This is Ender’s predicament at school: although he’s the super-best, gold-star soldier, he’s still a soldier doing what someone else wants him to do. (He identifies the game as one area where he’s free, but that’s a little silly to us – a game, after all, has rules that confine the player.) Ender isn’t free and he’s pretty depressed. Luckily, though, now he knows why he’s depressed and he can go off and deal with his feelings (through the mind game).