The Psychology of Cosplay

Abstract

"The Psychology of Cosplay" seeks to explore the psychological motivation and structure of cosplay as distinct from general masquerade as it emerged from the late sixteenth century. While it is no doubt a form of othering, the key difference is the situating of the subject. In conventional masquerade there is still a locatable difference between self and costume, and self and myth. With cosplay, by distinction, there is no discernible myth, only a multitude or surfeit of myths. This requires ordering and rules in order for the illusion of sense to reign. As opposed to conventional masquerade which is to mobilize a certain erotic disorder, cosplay involves a disavowal of the subject, a self-nihilation, in order to give birth to the new other. As such cosplay ritualizes the posthumanist subject.