Legens betydning for voksne eventyrere - En psykologisk undersøgelse af Dungeons & Dragons

Abstract

Play is an essential part of human life not just in childhood but also throughout our adult lives. In the last two decades the selection of games marketed towards adults has grown exponentially including board games, video games and role-playing games. The latter is the focus of this paper specifically in the form of Dungeons & Dragons, a tabletop role-playing game originally released in 1975 and currently in its 5th edition. This paper sets out to understand the significance playing Dungeons & Dragons has for adult participants.
Since the aim of this paper is to understand the complex phenomenon of subjective significance, a qualitative analysis is performed. The empirical data consists of an array of personal stories from D&D-players and the theoretical framework for the analysis comprises an eclectic combination of psychoanalysis and cultural psychology. Donald Winnicott’s theory concerning play in the potential space as well as Thomas Ogden’s term dream thinking constitute the main psychoanalytical contributions while symbolic resources as described by Tania Zittoun introduces aspects from cultural psychology to the framework. It is theorized that playing D&D takes place in the potential space between personal and shared reality and D&D was found to contribute to the players’ ability to lead a creative life as well as serving as a catalyst for developing relationships and empathy. Furthermore it was found that D&D can contribute to complex sense-making processes and be used to ascribe meaning to difficult situations and circumstances. To explain this transcendent significance, D&D must be understood as both a form of play, as being related to dream thinking and as a symbolic resource for the players.
Despite the seemingly positive effects of playing D&D in adulthood, possible negative consequences in the form of escapism and confusion between fiction and reality are also discussed. It seems that the fictional world where play takes place can sometimes be too alluring for the players and end up being destructive. In conclusion this paper finds that D&D can have pervasive positive significance for players’ lives but further studies are needed to understand possible negative consequences of play and fantasy life and why they might occur.

Bedømmelse: 12