Growing Up(side Down) Impending Doom and the Fight Against Otherworldly Monsters as Narrative Devices and Imagery in Stranger Things

Abstract

From a psychoanalytic perspective, the streaming series Stranger Things not only portrays the battle against otherworldly monsters or the threat posed by concrete political or demonic enemies but also explores the struggles of particular groups’ own respective monsters. The present contribution delves into how children grapple with the loss of naivety and the awareness of life’s finiteness, how adolescents confront sexuality and concomitant feelings of guilt, and how adults cope with the pain of letting their children go into the ‘next,’ adult world. These themes are discussed through a psychoanalytic examination of the series, concluding with some brief remarks about the potential contributions of psychoanalysis/psychology to the study of (post-)apocalyptic thinking.