Görgen, ArnoArnoGörgenFassio, Marcella2025-12-222025-12-222025-12-04Görgen, A. (2025) ‘„A proximity to death, to overwhelming madness.”’, in M. Fassio (ed.) Mental Health in Literatur, Populärmedien und Medizin: Aushandlungen von psychischer Gesundheit und Krankheit aus intersektionaler Perspektive. Berlin: De Gruyter. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111591933-009.9783111591827https://doi.org/10.24451/arbor.1259610.1515/9783111591933-009https://arbor.bfh.ch/handle/arbor/46189The portrayal of mental health in digital games-regardless of whether it takes a classic stigmatizing or empathetic and empowering stance-is strongly influenced by the technological framework of the game as well as the social context in which illness and mental health are discussed. In this chapter, I would like to explore this complex issue along three vectors. First, I would like to understand these narratives as both a product and a producer of collective memory. Second, they become promoters of a normalism that defines what can be considered normal and what can be considered deviant. Third, digital games are, on the one hand, an instrument in the establishment of technologies of the self and, on the other hand, lead to a game-mechanical spiral of self-optimization. After briefly outlining these vectors, I would like to use the typology of the representation of mental disorders in digital games developed by Simond and Görgen to illustrate the vectors in digital games using the horror game Outlast (2013).demental healthdigital gamesstigmahorrorcollective memorybiopoliticsnormalismself optimizationtechnologies of the selfillness narrativebook_section