Chapter 2384: Spirit Assault (Part 2)_1

People could tell that since the cosmos wasn't as empty as they once thought, but filled with all kinds of magical life that had formed societies even more prosperous than that of the human race, humans will one day join them. This would create countless social positions.

Relatively speaking, the problem of distribution among individuals is actually still a matter of insufficient total resources. Although the equal division of Earth's resources could indeed sustain everyone, the level of sustenance is questionable.

Indeed, it's enough to be well-fed, clothed, and have certain entertainment, but there will always be people with higher aspirations. Even setting aside material conditions, realizing one's own value is the highest emotional need of humans.

And if we were to equally distribute Earth's current resources, it would be inevitable that some people would not achieve the value they desire, so conflict is bound to arise.

Therefore, the best solution is not absolute fairness but an increase in the total amount—relative fairness—allowing even the poorest to meet their needs to the greatest extent.

To achieve this, it is necessary to join the Interstellar Society. In addition to mining resources from other planets, it would also provide employment opportunities for many who need jobs and chances for ambitious individuals to realize their own needs.

By then, those with high-end needs could venture out while those preferring to stay on Earth wouldn't have to face such fierce competition. With the vast increase in resources brought by interstellar development, although it would still not be possible to completely eliminate the wealth gap, both the poor and the rich would be moving forward overall, and life would certainly be better than before.

Most graduates from prestigious schools who have successfully become psychotherapists can see this rationale, though they may currently be just doctors, they could potentially become experts in the interstellar field, depending largely on who gets an early start.

Unfortunately, most positions in the previous Solar System development plan were not open to the general public. Aside from capability issues, security was indeed a concern.

However, after some time, humans now have the conditions to let a small number of people venture out first.

Take Asgard, for example. Under the leadership of Thor and Loki, they have gradually begun to pay attention to the psychological issues of their members. Thor understands Loki's concerns about this as much as he understands Loki himself because Asgard is also in a period of social transformation.

After Asgard stopped waging wars, some brutes even experienced reverse PTSD. They drowned their sorrows in alcohol daily, pestering Thor with questions about why there were no battles to fight.

During wartime, the incompetence of a general could lead to the death of thousands, but in peacetime, one madman could drag down an entire race. To avoid such incidents, Thor has begun to consider hiring a formidable psychotherapist as a royal advisor.

Shiller would certainly be not available, so he had to settle for the next best option. However, he didn't know which that was. After several communications with Nick, Nick indicated that they had no one suitable on their end as well.

So Loki suggested, "Why don't you send over a batch of psychologists to serve as teachers, with generous treatment and benefits?"

The conditions offered by the Asgard royal family were so alluring that even Nick was tempted. It was visibly a broad highway to success. So when he incorporated this competition for the position into the negotiating chips, even many well-known psychotherapists who had been famous for a long time went crazy.

The first perk: the blessing of the World Tree could heal all diseases. What were considered intractable diseases or incurable terminal illnesses for humans were no challenge to the World Tree.

Furthermore, it could not only cure your illness but also forcibly reset your body to the optimal state for your age range. From the perspective of lifespan studies for humans, this could almost allow a person to reach the maximum theoretical lifespan.

Anyway, once Nick released this news, all those psychologists previously resigned to their retirement suddenly found their backs didn't hurt, their breath wasn't short anymore, and they forgot the reasons they had refused reemployment. They promptly declared that the development of human psychology and Intergalactic Sociology could not proceed without them.

Of course, as the most famous psychotherapist known so far in the field, Shiller also had to set an example.

Indeed, it was partly because he had felt somewhat strained when prescribing for Cobblepot previously, since he had been out of clinical practice for too long.

Those who have been doctors or are acquainted with them know that a doctor's level of experience is probably a thousand to ten thousand times more important than their theoretical knowledge and talent. Without being involved in clinical work, it's hard to encounter a variety of rare and strange cases, and without prescribing, you'd be unaware of how fast the field of human medicine is updating and iterating.

Therefore, Shiller decided to return to Elders Council Hospital for a period of clinical psychological work. Since Shiller had prescription rights, he went back to psychiatry. Of course, it wasn't because psychiatrists are the second highest-earning type of doctor in America.

The highest earners are surgeons.

But when it comes to the intensity of work, psychiatrists indeed have it better. Whether it's surgeons or anesthetists, the job is tiring and high risk, while psychiatrists, although there are precedents for being attacked by patients, except for being unilaterally beaten by a sprinkler, Shiller has so far remained undefeated.

The psychiatric department at New York Elderly Association Hospital ranks among the top in America, although not number one, and it covers a very wide range of services with over 60 research groups in various subspecialties. The team Shiller now led originally had 12 interns, and the research direction was the psychological soothing during severe disease course and emergency psychological treatment during surgeries.

The former is straightforward: most people, upon hearing they have a terminal illness, feel fear, panic, and worry—all normal responses. But these emotions can bring enormous stress, and nobody is immune to the fear of death.

All of the human body's organs strive to work together, but if the brain gives up first, then all other efforts are moot, so psychological soothing during the disease course is essential.

Some elderly people change temperament drastically after falling ill, which many years ago was believed to be due to diseased cells affecting the brain. However, the mainstream view has now shifted, considering it to be behavioral expression resulting from emotional stress on a person.

