Astrophobia

[handfulofstraw.livejournal.com]

[Jonathan Crane, PhD, scans the Plane with bespectacled eyes in his very nice suit. To all appearances, the Plane has just won itself a new university professor]

Acrophobia would hardly be an irrational fear at present. Indeed, it would be very [takes a step] very [another step] practical. This is possibly one of the very few instances in a normal individual’s life where siderophobia might be considered rational as well. And so they would cease to be phobias.

Incongruous but coherent structure... far too lucid to be any breed of hallucination or dream. The idea of it being true space is out of the question, of course.

[picks up a discarded hat, examining it] The two most likely options are thus illusion or reality. I wonder which it is. [sets the hat down again and carries on his way]

Comments

[knowswheregodis.livejournal.com]

[He pauses to rub the back of his hand for a moment and decides to attempt a subtle topic change.]

You're a scientist or something?

[handfulofstraw.livejournal.com]

I am a doctor of psychiatry, but I like to keep myself informed about the world around me.

[knowswheregodis.livejournal.com]

Oh, one of those sorts of doctors.

[handfulofstraw.livejournal.com]

I hope you, too, have not had bad experiences with one.

[knowswheregodis.livejournal.com]

Nah, haven't really meself. Just heard some things from mates.

[handfulofstraw.livejournal.com]

We're not as bad as the horror stories say, I promise.

[knowswheregodis.livejournal.com]

Yeah? Dunno, really. Getting into people's heads and messing with them. Don't feel right.

[handfulofstraw.livejournal.com]

Other people are the ones who harm the minds of others. We help heal them, as a physician would help to heal a broken bone.

[knowswheregodis.livejournal.com]

How do you do that, then? Gauze on someone's head don't work.

[handfulofstraw.livejournal.com]

[Crane is somewhat stunned by Chris's comment. Surely, Chris understood that this was a metaphor]

[right?]

Of course not. We interact with the mind on the level that the mind interacts with the world.

[knowswheregodis.livejournal.com]

[You'll never know, Crane. Or maybe you'll figure it out.

Also Chris is thinking.]

Like when you cheer up someone, basically? You just talk to them until they feel better.

[handfulofstraw.livejournal.com]

The talking cure has its place, but there is a great deal more to the study than that.

[knowswheregodis.livejournal.com]

What else do you do? Knew someone said once they put you on pills, too.

[handfulofstraw.livejournal.com]

[Chris just went from 'fun person to torture' to 'making Dr Crane quite unhappy']

[bad combo, Christopher]

We medicate disorders that can be helped through medication. There is also behavioral therapy, focusing on that expression of the mind's working. Psychoanalytic methods attempt to bring people to confront the causes of their problems in an attempt to help them overcome them.