Chapter 1095: Father and Son (Twenty-Four)_2

Polaris pursed her lips, revealing a look of unwillingness, then said, "I would be very upset if I knew that my old friend would rather seek help from a stranger than let me heal him."

Scott also looked hesitant. He paused, then said, "We should be fine if we don't tell Professor X, right?"

"No, on the contrary, he will find out sooner or later. He is Professor X after all!" Lorna strode ahead, continuing:

"I'm going back to Earth to tell Professor X how fickle and cold-hearted Erik is, so that he no longer entrusts such matters to him. I would go mad if this happens again!"

Shiller stood by the window, watching Polaris and Scott walk away, one after another. He smiled and shook his head at Magneto by the table: "Youth is wonderful, isn't it?"

Magneto leaned back in his chair, took a sip of water from his teacup. The ends of his eyebrows, resembling gently falling bamboo leaves, and his demeanor gave off a sense of relaxation and leisure that he himself might not have noticed.

"Charles often says I should have patience with children," Magneto's deep voice echoed in the room, as if coming from a great distance.

"But I don't quite understand, must one always carry patience?"

Shiller hesitated for a moment, then responded, "Not necessarily, but parents should. You could choose to become an impatient person, as long as you don't have children."

"However, I also know that the birth of your own children is a product of your troubled life and unfortunate era."

"In your troubled life, fate has not given you the chance to enjoy a serene life, compounded by the relentless trials, there is no opportunity for patience to grow and sprout. This is not your fault."

"Similarly, fate did not allow your children to enjoy a happy family life or a secure environment, making it difficult for them to have the confidence to communicate calmly with anyone. This is not their fault either."

"As for whose fault this is…" Shiller shook his head.

Magneto's fingers gradually tightened until the veins on his old hands bulged out. Not for many years had he bitterly uttered that word, "NAZI…"

"No need to dwell on the past, we can discuss the present." Shiller changed the subject.

"Lack of patience is a flaw, but not a disease. For a person who is strong enough, patience isn't all that important."

"You have lived so many years of your life unabashedly volatile, and no one has managed to put you in your place. So, whether you have patience or not, doesn't really matter." Shiller shrugged.

"You are the most open-minded psychiatrist I've ever seen." Magneto commented, "Even more so than Charles."

"Do you know? Psychologists also have different schools of thought." Shiller took a sip of his warm tea, saying, "My current opinion is, if a patient is not suffering, then there is no need for treatment."

"Whether a person is mentally ill depends on whether they actually suffer due to their mental condition. It depends not only on whether they themselves feel pain, but also objectively, whether they suffer more than others who live in the same environment."

"That's why I said, I'm not here to treat you. You think you're living well, with no confounding issues. Your quality of life is also much better than most mutants. So there's no need for treatment."

"The concept of normal psychology is relative, one cannot measure the normality of different individuals by using the same standard. So as long as there is no suffering in both subjective and objective aspects, there really is no need for treatment."

Magneto fell into deep thought. He gained new insight today about psychology. While Shiller blew on his tea, he continued:

"This way of judgment has another advantage. That is, if under the same objective and subjective conditions, a person is indeed suffering, then he can accept psychological treatment, and he doesn't need to feel that since he hasn't been diagnosed with a mental illness, he can't receive the same treatment as a mentally ill patient."

Magneto's eyebrows twitched ever so slightly. He sensed a shared "care" from both Shiller and Charles.

This care wasn't specifically targeted at someone, nor at some particular aspects, but a drive to offer an unlimited potential of care to everyone.

"I didn't expect that a problem that has troubled Charles and me for so many years would be easily solved by you." Magneto's voice remained deep, but it held infinite astonishment.

Shiller turned to look at him with his teacup, saying, "This just shows that you both are intelligent and confident individuals. You know that no complex and difficult problem can defeat you. Therefore, you tend to complicate every problem…"

"Education indeed is a complex and difficult matter, but it can also be quite simple."

Shiller looked down at the tea in his cup. Tiny bubbles emerged at the base of the cup as the previously lukewarm tea warmed up again. This subtle sign of goodwill surprisingly made Shiller feel pleased.

So, he began to explain patiently:

"You have neglected the most important and fundamental aspect of education—respect."