amaotonovel Chapter 2406: Bats Fight (6)
Chapter 2406: Bats Fight (6)
Chapter 2406: Bats Fight (XVI)
"Imaginary partners are not usually a very rare mental trait." Schiller stood at the front of the conference room and pointed to something on the screen. "Dr. Holder mentioned in his paper that 8000% of the 70 people surveyed described themselves as having a very specific imaginary partner, and 90% mentioned that they would imagine a voice to comfort themselves when they felt lost."
"That's true." A red-haired doctor sitting at the head of the table tapped the table with a pen and said, "I think everyone here should have had similar experiences. We will imagine another self to comfort ourselves in various situations. This is actually a protective mechanism of the brain."
"Then the problem is not here." An old doctor with a gray beard sitting opposite him said, "Because of the special background of this young man named David, his childhood was inevitably much more turbulent than others. This may have caused him some mental stimulation, which forced his brain to activate more self-protection mechanisms."
"But this is not at all the level of dissociative identity disorder." A female doctor wearing glasses pushed up her glasses, glanced at the medical records in her hand and said, "I don't see any incidents in David's childhood that could have caused the irritation."
"That terrorist attack," a doctor reminded, "is definitely a major trauma."
"But the timing was much later than the emergence of his childhood personality." A black doctor stroked his chin and said, "This shows that David's mental state was not stable before the terrorist attack, and the terrorist attack was just the last straw that broke the camel's back."
The old doctor sighed softly, paused for a moment and said, "We must separate all the elements to correctly find the key."
All the doctors stopped to look at him. It was obvious that many of the doctors here were once students of this old professor.
"Fantasy partners, dissociative identity disorder, terrorist attacks, and superpower personalities, those are the four things that are clear."
Some people began to take notes. The old professor continued, "Which of these four things are normal, which are abnormal, and are there any causal relationships between them? Only by clarifying these two questions can we find the key to unlocking David's spiritual world."
"That's what I thought." Schiller pointed at the screen again and said, "Before I started this consultation, I have printed out the details of these four questions. You can turn to page 6 of the consultation materials in your hands..."
The room seemed even quieter due to the sound of flipping pages. Everyone was reading the documents very seriously and carefully. Only after more than ten minutes did they start to make any noise.
"I think most people would argue that imaginary companions are completely normal, and any associations David had with people and objects during his childhood should not be classified as pathological at all," one of the doctors said.
Everyone nodded, and then another doctor spoke up, "David did not show very obvious characteristics of dissociative identity disorder during his childhood. He never claimed to the people around him that he was another person, which shows that the pathological characteristics of dissociative identity disorder were not obvious at this time."
"But this does not mean that the course of dissociative identity disorder has not begun." The female doctor opposite him looked at the case and said, "I have done some research in this area. Many patients with dissociative identity disorder do not feel that they are split in the early stages of personality split, and they will not tell anyone about their symptoms."
"But in fact, they have begun to experience symptoms of auditory and visual hallucinations, memory loss, loss of limb control, and even shock and coma."
“But we didn’t see that in the survey report.”
"Some patients' symptoms are very subtle until they develop an illness." The female doctor continued, "Especially during the transition from children to young adults, they are usually unable to accurately describe their symptoms because they have been under great mental pressure, and they have no way to seek medical treatment because they do not have full civil capacity."
"I agree with Celine's opinion." The black doctor thought for a moment and said, "David's dissociative identity disorder is not caused by a single stimulus. I guess he was born mentally unstable. During his growth, his parents did not pay enough attention to him, which led to his failure to seek medical treatment in time. As a result, his condition deteriorated to an unmanageable level after the terrorist attack."
"This argument is supported by the vast majority of people and is the most likely scenario," Schiller said. "Although it is normal to have imaginary friends around, if there are too many of them and they are thought about too frequently, it may affect normal thinking, which may also support the argument that David's mental state has been unstable since childhood."
"Can we contact his relatives?" someone asked.
"Obviously not. His stepfather died in a terrorist attack. Three years after he was sent to the Mutant Research Association, his mother also died of cancer. His biological father was not involved in his growth process and knew nothing about it."
The doctors sighed, but continued, "Then only the most critical question remains: the relationship between dissociative identity disorder and superpower personality."
"There is a huge doubt in this." The old professor said, "If he is a mutant and suffers from dissociative identity disorder, then how could his mutant ability just happen to give his separated personality all kinds of superpowers? What is the probability of this?"