So now, many agitated elderly patients in hospitals are recommended to see a psychiatrist, but some conservative family members only feel that the doctors are insulting the elderly by suggesting they have a mental illness.

But in reality, emotional problems that manifest outwardly are already fully sufficient to be termed mental illnesses, and no amount of counseling is as effective as taking medication immediately.

Emergency psychotherapy during surgery was exactly what Shiller was currently doing. He was in the process of changing his clothes, dressing in the same outfit as all the other members in the operating room, a far cry from the white coat he usually wore for psychotherapy.

After entering the operating room, he glanced at the intern who followed. The intern tactfully closed the door and stood aside without saying anything, because the New York Elderly Association Hospital had a rule against extraneous intraoperative recording. Understanding and memorization relied entirely on one's mind.

"What's going on?" The muffled sound of Shiller's voice came from behind the mask as he looked at the woman lying on the delivery table, his gaze falling on her arm.

The surgeon didn't say anything, but pointed at the scars on the arm. Even from this distance, Shiller could see that these scars must have been self-inflicted not long ago, not yet fully healed. The one near the wrist was particularly long and deep, showing signs of inflammation.

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

Just one look at the pregnant woman's expression, and Shiller knew it was bad news. Psychiatry didn't fear a ruckus, it feared an empty gaze. This patient, showing clear signs of catatonia, was almost announcing that even if I successfully give birth to the child, neither of us will survive the week.

Through the operating room doors, Shiller could see the anxious figure of her husband pacing outside. He could only go to the head of the bed and say to the lady, "Please listen to me, ma'am. Your hand is your hand, your leg is your leg, you are currently existing, with your own identity, undergoing surgery."

The woman silently turned her head to look at Shiller, then quickly turned away again. Shiller sighed and turned to the lead surgeon, "Is there a way to reduce the anesthesia effects?"

The lead surgeon looked towards the anesthetist, who appeared very troubled. Eventually, he looked at Shiller and said, "I understand you might want to use pain to alleviate her dissociative symptoms, but that would be inhumane. I'm afraid I can't do that."

"We need to find a way to divert her attention," Shiller said while looking at the woman's eyes. "Bring her back, let her feel this world as one should."

Shiller paused and then looked outside the door, "From your observations, how is her relationship with her family?"

"Quite good, but her husband is also very emotional. He insisted on following her in when we brought her in," said the nurse. "He was shouting in the corridor until the head nurse came and calmed him down a bit."

"Prepare to request her husband's presence at the birth immediately."

"But this isn't a smooth delivery, it's a premature birth, could it...?"

"I will take responsibility for any issues. Go and ask the head nurse to come here," Shiller said.

The young nurse nodded and dashed out the door. Soon, the head nurse came in. The lead surgeon had yet to say anything when the head nurse spoke with resolve, "I've already sent her husband to change into scrubs. He'll be here in two minutes. Just make sure he doesn't touch the patient's lower body to avoid shocking him."

After speaking, the head nurse left. The sound the husband made when he burst in made Shiller want to cover his ears.

The man was tall, with a full beard, but he managed to make a noise like a pressure cooker going off. He suddenly threw himself at his wife's chest and began to sob uncontrollably.

Then everyone watched as the frozen look on the pregnant woman's face slowly disappeared. However, the expression revealed was not one of being moved, but one of irritation. With a voice both weak and forceful, she yelled, "Get off, Aux! I'm not dead! Stop the damn crying!!!"

"Uh..." The moment the patient regained consciousness, she let out a cry of pain, and the anesthetist immediately went to check on her. The whole operating room, like a paused video with the start button suddenly pressed, burst into action as everyone began to fulfill their duties.

Shiller and the intern stood at the edge of the operating room. Because of hospital policy, even those joining midway for a rescue couldn't leave until the surgery finished—they had to stay until the end.

The intern turned to Shiller and said, "So, facing this kind of situation, we can suggest family intervention, right?"

"It depends on the type of family member. Better not come if it's just going to add to the troubles," Shiller replied.

"Then how did you discern that this husband had a good relationship with the pregnant woman? In most of the cases I've dealt with regarding emotional issues in pregnant women and mothers, the husbands are often the spark for their emotional problems."

"You can tell from the state of the wounds, they must have been made within the past week," Shiller said. "But this pregnant woman had already been hospitalized here for a while because of fetal heart issues."

"If they had argued over some issue during this last week, leading to the woman's self-harm, the doctors and nurses wouldn't say they have a good relationship. A hospital is not a closed environment like a home but a public place. Most people are not blind—they can tell whether a couple is just feigning harmony or actually in love."

"So what do you think caused the pregnant woman's emotional issues now?"

"It's complicated because you have to consider hormonal factors when it comes to the pregnant woman. But if we're talking strictly about emotional issues, I believe the poor condition of the fetus is definitely the main cause," Shiller said.

Shiller sighed, "Imagine if pregnancy to childbirth was just a moment, then the vast majority of people wouldn't have anxiety. It's the human way of thinking that determines this, hence the saying 'a short pain is better than a long one.'"

"For the majority of situations that can be endured with some grit, people's psychological capacity to cope is quite robust. Anxiety stems from the lengthy wait for an unknown outcome."