The Avatar Faculty

Jeffrey G. Snodgrass' The Avatar Faculty: Ecstatic Transformations in Religion and Video Games offers a “cross-cultural comparative case-study approach,” providing “richly descriptive portraits of both spiritual- and digital-avatar experiences” (201). That is, this is a book discussing the potential therapeutic benefits of avatars and aiming “to provide a balanced assessment of the therapeutic potential of ecstatic—self-escapist—processes, as well as of the limits of such therapeutics” (23). Contextualizing the book’s key term “avatar” in Hindu traditions and providing information on the use and research of avatars as related to games and gaming, the author defines his understanding and use of avatars several times in the book—for example as “symbolic second selves” (15), entailing “the projection of a first agent’s consciousness into a second agent, who serves as the material vehicle or vessel for that first consciousness” (204).

Snodgrass proposes to move towards what he calls an integrative psychological anthropology of avatar therapeutics. To do so, he applies an approach to “comparatively examine health processes involving spiritual and digital avatars” (xiii), using case studies from spirit possession in what he terms folk Hinduism in North India and MMORPG’s (massively multiplayer online roleplaying games) like World of Warcraft and others. This structure includes presenting the “spiritual- and digital-avatar case studies” (xv) separately and attempting to find similarities and avatar therapeutics-relevant features in these two settings.

The book opens with an Introduction and contains four main chapters. In chapter 1, Sacred and Secular Settings, the author contextualizes avatars in Hinduism and introduces to North Indian Rajasthani spirit possession and what he calls gaming avatars in online virtual worlds. Chapter 2, The Psychology of Avatar Therapeutics: Absorptive Experiences and Stress Relief, largely discusses immersive gaming experiences as forms of dissociation. In chapter 3, The Psychosocial Dynamics of Avatar Therapeutics: Enhanced Self-Image and Elevated Social Standing, the author focusses on “how dissociative avatar processes are shaped by identity issues and social contexts” (29). Chapter 4, Distinguishing Therapeutic from Toxic Avatar Experiences: Norm Conflicts and Felt Dissonance, again closely combines the Rajasthani spirit possession case study examples with discussions on gaming. The work ends with a conclusion and additionally contains acknowledgments, three appendices specifying survey methods and results for chapters 2 to 4, and a glossary defining expert terminology that is used in this monograph.

By bringing two formerly disconnected settings together—an ethnological fieldwork setting in North India and video games and gameplay—the book takes an unconventional approach. The author has previously worked and published on both of these themes individually, a fact that is reflected well in some of the case study material’s contextualization. For example, it is commendable that the author rejects one-sided clichés about the alleged and often exaggerated danger of video games, such as that gaming leads to addiction or other gaming disorders. While these dangers also feature in the book, it declaredly focuses on the “health-promoting, rather than health-eroding, potential of avatars” (xiii).

The author’s academic background in anthropology clearly and understandably defines the book’s approaches and material. Yet, given both the book’s title and objectives, the lack of engagement with the rich religious and cultural studies-informed body of work on religion and video games is surprising. This academic field is well advanced and offers nuanced approaches and material, continuously expanding our understanding of the complex interrelations of video games, their environments, and religion. In particular, the field’s studies on video games and gaming and identity, agency, and embodiment (in addition to sources that the book locates in interdisciplinary game studies) would have supported a more integral and differentiated view of what the book’s title proposes. While the author specifies psychological anthropology as his main fields of interest, such an engagement would have added to the overall outcomes of The Avatar Faculty.

Xenia Zeiler is professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Helsinki.

Xenia Zeiler

Date Of Review:

April 17, 2024