exsilium | a question for everyone on the network [video]

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a question for everyone on the network [video]

Apparently there's something called psychology. And applying it is tricky, because of cultural differences, and such. Yes?

If there's one thing we have in abundance, it's cultural difference. So it might not be so simple to offer psychological help at our clinic.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

But an incompetent healer can cause damage, or exacerbate it, and that's the last thing I want.

So. [The preamble having been finished, he leans back in his chair.] Exsilium network. Tell me what psychology entails in your world. The idea of it, and also the practice of it. If your world has that, or something like it, I mean, and doesn't just chalk it all up to demons.

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To put it simply, psychology in my world is the academic discipline of understanding the mind, particularly human behavior and mental functions. It tends to be a very large field of study, and as I am no expert in it, I can only tell you so much.

[Jungian psychology though is something she's just recently delved into.]

Usually, psychological help is offered by professionals, or those who have studied psychology intensively and have been found competent enough to assist others in their problems.

What sort of training makes the difference between good and harmful psychological treatment?

Several years of studying and training under the actual psychologists. The latter we call "internship" and is viewed as a way for students to acquire experience in the field before going back to their studies and being allowed to practice on their own.

[[Still on hiatus but backtagging - let me know if you'd rather wrap this thread up some other way / handwave an ending to it; otherwise I'll keep going]]

What kinds of practice do they get? Not drilling holes in people's heads, I hope?

[Anders is a little appalled by Swann's account!]

That's an ancient and obsolete practice based on superstition, so I do hope no one uses it in my world. No, it is mostly conversation now, and getting people to air their thoughts and addressing those. It also involves some medication to help calm the body, though that's where my knowledge ends.

I also imagine that drilling holes into people's heads would be counterproductive, as it may kill them.

There wasnae too much they knew about it where I was from. Ye didnae want to end up in hospital, that's for sure. Worse than prison. They buggered yer head an' sometimes ye never saw the person again.

[Swann visibly shudders.]

At least they werenae drillin' holes in a bugger's head anymore, yeah?

Edited 2012-09-14 14:43 (UTC)

[[bwahahah I love this guy already.]]

Drilling ... holes. Why?

'twas thought it would help whatever was in the head. Crainial pressure, sommat. An' some bloody fools thought it would let the evil spirits out, what were possessin' someone.

I just think they wanted t'drill holes in someone's head. Disturbed bastards.

[[Still on hiatus but backtagging - let me know if you'd rather wrap this thread up some other way / handwave an ending to it; otherwise I'll keep going]]

To relieve cranial pressure... [Anders can almost see the reasoning in this. Almost.] But that's not how possession works!

[and Anders should know!]

Dinnae, myself. Never seen anyone who was possessed. A few nutters, sure, but no one ravin' and claiming to be a demon. Though there was that bloke who claimed to be a thistle.

There is a difference between spirits and demons, you know.

Aye. One ya run from and one ya run toward, depending on the quality of the stuff. 'Tis a sorry thing to let such things go tae waste.

[Swann clears his throat.]

I know what ye mean. When they were doing that, a hell of a long time ago (an' hopefully it didnae come around again). The unknown of any sort was considered evil, just like magic in the time I was from.

[Saying that sounds weird to him, the whole different points in time thing.]

Psychology... is that some form of disease?

Afraid you'll catch it?

Only if it's something you're not able to heal.

[[Still on hiatus but backtagging - let me know if you'd rather wrap this thread up some other way / handwave an ending to it; otherwise I'll keep going]]

How can you doubt me? Me. The healer who cleared up that nasty fungus off Oghren's toenails.

...

Please tell me you didn’t actually touch Oghren’s toenails.

[Anders is trying to avoid psychological damage, right?]

The study of the mind from the lacework of several people obsessed with sexual metaphors and their mothers' bedroom. [ Nope, he is not a big fan of the founding father of the field. He also could probably explain it better, not that he really wants to. People might actually get ideas. ]

One of the best things I can tell you is that not even the experts can agree on every one thing, though they can accept the general. It is like all doctors, really.

What do you mean by that? "Like all doctors".

Most doctors all agree on certain ways to heal, but all doctors will look at the fine details and disagree with why they do things a certain way.

[[Still on hiatus but backtagging - let me know if you'd rather wrap this thread up some other way / handwave an ending to it; otherwise I'll keep going]]

Fair enough. You could say that of experts in any field, really, couldn't you?

I could, truth be told.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

Agreed.

[You should see him in that tea-shop, typing away at this thing like a hipster in a Starbucks....]

I applaud your willingness to try--a lot of people here have troubles in their own timestreams or difficulties with the missions here that need addressed if they're to have any peace of mind. Psychology where I come from isn't much to write home about--my people are all telepaths and thus troubles of the mind are approached with a much more logical view. I prefer human psychology, especially from the 21st-22nd century, though a lot of it still doesn't make much sense to me.

Wait, your people are all telepaths?

[That's the province of blood mages!]

How exactly do they become telepathic? [ARE YOU A BLOOD MAGE, SER?!?!]

All of my species are born with telepathic sensitivity, to a greater or lesser degree, and are trained to use it properly when we're children.

[[Still on hiatus but backtagging - let me know if you'd rather wrap this thread up some other way / handwave an ending to it; otherwise I'll keep going]]

Are you saying you can read my mind? Right now?

[Oh, dear.]

