Playing Active Imagination

Abstract

This paper explores whether playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom can function as a psychologically significant experience within a Jungian depth-psychological framework. Using autoethnography, it examines gameplay, field notes, and active imagination sessions as interconnected forms of symbolic inquiry. The study draws parallels between the game’s virtual world and Jung’s visionary work in the Black and Red Books , particularly through motifs of descent, the desert, the underworld, creativity, and the hero’s journey. It argues that the interactive environment of Tears of the Kingdom operated as an imaginal landscape in which unconscious material could be encountered, explored, and partially integrated. The paper also considers how virtual experiences are carried into daily life through identification with the heroic role. While limited by its single-subject design, the study suggests that video games may offer meaningful contemporary sites for reflection, symbolic experience, and transformation.