1. isaac223

    isaac223 Senior Member

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    How To Properly Delve Into Characters' Psychologies(With Fantasy Shenanigans)

    Discussion in 'Character Development' started by isaac223, Jan 30, 2017.

    I've probably mentioned this at least a hundred times, but in one of my planned series, the "magic system", as I'll call it even if its more of a story-relevant justification for special abilities rather than a "system", deals directly with the psychology of people who try to utilize it. Below I'll link an un-copiable draft of the current magic system for a bit of context:

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yA2qxgZVjKevg7SOZXKZ0FrBmOYh9IApyYiduVYiAQs/edit?usp=sharing

    Note: If I cannot find a way to make the usage of the multiverse concept fit more into the plot as more than a contrivance to explain some happenings, I will translate this "magic system" to work with only a singular universe.

    My issue is I'm not sure how to delve into psychology of characters in relation to this magic system. How would the melding of elements from their conscious mind and subconscious mind (which may possess greatly influential traits that they "Suppressed") influence their personality in the first place? How would the suppression of personality traits in the past be foreshadowed prior to being revealed by the user accessing this state of being if the traits are hidden in a layer of their mind beyond the reaches of psychoanalysis? How would the general detachment of the subconsciousness from the consciousness even effect the human mind?
     
  2. Bill Chester

    Bill Chester Active Member

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    Backward, many decades, I used to ingest some quantities of LSD. The major effect for me was the bubbling through of the subconscious. If it was bad stuff, it could lead to a bad trip. If it was good stuff, all sorts of associations would spontaneously fill reality. This could create a reality that felt unreal--psychotic. But you learned to live there, quite comfortably. Reality will change again, soon.

    As for traits, they are the stuff your personality is born with. Again, these are revealed by LSD. They can be very scary to first confront. Or they can be ultimately liberating if you accept the suppressed trait.
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2017
  3. LachlanMM

    LachlanMM New Member

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    I skimmed the magic document you attached as a link above, but I'm not sure I follow it, probably because I'm more of a "detail-oriented" person. What's a specific example of the interaction of the global consciousness that you're describing in the doc, with the consciousness of (say) your main character? Do you have a writing sample you could point us to? I'd like to help -- I've got formal training in psychology and enjoy reading fantasy novels.
     
  4. 123456789

    123456789 Contributor Contributor

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    What do you mean uncopiable? I just retyped it word for word.
     
  5. isaac223

    isaac223 Senior Member

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    Sorry if I sound like I'm making excuses for not understanding what you asked, but I am very much out of it at the moment. May I ask for clarification as to what you mean "interactions" between the global consciousness (I assume its Aithiir) and a person's consciousness? I state "a person" because most of the important protagonists aren't related in any way to the magic system. I made them outliers to the magic system so that a big part of the story was them discovering the truth behind the "magic" in this world in a manner akin to traditional fantasy -- which also plays a huge part in character development, as it assists in understanding the characters influenced by Aithiir. Somehow. That "somehow" is what I'm trying to figure out.
     
  6. LachlanMM

    LachlanMM New Member

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    I must have misread the magic system document, I'm sorry. So, is the original question how to show someone's personality (plus unconscious mind) to the reader, so they can understand the character better?
     
  7. isaac223

    isaac223 Senior Member

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    Partially. The other part is basically how the unconventional treatment and makeup of the consciousness of these people associated with Aithiir will influence the psychology, mind and personality of the person, as I have described in the original post.
     
  8. LachlanMM

    LachlanMM New Member

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    Let's try an example: if your MC has a deep-seated anxiety about (for example) being abandoned -- stemming from an incident in their childhood, this could be shown in a concrete way by how they react to their date leaving them in the middle of dinner at a restaurant in order to make a phone call. Part of this reaction would be dialog choice "Why did you leave me here all alone?", and part would be description (ie when the MC is left alone, they think everyone is looking at them, even when that's not reasonable). This may be an extreme example -- the psychological makeup of your characters may not be so precarious -- but the principle is the same. Have the MC make decisions or react to concrete observable events, base don what you know about their psychology. From their reactions, the reader can infer their psychology.
     
  9. S A Lee

    S A Lee Contributor Contributor

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    Honestly, I'd say borrow entry level books into psychological study.

    From what I can glean anyway, maybe Jung would be an interesting theory to incorporate. It covers the individual and collective subconscious theories as well as our suppressed emotions (shadows), the masks we wear to appear more acceptable to our peers (personae) and our individual consciousness (ego).
     
  10. isaac223

    isaac223 Senior Member

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    IIRC, the Persona series employed the Jung Theory. It had an interesting outcome, so I'll see what I can do with it. Thank you for the suggestion. :) Are there any other psychological theories or families/schools of thought you'd recommend looking into?
     
  11. S A Lee

    S A Lee Contributor Contributor

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    Indeed, the Vita remake of Persona 4 features a series of short lessons by P3's Professor Edogawa about it. The reason it comes to mind is that it's a good way to look at internal strife, which might affect your mages.

    Two fields I'd say understanding might be useful to you would be developmental psychology and psychotherapy. The earlier would be good to understand if your mages train from a young age, and the latter in case for thinking over how common psychological disorders affect them and how they're handled in your world.

    In England, you can study psychology in the equivalent years to high school. Check out BBC's GCSE bitesize, the website has a psychology section.
     
  12. isaac223

    isaac223 Senior Member

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    Thank you very much! I'll definitely look into these. Getting an understanding of how the human psyche works traditionally should help me generate ideas of how it'd function if various parts of the mind are mismatched, removed, disconnected or otherwise distorted or corrupted. I'll definitely look into what you've suggested I should.
     

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