That's a question with a longer answer than you really want, I think.

[The mun welcomes handwavey paraphrasing in brackets, if it makes life easier. Anders wants to know everything, and finds he learns more from people than from books.]

It's rather a tangled nest of questions, not so much a single question, I suppose. Sorry.

I'm prepared to hear out answers of any length. I really am interested to know more about this sort of treatment.

[Emma sighs and leans back in her chair, thinking about how to explain to someone from what sounds like a medieval world.]

An insect hatches from its egg knowing everything it needs to about how to be an insect. A cat is born knowing less, but even if you take a kitten away from its mother too young, it will still be able to hunt when it's grown.

People are born knowing almost nothing. We spend two decades learning what we need to be people, and because of that, the mind is extremely adaptable. It will twist to fit its environment, like a tree that's met with an obstacle, or that grows in a place with constant wind.

This isn't always a good thing. Someone who grows up in a war zone, or extreme poverty, or any other situation where things are uncertain or dangerous will be like those trees--the mind has done what it needs to survive, but once it's removed from that constant threat, the twists and gnarls no longer serve a purpose, and can in fact be dangerous themselves. Something similar can happen with great, immediate mental trauma, like witnessing a murder.

The purpose of psychology, and here's where the analogy starts to fail, is to unbend the mind. You can't do that with a tree trunk, but we stay more flexible. A psychologist is trained to recognize common patterns of thought and to ask the kind of questions that get to the heart of someone's troubles, and then to help the patient learn a new way of thinking. It's a slow process, and depends on a great deal of trust between the patient and the therapist.

[Then there's telepathy, but we're not talking about that.]

[By Thedosian standards, Anders is extremely well-educated; a Circle education is better than even most nobles can boast, since, well, there isn't much else to do in the Circle of Magi.

The success of Emma's explanation has less to do with Anders' acuity than with the way she's chosen her words, however. Emma's gone very light on the jargon, and used some metaphors that make intuitive sense -- lots of nature imagery, good! Anders isn't a huge fan of the outdoors but he does understand how things grow -- and the description of psychological trauma fits what he's observed in the Blight refugees he's treated over the years.

So rather than a baffled Andersface, a concerned and thoughtful Andersface can be seen. It's hard to imagine how he'll go about implementing all this, but he understands at least the gist of what it is.]

We need that.

The conscript community needs that. These bastards have been mucking about in our heads, mining our dreams and memories. They've drugged some of us to make us love them or heighten our fear of their enemies. They haven't a clue what they're doing and they don't care what they break, or who.

Some of us may need help putting ourselves back together.

And how were you planning on convincing people to trust a near stranger with their minds? Where I'm from there are professional...guilds, I suppose you could call them, for therapists, that have the power to certify and discipline their members. There's no such accountability here.

[Not that Emma cares at all about accountability, but this is a public transmission, and it's better to hide her general opportunistic amorality when people are watching.]

I am no expert, of course. But I have had some education in that field. The study of minds, the way they work! It is utterly fascinating, but I am more adept at hands-on work.

[By now, Anders is somewhat acquainted with Nananea, thanks to their mutual work in the clinic. He doesn't know her very well, however -- he's always bustling around, she's always got something to do -- and the chance to talk more with her is one he'll gladly take.]

When you say hands-on work, you don't mean drilling holes in people's heads, I hope. [He's joking. The grin should give it away. It's a reference to Swann's remark upthread. More seriously:] How does one go about treating something so intangible as a mind? Not a brain, but a mind. A personality.

Oh, no no! Different fields of medicine. I am a better surgeon than psychologist. Hm. There is therapy. Sometimes that helps. Behavior modification. Sometimes drugs. Chemicals. The university I was educated at puts a great deal of faith in them!

[[Still on hiatus but backtagging - let me know if you'd rather wrap this thread up some other way / handwave an ending to it; otherwise I'll keep going]]

Chemicals? That may not prove terribly popular among the transports; we've had a problem early on with contaminated food and water courtesy of our dear hosts. Made people see things that weren't really there.

Well, there's people who wanna figure out why villains exist. It should be pretty obvious.

Obvious why villains exist? I wouldn't call that obvious.

You're thinking too hard. For me? It's just fun.

Yes, well, I suppose if you're enjoying yourself that's all that matters, isn't it. [Hmph.]

Now you've got it.

Now mister, please tell me, how did learning about this make you feel?

[Anders sees what you did there, kiddo. Approval + 10 for wit.]

A little hungry. I could use a snack. Other than that, I don't perceive any changes.

Interesting. What kind of snack?

[ She rubs her chin, then shoots him a grin. Does it really matter? No, but it's psychologist blather. Help me Gazebo I've been by a rhyming need, oh! ]

Uhm... so this is relating to stuff that's gone on recently?

[To be fair, there aren't many times Anders couldn't use a snack. Warden metabolism. ~~His taint, in other words, is the problem.~~] Something crunchy, perhaps. [Psychoanalyse this!]

Some of us have recently been forced to revisit less-than-pleasant memories, with a charming twist. I can't say it makes me want to dig any deeper into my own mind, but I thought we ought to be ready to help, if people were damaged by what they saw or did.

[ She strokes her chin. ]

I see. I'll be by later with ink blots to run further tests, sir!

Ooooh yeah, that whole thing. I guess if someone knows how to help people with that... though even listening can be a big help. Sometime's that's all a person needs!

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