American Horror Story

`American Horror Story is a labyrinth of twists and turns that makes the mind wander in a million directions, but it all starts with a single emotion: fear. The entire show is based on a single emotion and how it affects certain people. This concept is explored on a fundamental level within the first section of the book. From the moment a child can understand the world around them, they are taught to fear. Whether that be the supernatural or the socially abstract ideas that are forced upon us, we always find something we are uncomfortable with and learn to fear it because of one damning concept that is drilled into our heads by our predecessors: anything unknown, weird or uncomfortable is bad. The show takes this concept and gives it the proverbial middle finger because it forces us to accept that we, as individuals, are weird, discomfort is inevitable, and the unknown should always be explored. And what’s more unknown than fear? It is ever-evolving and consuming feat thus a perfect platform for AHS to explore and explain. The only difference between AHS and true reality is the realism behind each horror.

This concept is what shifts us into the second section of the book: Social fear and distrust in ourselves. The book uses an example of a man observing his daughter and slowly realizing that she has been possessed by witnessing the strict change in her mannerisms. What if we couldn’t detect that change? Can we trust ourselves to know them? Could we ever truly know people no matter how long we know them? The book reads, “[W]e’ve come to expect that sameness of body is correlated with sameness of person. We each all have a lifetime of experience making (hopefully) accurate identity judgments on the basis of judging a person’s body to be the same body from one interaction to the next. What if we couldn’t do that? What if the appearance of a person’s body told us nothing at all about who is “inside”? That would be deeply unsettling” (AHS and Philosophy).  This concept is explored further by discussing the philosopher Rene Descartes’s belief in the correlation between mind and body. How do they correlate? He spent his entire life trying to answer that. Surely, this connection existed but just how fragile is it? What would happen if a person's conscience was taken over by an opposing force? It’s a perplexing concept. In the end, it all boils down to a single quote. “If a person thinks that soul and body bear some sort of essential relationship to one another, that belief is challenged in a frightening way by possession movies and television” (AHS and Philosophy). At the same time, can we truly know thy neighbor and detect such a change? Think of how this concept as it applies to ourselves. Would you want people to know your innermost thoughts? If so, can you trust they will not change their relationship with you simply because they don’t want you to know? There’s that fear again. This is a concept explored with each season of AHS. The characters all have secrets, and the relationships always change when one comes to light. We, the audience, are left sitting on our couches, subconsciously aware our secrets aren’t as deadly but glad nonetheless that no one knows them.

Self-identity is one struggle that no person will ever truly conquer, though it will be one that is constantly debated. In the third section of the book, a dialogue is constructed between the characters of AHS: Freak Show. Bette, the former of conjoined twins, discusses the concept of The Ship of Theseus( if each part of the ship is replaced as time progresses, is it still the same ship in the end?) and explains to the group of characters that they as humans are like that ship in that everything down to their cells are replaced as time progresses, thus are they the same person they once were? At what percentage of new parts are we no longer who we used to be? Surely, we will always be a percentage of who we used to through our memories, but what if someone were to lose those? Then who’s to say we are still who we used to be from the skin to the psychological? Bette delves farther with her sister, Dott. With all the parts they share, are they truly two different people? She wonders. Surely, their brains are separate, but they can share their thoughts telepathically. Are they different or simply one cumulative being with different outlets? The question of self is explored with each season, but never so thoroughly as in the fourth with Dott and Bette who are never given a complete chance to establish their differences outside of Bette dying her hair.


Another damning concept in American society is our ability to relate ourselves to extremes. The book described humans as "creatures who constantly interpret their environment, seeing meaning in things sometimes even before they've recognized them. For [Charles Taylor] and philosophers like him, the meaning we find in the world, the things we imagine to be surrounding us, all depend on our state of mind, the kind of world we feel like we're living in" (AHS and Phil). Americans are a paragon of this because they interpret their world and the world of fiction and compare themselves to the characters. "Oh!" They declare most profoundly, "I totally understand what Tate is going through. He's just a lonely teenager. I wish I were Violet!" Yeah no, he's a sociopath who murdered his classmates and raped Violet's mother. If they still want him after all that, this is the best reply:



Americans are drowning in a proverbial ocean of suggestions because we are taught that not even the sky is the limit when it comes to who we can be and how we can feel. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it makes us too susceptible to the surrealism of false scenarios, which is why shows like American Horror Story has such a vast fanbase.

Quiz Questions:

1. Name the one emotion that trumps all others and is brought to focus in AHS.
2. What “damning” concept is taught to children by their predecessors?
3. What is one struggle no person will ever truly conquer?
4. Who spent their life dedicated to the relationship between the mind and body?
5. What belief is challenged by possession movies and tv shows?
6. What is the backstory the Ship of Theseus?
7. What are Americans drowning in? Why are we doing so?

Discussion Questions are located within the text.

American Horror Story and Philosophy: Life Is but a Nightmare (Popular Culture and Philosophy) (Kindle Locations 693-696). Open Court. Kindle Edition.