A Psychoanalysis of FNaF Lore

Written by: Golan
Advisors: Madesuki, AdiValahu

"Dream theory was close. Its fatal flaw was the underlying assumption that "the dream" and "the real world" are two separate, non-overlapping spaces. This has never been the case." -Madesuki, A Schizoanalysis of FNaF Lore

Psychoanalytic theory has a lot to say regarding mental processes, both conscious and unconscious. When it comes to the unconscious ones, their nature is given by the fact that they have been repressed. Of course, just because something is not seen does not make it go away, instead making it come back in another way. One such way is through dreams. FNaF 4 has a lot of dreams, but also a reference to repression through the box.

"Perhaps some things are best left forgotten, for now."

The Motif of Repression

Repression is a key motif in FNaF. It is an important motor for much of the story at times:

Specimen 1: 1983, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, Charlotte Emily's murder, the wound first inflicted on Henry as he refers to it in the Insanity Speech. As he mentions, a wound that he "let bleed out, to cause all of this". In other words, problems with William that Henry has ignored, leading to the subsequent degeneration of events.

Specimen 2: 1985, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, the Missing Children's Incident. If we take WillStuffed as true, then William repressed his own atrocity by hiding the bodies within the animatronic suits. The repression not only led to the gory remains of the bodies to start leaking blood and mucus from the suits, but it also led to the souls binding to the animatronics via remnant. The problem never stopped existing, it just transformed.

Specimen 3: 1993, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, 2023, Fazbear's Frights: The Horror Attraction. William, the main securist responsible for repression in this franchise, comes to die in the very suit he used to lure and murder the missing children. He is then sealed away behind a false wall for 30 years before he eventually comes back, the one who used to do the repression now falling victim to it. This re-emerging nature of the repressed Afton is made evident both non-diegetically ("He will come back/He always does") and diegetically ("I always come back").

The Great Shadow of Afton (over Fazbear's)

The tragedies that have befallen and have been caused by [the] Afton [family] have given a lot of things for FazEnt and its leadership to hide and repress. However, they were unable to wipe the memories of the people affected. All the repressed elements have been channeled and projected outwardly, manifesting as neurotic symptoms, apparitions, signifiers etc. The shadow is travelling through the Flipside, and is projected onto objects who thus become perforated, breaches in signification. The names of these ominous emerging substances are remnant and agony. The shadow is also projected as tulpa-like instantiations: Golden Freddy, the Nightmares, the Phantoms, and most notably, Shadow Freddy and RWQFSFASXC.

All the instances that were mentioned previously exist within the people of Hurricane's semiosphere. The capital-machine of FazEnt manipulates collective libido towards its own masks and spectacle, and by its sorcery accidentally animates apparitions and possessed animatronics.

A Typology of the Box

(or how Henry and Michael owned and confronted the shadow)

After reading this section, you will know what is in the box, or that what is in it isn't as relevant as the box itself. Or maybe you already knew, and what I am going to say will not come as a surprise.

Typology here is to be understood in the sense of the study of types, antitypes and their relationship. Now onto the box, we actually know what's inside it: the pieces put together. Scott's words, not mine. But what does this actually mean?

Where else in the franchise have the pieces been put together? Happiest Day, CBEAR, and most relevantly the FFPS Completion Ending. The map of the labyrinth is vaguely but somewhat strikingly similar to the box. It is in the FFPS labyrinth that everyone, all the pieces, have been put together. The box is the type of the party, Ennard and the labyrinth. The party, Ennard and the labyrinth are the fulfilling antitypes of the box. The box is thus also symbolic of all FNaF lore and its resolution. The contents of the box are irrelevant without the box itself and without its antitypes.

Henry and Michael owned the shadow, all the elements that have been repressed and have mutated into monstrosities. And to give everyone peace, they confronted their demons. They have cleansed the place with fire.

This ends.
For all of us.
End communication.