okumura himself i understand i will do the best i can good that's how a daughter of okumura should be i'm sure we've all heard the age-old debate about which is more prevalent in the development of an individual nature versus nurture and if you're not familiar it's essentially the argument surrounding whether the way a person acts is determined by the environment that they're raised in or by their genetic predispositions and to hugely oversimplify this essentially both will have a profound effect on a person's behavior in reality and it's the combination of these two elements that truly determines what a person will be like so the question is how have these factors affected who haru has become and a good place to start is by looking at how she was raised by her father now since we have never heard anything at all about haru's mother and quite frankly are given no information about her within persona 5 royal we're going to operate under the belief that kunikazu was a single father raising haru with the help of the maids that we know are on the premise of the okumura estate as she mentions them in her ninth social link with joker so to determine what kind of dad okumara was i want to look at the four styles of parenting that were determined by diana bomrand which are commonly known as authoritarian authoritative permissive and uninvolved and while all are interesting in their own right to look at today we're only going to be paying attention and talking about what an authoritarian parent looks like because this is the one that kunikazu is the majority shareholder of so tracy trotner of michigan state university characterizes an authoritarian parent as having incredibly strict rules and believes that orders should be followed without question they'll often exert total control over the family with little to no room for give and take they impose punitive punishment if rules are broken and on top of all of this they don't really allow for open communication within the parent-child dynamic we can see this very distinctly in haru and her father's relationship on september 16th in the game while they're having a chat in their home when haru even brings up the slightest question of the existence of the phantom thieves okumara immediately asks if she is still having doubts about him and proceeds to remind her about her arranged marriage to the literal scum of the earth and once she backs down and agrees with him he ends by telling her that's how a daughter of okumura should be essentially what this scene boils down to is that at this moment the only value okumura sees in haru is his ability to sell her off against her will for political gain while arranged marriage is not an uncommon practice in the world we cannot dismiss that this is an authoritarian show of control over haru and the trajectory of her entire life this type of parenting sees kunikazu show little to no warmth or affection towards haru even threatening to revoke her ability to choose where she lives as punishment for staying out late without his permission never taking the time to hear what she has to say or thinking about what's best for her it's honestly really sad to see because we know most explicitly from the third semester that all haru wants is to be close with her father because it's clear that even if he is cold and distant she does still love him so if this is what authoritarian parenting is what does this less than ideal form of nurture do to someone like haru well if we go back to michigan state university we'll see that authoritarian parenting can lead to a lot of potential effects on an individual as they're growing up so it's very possible that this style of parenting had a role to play in haru's shy disposition her difficulty with making her own decisions when we meet her her often poor self-esteem and most notably her will to rebel against authority figures i mean each and every piece of this criteria is represented within the context of the game to some extent but for the sake of not going on and on about the more obvious examples like her shyness and her self-esteem i want to focus on the two that stood out the most to me being her inability to make decisions and her desire to rebel against authority figures so after she and morgana are saved by the phantom thieves from her fiance in the alleyway it's here that she reveals that she didn't question her father's will to force her into a marriage for political gain because the decision was made by an adult with responsibilities so how could it be wrong unfortunately i don't think it's a huge surprise that someone like haru who i would imagine has only ever really been told not to speak unless spoken to and hasn't really had much of an opportunity to make her own decisions up to this point would have the mindset that there's no way that this could be a mistake but as she realizes the gravitas of her situation this is when we see the other consequence of authoritarian parenting and that's her inclination towards rebellion okay haru's awakening of her rebel spirit was honestly something special because i think that it showed us a lot about her character as well as okumar is in this moment she awakens as her fiance is approaching her saying some revolting things and this stood out to me because if this is okumar's cognitive version of her fiance then that means okumarin knows just how much of a scumbag he truly is and is willing to sell haru's hand in marriage to him anyways really exemplifying what in my opinion is the most disturbing part of this palace and as haru awakens she's not only rebelling against her father's authoritarian will but this is the first step towards her being able to move past her old self who would let others make decisions for her even announcing that she will no longer be his subservient puppet it's honestly one of my favorite awakenings in the game for the profound impact that it has on her character moving forward it's this power in this rebellion that permitted her to finally stand up to her father at the climax of this palace leaving him alone in a crumbling space station by saying this only you can follow through on your own responsibilities that is what