"Very small, professor." A male doctor pinched his brow and said, "My research direction tends to be social investigation. Facts have proved that mutants are indeed more mentally unstable than ordinary people."
Schiller coughed heavily, and the black doctor showed a discontented expression. The male doctor who said this waved his hand and said, "Listen to me, this is not entirely their own problem. On the contrary, the vast majority of mutants are mentally unstable because their mutant abilities will attract the unfriendly eyes of the people around them, which causes them to always be displaced."
“Without a stable living environment, it is difficult to build a stable personality, and it is also difficult to have a stable mental state.”
The male doctor continued to state his conclusion, "Usually, unstable mental state will cause their mutant abilities to get out of control, which is also the culprit of many mutant disasters. Therefore, I have always been opposed to strict mutant isolation bills, which will only make the situation worse."
"But regardless of whether their mental state is stable or not, a mutant's mental state has no effect on the type of their mutant abilities." The male doctor looked at the information in his hand and said, "If a mutant's ability is fire, then a mental breakdown will only make his fire ability uncontrollable and ignite a large area, but it will not suddenly turn him into an ice-controlling mutant."
"That makes perfect sense." The male doctor nodded and said, "We, I mean the mutant abilities that mutants possess come from the X gene. If the X gene doesn't change, the type and strength of the abilities usually won't change."
"That rules out the possibility that David suddenly gained the ability to give various personalities superpowers because he suffered from dissociative identity disorder. In other words, this is a complete coincidence." The female doctor's tone revealed doubt. "It just so happens that there is a mutant whose ability is to give other personalities superpowers, and he just so happens to be mentally unstable and suffers from dissociative identity disorder, so he became like this now."
"How can there be so many coincidences?" someone immediately refuted her and said.
"I also think this is not a coincidence." The black doctor said, "As a mutant, I can say responsibly that no mutant's mutant ability will give him other personality abilities. This is inconsistent with our long-term investigation of mutant abilities."
"I have also printed out the classification survey data on mutants' mutant abilities. You can just flip to the back of the page," Schiller said.
Everyone started looking through the information again. This time it took a little longer because the information was so complicated. After people began to study mutants, countless experts from various fields conducted various studies. There were several different opinions on the classification of mutants' abilities alone.
Although Schiller has summarized the classification methods of several mainstream schools quite concisely, it is still long and complicated.
However, those present were not simple people. Those who were invited by Schiller for consultation were naturally experts. They quickly found the common points of the abilities under these classification methods, that is, all mutant abilities tend to directly affect themselves or the world.
If you want to achieve a certain goal, such as making a place hotter or colder, the mutant ability derived from it must be the shortest way within the limitations of the rules of the universe, such as directly lighting a fire or directly creating ice, rather than giving a mutant the ability to create stone and mud and asking him to build a stove.
This is also easy to understand. Gene X is a gene, not an artificial intelligence. It is impossible for it to subjectively understand the degree to which humans have developed, and then formulate a certain way of expressing abilities based on the degree of evolution and development. It is relatively natural and primitive.
From this perspective, creating a mutant ability that gives superpowers to one's split personality doesn't seem very scientific, because the X gene obviously shouldn't be able to understand what dissociative identity disorder is.
"So assuming that giving his personality superpowers is not David's mutant ability, then what is his mutant ability?" Schiller asked.
Everyone began to think, because this was obviously not a question that could be answered easily. In the eyes of these experts, David's original ability might just be a mediocre answer like controlling fire or ice, which was unacceptable because there was no clue to explain why such ability would evolve into giving so many personalities superpowers. This was illogical.
Everyone began a heated discussion, and everyone put forward their own possibilities, until the atmosphere in the room became hotter than a hot pot.
Schiller stood in front and listened quietly. He had some guesses about David's situation, but still needed inspiration from professionals.
The wisdom of the crowd was indeed worthy of its name. One of the guesses attracted the attention of most people. The black doctor speculated that Da Qun might be the owner of some kind of psychic ability based on some known mutant abilities.
Whatever this ability is, it must be very powerful and, by its nature, susceptible to mental instability, particularly dissociative identity disorder.
This coincides with Schiller's speculation. Schiller believes that David's mutant ability is most likely unimaginable and extremely strong mental power, and because of dissociative identity disorder, his mental power is divided into several parts, becoming the superpowers of each personality.
(End of this chapter)