Chapter 2338: Mind Assault (Part II)

People could see that since the universe wasn't as empty as they thought, but full of all kinds of magical life, and they had built societies even more prosperous than humans, then humans would join them one day, which would create countless social positions.

Relatively speaking, the distribution problem between human individuals was actually a problem of insufficient total resources. Although it was true that equal distribution of Earth's resources could support everyone, the level of this support was hard to say.

It was true that having enough to eat and wear and having some entertainment was fine, but there would always be people with higher pursuits. Even without talking about material conditions, realizing one's own value was the highest emotional need of human beings.

And if Earth's existing resources were distributed equally, there would inevitably be people who couldn't realize the self-value they wanted, so contradictions were destined to appear.

Therefore, the best solution wasn't absolute fairness, but increasing the total amount and relative fairness, so that even the poorest batch of people could realize their needs to the greatest extent.

And to achieve this, it was necessary to join interstellar society. In addition to mining extraterrestrial resources, it could also provide employment opportunities for more people who needed positions and provide opportunities for ambitious people to realize their self-needs.

By then, people with high-end needs would go out, and those who didn't want to go would stay on Earth, without having to face such strong competition. Under the condition that the total amount of resources brought by interstellar development was greatly enriched, although it still couldn't completely eliminate the gap between rich and poor, both the poor and the rich would be moving forward overall, and life would definitely be better than before.

Most people who graduated from prestigious universities and successfully became psychologists could see this truth. Although they were only doctors now, they might not be able to become experts in the interstellar field; it mainly depended on who started early.

But unfortunately, most of the positions in the previous solar system development plan weren't open to ordinary people. In addition to ability problems, safety was indeed worth considering.

However, after a period of development, humans already had the conditions to let a small number of people go out first.

Take Asgard, for example. Under the leadership of Thor and Loki, they gradually began to attach importance to the psychological problems of their clan members. Thor understood Loki's worries in this regard as much as he understood Loki, because Asgard was also in a period of social change.

After Asgard almost stopped going out to fight, some of these reckless men actually developed reverse PTSD, drowning their sorrows in alcohol every day and running to ask Thor why there were no wars to fight.

In wartime, an incompetent general could exhaust a thousand troops, but in peacetime, a madman could drag a race into the water. To avoid such events, Thor had already begun to consider getting a powerful psychologist as a royal advisor.

Schiller certainly didn't have time, so he could only settle for the next best thing, but he didn't know which one was the next best. After communicating with Nick several times, Nick indicated that they didn't have anyone either.

So Loki suggested, why don't you send a batch of psychologists over to be teachers, with great treatment and benefits.

Nick was a little moved when he saw the conditions offered by the Asgardian royal family. What was visible to the naked eye was an incomparably broad road to the sky, so after he added the competition permit for this position as a bargaining chip, even many famous psychologists who had been famous for a long time were crazy about it.

First of all, the blessing of the World Tree could cure all diseases. For humans, it was a difficult and complicated disease or a terminal illness that couldn't be solved at all, but for the World Tree, it was effortless.

And not only could it cure the disease, but it could also forcibly reset your body to the best state for this age group. From the perspective of human longevity, it could almost allow this person to reach the theoretical maximum of human lifespan.

Anyway, after Nick released this news, those psychology experts who were already half-buried in the soil didn't have back pain or shortness of breath, and the reasons for refusing re-employment were forgotten. On the spot, they expressed that the development of human psychology and interstellar sociology couldn't be without them.

Of course, as the most famous psychologist known in the circle so far, Schiller also had to set an example.

In fact, it was also because he felt a bit difficult when he prescribed a prescription for Cobblepot before, because he hadn't entered clinical practice for too long.

Anyone who has been a doctor or knows a doctor knows that a doctor's experience level is probably a thousand times more important than theoretical level and talent. If you don't participate in clinical work, it's hard to see all kinds of strange cases. If you don't write prescriptions, you won't know how fast human medicine is updating and iterating.

So Schiller decided to return to Presbyterian Hospital to participate in clinical psychological work for a period of time. Because Schiller had prescription rights, he returned to the psychiatry department. Of course, it wasn't because psychiatrists were the second highest-earning type of doctor in the United States.

The highest-earning ones were surgeons.

But when it comes to work intensity, psychiatry is indeed more appealing. Whether it's surgeons or anesthesiologists, they are both exhausted and face high risks. Although there are precedents of psychiatrists being hit by patients, Schiller, other than being unilaterally beaten by a sprinkler, has yet to meet a defeat so far.

The psychiatry department at New York-Presbyterian Hospital is among the best in the nation, though not the first. However, its business scope is very broad, and it has research groups for over 60 sub-specialty branches. The group Schiller is currently leading originally had 12 interns, and their research direction is psychological soothing for terminal illness progression and intraoperative emergency psychotherapy.

The former is simple: for the vast majority of people, hearing that they have a terminal illness brings fear, panic, and worry, which are normal. But these emotions bring immense pressure; no one is not afraid of death.

All the organs of the human body are working hard to cooperate, but if the brain gives up first, then the rest are even more hopeless. Therefore, psychological soothing during the course of an illness is very important.

Some elderly people undergo drastic personality changes after falling ill. Many years ago, people thought this was diseased cells affecting the human brain, but so far, the mainstream view has reversed, believing this is a behavioral manifestation caused by emotional stress affecting the person.

