Dungeons and Dragons – Taboo to Therapeutic Tool
I was a child of the 80’s. I loved GI Joe, Star Wars, Battle Star Galactica, Buck Rodgers, the Six Million-Dollar Man, the Bionic Woman, Wonder Women, the greatest American Hero, and yes, I am a chick, so I’ll include Ladyhawke too. I loved Tolkien, reading the Hobbit and the Lord of the Ring trilogy every summer. I used to go into the video store on Friday, pausing to look at the D&D books on the shelves. Stealing a glance over my shoulder to make sure there was no one I knew. Looking at the books I felt anticipation, but also guilt as these were taboo. For some reason, in the back of my mind, there were forbidden fruit, and so I liked everything but D&D in the 80’s. To get to the bottom of the therapeutic value of D&D, first I needed to see why I associated negative emotion to D&D, so back to history and childhood I went.
In 1979, 16-year-old child prodigy James Dallas Egbert III disappeared from his room at Michigan State University. The private Investigator hired by the parents, believed that D&D was the cause of the disappearance. The truth was that Egbert was a substance user and suffered from depression and he went into hiding in the utility tunnels under the university.
This event became known as the Steam Tunnel Incident, and it prompted a number of works of fiction including the novel and subsequent movie Mazes and Monster with Tom Hanks. Egbert dies of a self-inflicted gunshot would in 1980, despite the evidence of mental health problems, however, many continued to believe that it was D&D that caused his death. I know that I was not allowed to watch Mazes and Monsters, having to resort to watching it at a friend’s house. I was not convinced that D&D was the devil after watching.
1982, Lee Pulling died after shooting himself in the chest, despite the Washington Post article on how he struggled to fit in, his mother believe D& D was to blame. His mother sued her son’s high school principal as he had run the game her son played. She also sued TSR Inc. Despite the court dismissing the cases, she would not be deterred, she formed Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (BADD) in 1983. I remembered this movement. It seemed like everything I liked was somehow going to irreparably damage me. According to these people, between video games and fantasy movies, I was destined to join a cult and do drugs. How could a game that relied upon your imagination be so bad?
As recently as 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld a ban on D&D by the Waupun Correctional Institution aggressing that D&D can foster an inmate’s obsession with escaping from real life, correctional environment, fostering hostility, violence and escape behavior. No given that I work in Forensic Mental Health, this one, I could see. First off, the game has dice and those allow gambling ands that is not a behavior that is helpful. Second, it does focus you on certain behaviors like sneaking and stealth, so references like these are frowned upon. But prison is just one environment, it is not the representation of the world., and one that is often far removed from a therapeutic environment.
Theoretical roots of play therapy go back to Freud, Jung, Adler and Rank. Hermine Hug-Hellmuth widely regarded as the world’s first psychotherapist to specialize in treating children and the first person to use play as a form of therapy. In 1921, she introduced formal play therapy. David Levy practiced “release therapy” in 1938 which allowed traumatized children to engage in free play, materials related tother trauma are slowly introduced allowing the child the re-experience the stressful event and release any unresolved emotions or behaviors. Charles Schaefer and Kevin O’Conner founded the Association for Play Therapy in 1982.
Play is a crucial factor in healthy child development. Play contributes to the development of interconnections between neurons which play a major link in areas such as learning, social development, emotional development, and memory. Trauma resides in the non-verbal areas of the brain, the hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus, and brain stem. The capacity to communicate and process adverse issues resides in the brain’s frontal lobes. Children affected by trauma may find it difficult to let others know they need help. Play therapy has shown children how to move memories from the nonverbal to the frontal lobes, allowing them to communicate them and to resolve issues.
Play therapy first creates a safe place and involves toys that have a particular meaning or representation to the child. Often the child is left to play as they wish. Throughout play therapy, the specific toy representing a specific issue the child has faced may be brought into play to reshape the thoughts, feelings and behaviors associated with. This allows the therapist to use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to treat a variety of issues including PTSD, Trauma, Social Skills, etc. Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) is a hot topic in educational discourse as a growing body of evidence finds that self-confidence, self-control, social and self-awareness, empathy and a sense of well-being are predictive of academic success.
For children, bullies become dragons, malevolent gods are the feared adult in their lives and a labyrinth dungeon filled with puzzles and ghouls becomes a metaphor for school. The fantasy world is sufficiently removed from reality that children are empowered to tackle difficult subjects at a safe emotional distance. If a symbolic realm may help improve emotional intelligence and so too, can it help them operate more confidently in the real world.
Does D&D help children through therapeutic interactions, yes, the evidence seems favorable that D&D is a tool that can be used to better outcome with children. D&D Kids has shown an increased self-confidence and self-esteem, assertive communication skills, flexible and creative thinking, negotiation, and group problem-solving skills, sharing and turn-taking, Improved impulse control, and better communication of non-verbal communication. But is it only good for kids?
Play therapy can be used with adults. It has been proven to enhance cognitive and physical behaviors and can be used in all ages. For adult play therapy can help with dementia, grief and loss PTSD, obsessions and compulsions, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), mood disorders, anxiety, depression, developmental issues, and arrested emotional development. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings has been interpreted as symbolically capturing the horrors he experienced as a soldier in WWI, as an allegory or power, and as an exploration of addiction. The fantasy world can help adults safely explore areas of trauma and negativity.
Major tenants in cognitive behavioral therapy involve role development, character development and conflict resolution. The goal is to change unhealthy or unhelpful patterns of thinking and behavior and replace them with healthier more productive alternatives. CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) helps treat a variety of disorders including depression, anxiety, phobias, PTSD, sleep disorders, eating disorders, OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), substance abuse, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
D&D is no longer the Devil. The Hellfire Club in Stranger Things was actually just a club. It’s not going to corrupt your children. Its not the mark of the beast if your adult child has begun to play, in this post-covid, computerized world, it can be a savior. It offers a safe space, where you can do what you want, be who you want. Its not just for geeks and nerds, but for everyone who could take a break to go ff to do something fantastical. It has survived naysayers, it has survived attack on its purpose, and now we have data to back up that D&D can be a useful tool for mental health in an ever more complex game of life.
- Steph
