–The Luchadores (wrestler mental figures) berating the mind's host, Edgar Teglee
Mental figures, broadly speaking, are animate entities that originate from and exist solely inside mental worlds. They can come in essentially any form, limited only by the imagination of the mental world's host. Some of them appear fully sentient, with their own complex goals and desires, whereas others are driven only by simple objectives, and yet others are seemingly only around to liven up the mental landscape they can be found inside. Many Mental Figures are unique to their own host mind, and are directly based on the host's experiences in life, but there are also types of mental figures that exist as fundamental parts of all (or at least most) minds.
Inside the mental world, mental figures usually have very particular purposes and roles to occupy, as each one typically represents some (small or large, less or more abstract or complex) part of the mind they exist inside, such as an emotion, a memory, a basic defense mechanism, and so on. Mental figures deviating from their normal roles, for example those that are overly dominant or even entirely absent, can represent some sort of mental problem in the host. At the same time, some mental figures' very presence is a problem, and the host mind is better off when they are gone.
Overview[]
Much like mental worlds themselves, mental figures can exist in all shapes and sizes, depending on the mind that created them. They can play all sorts of different roles and interact in all sorts of ways with each other, the host mind, and psychics visiting the mental world using Astral Projection. The one constant for all mental figures seen so far is that they cannot exit the mental world, with the single currently known exception being that some psychics can use Mental Projection to manifest mental figures representing archetypal parts of their own personality in the real world.
In addition to the mind's usual state of affairs sometimes leading to the "death" of mental figures, such as when Censors remove an intrusive thought, or when the Rainbow Squirts in Boyd's mind kill G-Men (and occasionally, themselves), Mental Figures can also be defeated and destroyed by visiting psychics. Depending on the role the Figures played in the mind, this can have serious ramifications on the host's psyche. The change can be positive; such as when Lady Luctopus, who represented the core idea behind a gambling addiction, was defeated; or negative, such as the Den Mother's defeat only leading to Boyd's dangerous Milkman persona being released prematurely.
Mental Constructs[]
It is possible to create mental figures, as well as locations, in another person's mind through the use of psychic abilities and/or hypnotic suggestion. These are called mental constructs. In Psychonauts, Linda the Lungfish's mind was saddled with Kochamara, a mental version of Coach Oleander as a superhero who kept the lungfish under his and Dr. Loboto's control. It is not completely clear whether creating this mental figure caused the brainwashing Linda suffered from or if it developed as a result of said brainwashing, but considering that it's unlikely that Linda came up with Kochamara's kaiju movie theming by herself, it seems likely that the coach was personally responsible for his creation. The Den Mother and Rainbow Squirts may also be creations of Oleander, but in this case it is equally likely that they were already a part of Boyd's mental landscape and Oleander simply used them to his advantage. Psychonauts 2 further establishes that man-made mental constructs are typically temporary. The Astralathe, a device developed by Otto Mentallis, is supposedly the only way to attempt to make permanent constructed alterations to a mental world, though the events of the game prove that even its changes are not, in fact, entirely permanent.
Types of Mental Figures[]
Among the wide variety of mental figures seen across the Psychonauts series, some particular recurring types can be distinguished. Due to the endless variety in the possible appearance and role of mental figures, a single one may fit into more than one of these categories.
Systemic Mental Figures[]
These types of mental figures are representations of some basic element of the mind, one that is found (or at least can occur) in most minds. As a result, they are generally not unique, usually appearing similar across most minds, with consistent and generally straightforward objectives. When they are very prominently present, this may have something to say about the host's mind or their current emotional state; but often their absence can be equally telling. Many of the basic enemies in the Psychonauts series are this type of mental figures, including the Censors, who exist specifically to stamp out other thoughts that are deemed harmful or intrusive, and Doubts, who represent insecurity and try to slow everything down. Panic Attacks and Bad Moods, being general representations of certain states of mind, also fit into this category, as do PSI-Popper Generators and Memory Vaults, which are more passive about fulfilling their objectives.
Memory Replicas[]
Just as some areas in mental worlds are direct replicas of a person's memories of a place, many mental figures are based on a real-world person, as the mind's host remembers them. Due to the very nature of memories, all of these mental figures are remembered with some amount of bias. Some are quite realistic, strongly resembling their real-world counterparts; such as Bob's memories of Otto and Truman, and some are much more obviously unrealistic or romanticized, like Edgar's memories of his classmates Lana and Dean as a flamenco dancer and matador, respectively.
Inner Selves[]
Most minds have at least one primary inner version of the host mind's consciousness, that often (though not always) looks identical to the host's physical body in the real world. Technically, this is also a mental figure. Additionally, while all mental figures speak for the host on some level, many minds have mental figures that are more directly linked to their own ego or the way they see themselves. Bonita Soleil, for instance, is a personification of Gloria's "inner sunshine"—everything she likes about herself (whereas Gloria's primary inner self is absent). Bob's Bulb Bobs, meanwhile, represent Bob's disgust with himself.
Psychics who have learned the Mental Projection ability can summon inner selves—specifically Archetypes, parts of their own personality needed to play certain roles in life—into the real world as two-dimensional assistants. The ability was developed by Cassie O'Pia, who is an expert at it to the point that her Archetypes, of which she has at least four, have begun to lead lives of their own inside her mind.
Living Figments[]
Some mental figures don't seem to represent too much in particular. Much like figments, figures such as the Party Dancers in Milla's mind or the Meat Men in the Meat Circus seemingly exist mostly to decorate the mental landscape. The main reason these figures are not simply figments like many other imagined inhabitants of mental worlds is apparently that the world feels less vivid without them in it.
Trivia[]
- TBA