Therefore, for many elderly people who are making a scene in hospitals, doctors will suggest seeing a psychiatrist. However, some relatively conservative family members will only think the doctor is calling the elderly person a mental patient.

But in reality, emotional problems that manifest in intensely externalized ways are already fully sufficient to be called mental illnesses. No amount of persuasion is as good as taking medicine immediately.

Intraoperative emergency psychotherapy is what Schiller is doing right now. He is currently changing his clothes, dressing exactly like all the members in the operating room, completely different from the white coat he wears for psychotherapy.

After he walked into the operating room, he glanced at the interns who followed behind. The interns very tactfully closed the door and stood to the side without saying a word, because New York-Presbyterian Hospital regulations forbid extra intraoperative records; being able to understand and remember it all depends entirely on the brain.

"What's going on?" Schiller's voice came from behind his mask, sounding a bit muffled. He looked at the woman lying on the delivery table, his gaze landing on her arms.

The surgeon didn't say anything; he pointed to the scars on her arm. Even from this distance, Schiller could tell that these scars were likely self-inflicted not long ago and hadn't fully healed. The one near the wrist was particularly long and deep, and there were even signs of inflammation.

A relatively young nurse was treating this wound, while the pregnant woman undergoing surgery just lay calmly on the operating table.

One look at the pregnant woman's expression, and Schiller knew it was bad. In psychiatry, one doesn't fear a scene, but one fears empty eyes. A patient who already has obvious symptoms of stupor is almost saying, "Even if I successfully give birth to the child, neither of us will live past a week."

Through the door of the operating room, Schiller could see the husband's anxious figure pacing outside. He could only walk to the head of the bed, look at the lady, and say, "Please listen to me, ma'am. Your hands are your hands, your legs are your legs. You are existing right now, as your own self, and you are undergoing surgery."

The woman turned her head silently to look at Schiller, then quickly turned her head back. Schiller sighed, turned to look at the lead surgeon, and said, "Can you find a way to alleviate the anesthesia effect?"

The lead surgeon looked at the anesthesiologist. The anesthesiologist appeared very troubled. Finally, he looked at Schiller and said, "I know you might want to use pain stimulation to alleviate her dissociative symptoms, but that is too inhumane. I'm afraid I can't do that."

"We must find a way to divert her attention." Schiller stood to the side, looking into the woman's eyes, and said, "Pull her back and let her feel this world normally."

Schiller paused for a moment, then looked outside the door and said, "According to your observations, how is her relationship with her family?"

"Quite good, but her husband's emotions are also very agitated. When we pushed her in, he insisted on following," the nurse said. "For the previous ten minutes, he was shouting in the hallway until the head nurse came, and then he calmed down a little."

"Prepare immediately to request that her husband accompany the birth."

"But this isn't a smooth delivery; it's a premature birth. Will it..."

"I will take responsibility for any problems. Go ask the head nurse to come over," Schiller said.

The young nurse nodded and sprinted out the door. Soon, the head nurse walked in. Before the lead surgeon could say anything, the head nurse said in a resonant tone, "I've already told her husband to go change his clothes; he'll be here in two minutes. Just be careful not to let him touch the mother's lower body, and don't scare him again."

After saying this, the head nurse left. The sound made the moment this husband rushed in made even Schiller want to cover his ears.

This man was big and tall with a full beard, but he managed to make a noise like a pressure cooker boiling over. He threw himself onto his wife's chest and began to wail loudly.

Then, everyone watched as the stupor on the pregnant woman's face gradually disappeared. But what appeared wasn't being moved, but a look of irritation. She roared in a voice that was both weak and powerful, "Get away! Oakes! I'm not dead! Stop your damn crying!!!"

"Uh..." Just after regaining consciousness, the mother let out a cry of pain. The anesthesiologist immediately stepped forward to check the situation. The entire operating room was like a paused video that had been hit with a play button; in an instant, everyone began to perform their duties, and it became lively.

Schiller and the interns stood at the edge of the operating room because the hospital has regulations: even if one participates in a rescue halfway through, one must enter and not leave, or leave and not enter, so they could only stay until the surgery ended.

The intern turned to look at Schiller and said, "So, in the face of this situation, we can suggest family intervention, right?"

"It depends on what type of family member it is; if they are just adding to the trouble, they'd better not come."

"Then how did you see that the relationship between this husband and the pregnant woman was good? Among the cases of emotional problems in pregnant women and mothers I've handled, in the vast majority of cases, the husband is the fuse for their emotional problems."

"The state of the wound shows it was likely self-inflicted within the last week," Schiller said. "But this pregnant woman had already been hospitalized here for a period of time due to fetal heart issues."

"If they had an argument over some issue within this week leading to the pregnant woman's self-harm, then the doctors' and nurses' evaluation wouldn't be that their relationship is very good. A hospital is different from a home; it's not a closed environment but a public place. Most people aren't blind; they can see whether they are harmonious on the surface or truly in love."

"Then what do you think caused the pregnant woman's current emotional problems?"

"It's complicated, because considering the pregnant woman's situation, one must consider hormonal factors. But if we talk about emotional problems alone, I think the poor fetal condition must be the main reason."

Schiller sighed and said, "Assuming there is only an instant from pregnancy to birth, the vast majority of people wouldn't have anxiety disorders. This is determined by human thinking patterns, which is why there is a saying: 'Long pain is worse than short pain.'"

"For most situations where people grit their teeth and endure, people's psychological endurance is relatively strong, while anxiety stems from the long, drawn-out waiting for an unknown result."