Accurate Portrayal of a Social Phobia in a Visual Novel

Feel free to post any fan works in this forum.


Post Reply
RealArab
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed May 09, 2012 9:31 pm

Accurate Portrayal of a Social Phobia in a Visual Novel

Post by RealArab »

I am a student at Marquette University and I have been a long fan of Katawa Shoujo and this subreddit. I am minoring in Psychology here at MU and in my Abnormal Psychology class I had to write about the portrayal of a mental disorder in a novel or movie.

Coincidentally I also happened to be going through Hanako's route about 2 weeks ago.All of us here know that once you go through a route it changes your life, so I asked my professor if I could write mine based on a visual novel. He allowed me to do so, knowing I'm a good student, but told me it better be relevant. I took on the challenge wholeheartedly and analyzed the beauty of the Hanako route through the eyes of a medical professional.

While writing my paper I realized exactly how much effort the writers must have put in the work.The accuracy of the portrayal Hanako's disorder was simply stunning. Everyone here will be glad to know I received a full 25/25 on this paper and thought I would post it here for everyone to see just how scientifically accurate Katawa Shoujo is.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZrJ ... nB-Rk/edit Here is the link to read it

Just so everyone here is clear, this is not some bogus fapping about the game, or some amateur opinions about Hanako. I used real DSM-IV-TR criteria while analyzing the content of Hanako's rout. I cited a follow up of the National Comorbidity Survey to show the prevalence of a social anxiety disorder among female adolescents. furthermore the etiology of Hanako's disordered is also supported by a article from the Journal of Psychological Medicine which measured childhood risk factors associated with the development of a social phobia. This is all present in my references page.

Interested to see what you guys all think
User avatar
Breaker deGodot
Posts: 92
Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2012 2:44 pm

Re: Accurate Portrayal of a Social Phobia in a Visual Novel

Post by Breaker deGodot »

Interesting point of view on the situation. It's rare, if not completely unheard of, to find a visual novel put under psychological scrutiny, so this is quite a new experience for me. I noticed one or two grammatical errors, but other than that there is not particularly much to comment upon. I still can't believe the professor allowed this! :lol:
"There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion."
-Francis Bacon
User avatar
diosisback
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2012 3:08 pm

Re: Accurate Portrayal of a Social Phobia in a Visual Novel

Post by diosisback »

The term "social anxiety" is actually used in KS.

Lilly´s route, act 2:

"Hanako withers noticeably when exposed to the din being made around Lilly. Try as she might, I doubt she'll ever completely get over her social anxiety.".
Currently teaching Lilly to speak proper spanish...
User avatar
darkrei
Posts: 55
Joined: Sat Apr 28, 2012 5:08 am

Re: Accurate Portrayal of a Social Phobia in a Visual Novel

Post by darkrei »

Well, that was impressive!

Thank you for sharing!



Just,a little correction:as far as I know,katawa shoujo isn't japanese,just japanese-like.
RealArab
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed May 09, 2012 9:31 pm

Re: Accurate Portrayal of a Social Phobia in a Visual Novel

Post by RealArab »

diosisback wrote:The term "social anxiety" is actually used in KS.

Lilly´s route, act 2:

"Hanako withers noticeably when exposed to the din being made around Lilly. Try as she might, I doubt she'll ever completely get over her social anxiety.".
Lol never noticed that. Although I doubt that Lilly was actually referring to the disorder as defined by the DSM-IV-TR.
MintVanilla
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed May 09, 2012 9:49 pm

Re: Accurate Portrayal of a Social Phobia in a Visual Novel

Post by MintVanilla »

Very well written. It's nice to see some professional analyzing of one the characters from KS. Do you think anything similar could be done for Rin? She has a rather curious mindset that I'd like to know more about on a realistic level.
Sajomir
Posts: 238
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:59 am

Re: Accurate Portrayal of a Social Phobia in a Visual Novel

Post by Sajomir »

darkrei wrote:Well, that was impressive!

Thank you for sharing!



Just,a little correction:as far as I know,katawa shoujo isn't japanese,just japanese-like.
Yeah, it's set in Japan and mimics Japanese style games, but it is an original English language game.
Animator for the Katawa Shoujo Fighting Game
We are looking for additional animators and spriters! Please PM me :D
User avatar
Faguss
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2012 9:55 am
Location: Poland
Contact:

Re: Accurate Portrayal of a Social Phobia in a Visual Novel

Post by Faguss »

Interesting read.
In lecture it was noted anxiety disorders had some genetic basis.
They seriously pay attention to that? I recommend checking field called Epigenetics.


...in fact there's a whole science called 'Epigenetics'. The influences that override genetics are far more important than what the genes say themselves.

“Epi” means on top of, so that the epigenetic influence is what happens environmentally to either activate or deactivate certain genes.
- Gabor Mate.
User avatar
Helbereth
Posts: 1532
Joined: Tue Jun 19, 2012 4:44 pm
Location: Massachusetts, USA

Re: Accurate Portrayal of a Social Phobia in a Visual Novel

Post by Helbereth »

Yeah, makes sense. I mean, you're really just putting a label on it, but it's pretty clear reading the story. I can attest to the accuracy having had personal experience with social anxiety. Though I was never so severe as to have panic attacks, reading Hanako's story was very familiar. The fact that it's apparently accurate enough to write a psychology paper on it isn't surprising.
User avatar
Tununias
Posts: 55
Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2012 11:39 pm
Location: Ohio, USA

Re: Accurate Portrayal of a Social Phobia in a Visual Novel

Post by Tununias »

Nice paper. Did it convince your professor to play Katawa Shoujo too? :D
Image

One of my hobbies is coloring anime style linearts. My avatar is the first lineart I've colored.
http://tununias.deviantart.com/
User avatar
mysterycycle
Posts: 195
Joined: Sun May 13, 2012 9:50 pm
Location: Silent Hill, USA

Re: Accurate Portrayal of a Social Phobia in a Visual Novel

Post by mysterycycle »

Very interesting! I've only just started reading the essay, but thank you for providing it. Hopefully it'll help me write Hanako's scenes in my doujinshi...
You are not alone, and you are not strange. You are you, and everyone has damage. Be the better person.
ImageImage
Couch to 5k with Emi: WD123 W2D123 W3D123 W4D123 W5D123 W6D123 W7D123 W8D123 W9D123
I'm making a Katawa Shoujo doujinshi!
My deviantArt
User avatar
OtakuNinja
Posts: 1477
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2012 10:42 pm
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Re: Accurate Portrayal of a Social Phobia in a Visual Novel

Post by OtakuNinja »

Very well written :)
Image
Emibro, Hanabro, [Lilly Lover], Rin Kin, Feminist, Two-timer
(Passively working on my KS YouTube series. Someday...)
User avatar
Brisingr
Posts: 157
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2012 12:11 pm
Location: Michigan

Re: Accurate Portrayal of a Social Phobia in a Visual Novel

Post by Brisingr »

Bravo good sir! Few people have the balls to do a school assignment based off a not-entirely-educational portion of popular media. I still remember this one guy did a video presentation on the impossible physics of "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" and that guy had some brass balls to show it to his entire class and physics teacher. In fact, even I made a video presentation based on popular internet memes for my mass media class during my last fall semester. You sir, have the balls to do just that and more.
Post Reply