you've taught me father because even once her father dies and she takes time to grieve over her loss of him in all honesty his death while certainly being devastating doesn't set her back too far in fact she's able to compose herself mere days after the incident is able to progress forward while she does still show clear resentment for anyone who tries to sully his name like the executives in shio's palace akechi and shido himself and we can see that she truly does love and care for him and wishes he was back based on her actualization in the third semester but even if grief isn't necessarily the focal point of her character arc throughout the rest of the game this doesn't mean that okumar's shadow doesn't still loom large over her that said of course it does make me a bit nervous i have to wonder if it's really within my power with the death of her father still fresh in her second social link haru reveals to us that she's become the majority shareholder of okumura foods and that people are now constantly trying to manipulate her in her new found influence to oust other employees that they might not like all the while she's worrying that the company's former vice president takakura is scheming to take the company for himself i'll be honest it's not shocking that after developing this kind of immediate power in influence that she feels as though she can't trust anyone within okumura foods and this coupled with the fact that in her third social link she tells us that her fiance is determined that their engagement will go on without a hitch regardless of what haru has to say of the matter just because of a supposed contract he had formed with her father before his death has her absolutely beside herself over time we slowly learn more and more about just how suffocating both the company and her fiance are in her day-to-day life with her fiance somehow finding a way to leave flowers on her pillow probably making her fear for her safety and her internal obligation to maintain her foothold in the company so that no one corrupt takes it over in sully's the okumar name even further i'm honestly amazed and sad that at 17 years old she was forced to endure all of this while it was clear if she was starting to drown in her responsibilities she was still somehow able to maintain a positive attitude when she was with the phantom thieves as the social link proceeds and we learn more and more about her situation the stressors just kept compounding one on top of the other until we start seeing her reach her breaking point but before we dig too much into that i think we really need to talk about the profound effects that stress can have not only on one's mental health but also on their physical health because i believe that stress is something that's far too often seen as something that people just need to muscle through and therefore it isn't properly addressed and oftentimes is confused with anxiety so what's the difference well according to the american psychological association the difference between stress and anxiety is less so about the effects which are quite comparable in their presentation but more so where they stem from stress is typically caused by an external factor and once the stressor is removed typically the stress begins dissipating as well anxiety on the other hand is characterized by persistent and excessive worrying even if the stressor is no longer present i do want to be very clear though that yes stressors can cause anxiety and anxiety disorders but really it comes down to how pervasive the symptoms are when the stressors are theoretically gone and so given that we can all see that she is dealing with immense amounts of stress from all sides how does it specifically manifest in her health well if i were to list everything that stress can impact then i think we would be here for a while now the first time that we can actually see the toll that her life and the struggles within her life has taken on her actually comes before her father's death when we see that after the phantom thieves save her from her fiance and take her to joker's place she falls asleep immediately on joker's couch because she's finally separated from her stressor which unfortunately it's the person she's meant to marry and her home in and of itself one of the absolute most common signs of chronic stress and stress in general is the constant mental and physical fatigue so while at home it's clear from the interactions that we see between her and her father she is constantly on guard and walking on eggshells just to get by and please her dear old dad even if that means marrying the literal scum of the earth and so when she is finally away from that setting and she can for the first time in who knows how long let her guard down so that she can just sleep she does but as we've already established this respite wouldn't be for long if we flash forward to her seventh social link conversation we've already seen many times up to this point of her expressing just how overwhelmed she is by everything regarding her role at okumura foods and her fiance being a creepo it's now that we actually get to see the physical toll that it's taking on her it's in this social length that haru begins getting dizzy to the point that joker's able to notice her exhaustion before she almost collapses and joker has to catch her and get her to sit down it's after this that she mentions that she hasn't been getting much sleep because takakura has been pushing for a new business move and so with the weight of a multi-million dollar company and constantly being in a state of tension and high stress this is what caused these feelings of dizziness and sleep deprivation which the apa states are common within severe cases stress whether it's short term or long term and the reason that i really want to highlight just how profoundly affected by stress haru really is because i want to highlight how she is not only able to cope with this dress but how she was eventually able to overcome it farewell dear father i am no longer your subservient puppet i love horror story because it's not like the stories of so many of the other characters of the game where their hardships