Things Can Only Get Stranger: Theoretical and Clinical Reflections on Netflix's Stranger Things

With the eagerly anticipated release of season four of Stranger Things, it is timely to reflect on the series up to its present point, considering possible reasons for its widespread popularity. In this article, we offer diverging—but not uncomplimentary—perspectives speaking to the psychological pr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of popular culture 2022-06, Vol.55 (3), p.611-631
Main Authors: Lu, Kevin, Kaluzeviciute, Greta, Sharp, William
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
applied psychoanalysis
Archetypes
Bildungsroman
Grief
Mental depression
mother complex
Mothers
mourning and melancholia
Nostalgia
Psychoanalysis
Stranger Things
Television programs
Theme
Viewers
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Summary:With the eagerly anticipated release of season four of Stranger Things, it is timely to reflect on the series up to its present point, considering possible reasons for its widespread popularity. In this article, we offer diverging—but not uncomplimentary—perspectives speaking to the psychological processes awakened in the interaction between the viewer, that which is viewed, and the meaning constellated in the third space existing between the two (Winnicott, “Transitional Objects”; Hockley). First, our Jungian interpretation, which draws on the show's representation of the mother archetype, focuses on the imagery that arises when a process of personality development—what Jung termed individuation—is activated. Even the most problematic and lacklustre styles of parenting can give rise to individual growth, a fact that is demonstrated in the case of Will Byers and El. Second, we explore how a psychoanalytic approach to nostalgia, loss, and mourning elucidates the depiction of the end of childhood. The show's popularity lies in its ability to activate the nostalgia of audiences by reproducing the nostalgia that is part and parcel of a coming-of-age narrative. Audiences thus build a rapport with the show by identifying with universal themes and emotions accompanying stages of developmental transition and transformation.
ISSN:0022-3840
1540-5931
DOI:10.1111/jpcu.13143