and their struggles occurred off camera and while that's not discrediting by any means what those characters have gone through it's just that with haru we see and live through all of the hardest moments in her life up to that point and how she's able to cope with each and every one of these situations and so with this in mind if there is a single word that i can think of to describe haru okumara in persona 5 royal it's resilient from watching her father die live on television which at the same time she wasn't even sure whether or not it was partially her fault to taking on his shares of the company to genuinely debating whether to sign her life away to a horribly and likely abusive marriage for the betterment of her employees lives haru's journey is one that we experience very viscerally if we take the time to really watch it unfold now psychologists will define resilience as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity trauma tragedy threats or significant sources of stress such as family and relationship problems serious health problems or workplace and financial stressors now i want to be clear if someone is resilient that in no way means that the tough times in their lives won't be incredibly difficult or distressing to be honest it's likely that the more resilient a person is the more they will have had to endure these tougher situations in life and they will have grown to become more resilient because of them which is exactly what happened with haru in an article written by dr david palmitter in company published by the apa's website they discussed the four key components to being able to cope with difficult or traumatic situations with those four being connection wellness healthy thinking and meaning and so haru whether intentionally or unintentionally was able to establish supports within a lot of these areas so let's start with the most obvious example which is her role within the phantom thieves because while this not only helped to give her an outlet to help others whether it be in mementos or on some of their larger scale heists this provides her with not only a membership within a group but also an overarching group objective to work towards and even beyond that it gave an additional utility to her garden which is an incredible coping mechanism that she has found for herself long before the game even started i would argue that this provided an outlet for haru to not only feel useful to the phantom thieves as she mentions in both her first and second social links but also this combined with her interest in learning to grow and brew her own coffee is a fantastic opportunity for her to take her mind off of the stressors within her life and potentially provide her a sense of calm and wellness but of course we can't overlook her connection with joker being able to develop a connection like the one she has with joker where he provides solace and empathetic understanding that she is not through all of this completely alone is incredibly beneficial to a person's ability to build resilience oftentimes when people will experience trauma or incredibly difficult life situations it's much easier to isolate themselves just like haru was doing before she had the chance encounter with morgana but she admits in her ninth social link after she grows the coffee beans brews a fantastic cup of coffee and has her discussion with takakura about what she truly wants from the company that her being able to find someone like joker who she can genuinely trust and who genuinely supported her went an incredibly long way in helping her to not only advocate for herself but also to begin trusting the people around her again and i believe that this connection helped to provide an extra leg to stand on so that she could finally address head on what has been eating her alive for so long and all of this when put together is what makes haru such a compelling character she had every right to be overwhelmed she had every right to sell every stock of her father's company and run away and she had every right to throw the employees of okumara foods under the bus so that she didn't have to marry that scumbag whose name i have not said once in this video because honestly i didn't care enough to remember it but she didn't and she pushed forward she slowly became more resilient and she was able to not only tackle her problems head on but work out a solution with takakura to begin becoming more involved with the company in the capacity that she wants so that they can truly begin restoring the okumura name and so i think it's really interesting how things have come full circle because she was able to live out her childhood dream and become someone who was strong resilient and kind and in turn whether it's as a phantom thief or as herself she truly became everything that encompasses a heroine of justice but that'll do it for today's video guys and i want to pass the question off to you how do you think atlas handled haru and her story in the context of persona 5 royal and was there anything that i missed when looking at this i'd love to hear your thoughts in the comment section down below and while you're down there why liking this video why i'm subscribing to the channel and why not even bringing that notification about so you never miss another upload and why aren't even sharing this video wherever you like sharing things but as always i hope you have a fantastic rest of your day a fantastic rest of your week and why even a fantastic rest of your month and i will see you in the next video later

Channel: ThoughtBubble

Views: 35,207

Keywords: persona 5, Counselor Reacts, clinical psychology, Mental Health, psychology, Psychology in Video Games, masters in counseling, persona 5 review, persona 5 ps4, persona 5 royal, persona 5 royal review, Video Game Analysis, persona 5 royal gameplay, phantom thieves, playstation, ps4, jrpg, atlus, Reaction, React, Analysis, thoughtbubble, Persona 5 Royal Reaction, persona 5 ost, ペルソナ5, ペルソナ5 ザ ロイヤル, Okumura Palace, haru okumura, Haru okumura P5r, joker persona 5, video games, gaming

Id: KWl3uCqbt2s

Length: 21min 16sec (1276 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 06 2020