Chapter 2206: Gotham Music Festival (Part 5)_1

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As they were talking, a waiter from the restaurant came over and said with a smile, "We will start dining in 20 minutes, please make sure to choose your seats in 10 minutes. We will present our products based on the number of people."

Shiller nodded at them and then turned to Arthur with a smile, saying, "It looks like we can't bleed that rich guy dry anymore, but luckily it's less than an hour, charged by the hour."

Arthur returned the smile.

"However, since we're charging for an hour anyway, we can wrap up this conversation quickly, so you can save some time for other things."

Arthur didn't object; he just sat there silently, as if saying, "You arrange everything."

"Of course, please don't misunderstand, I'm not trying to brush you off. In fact, conducting routine inquiries with patients is simply part of my duty. You have to give those who couldn't graduate from university the illusion that their consultation fee is well spent, but I don't need that."

Arthur tilted his head.

"Your illness is cured, Arthur," Shiller said, placing his forearm fully on the table and leaning forward to look into Arthur's eyes. "From the moment you became Joker, your illness was cured."

"Your illness was never about being savage, violent, or insane. Those are symptoms that only-born psychopaths have, but you're just an ordinary person."

"People often say that everyone has the potential to become Joker after a bad day, but the truth is that ordinary people, after a bad day, after many bad days, after several bad years, just think about suicide."

"Maintaining the belief that 'it's nobody's fault but my own' requires enormous courage and willpower, even talent. Either you were born with that mindset, or it's nearly impossible to cultivate it later in life."

"Even if you outwardly show this attitude, inside you're surely being torn apart by intense resentment toward yourself and society, and it's not something ordinary people can do to completely dump all their resentment on the latter."

"In the first half of your life, your scales were tipped too far forwards, like every other ordinary person. Although you might shift blame, complain about others and the social environment, in the end, it's always back to yourself, beginning self-doubt, self-conflict, self-depletion."

"This is the root cause of most ordinary people's mental illness. Their capacities leave too many things undone, yet they lack the strong will to blame all their faults on society, so they feel regret, disillusioned, shaken, until they fall into depression."

"Imagine, if there was an inevitable rule that every person who has had a bad day would become Joker, would the world be as bad as it is now? Would they dare to be this bad?"

"It's because there is no such rule that the vast majority of ordinary people who've had a bad day choose to hide at home and be miserable. Even if there was a certainty that one in ten would become Joker and do what you did, human beings wouldn't dare build a society like this."

"That's why I say your illness is cured, because you finally threw the excessive weights that were burdening you onto the other side. You finally started to learn to blame others, to attribute your misfortunes to society."

"You think it's not their fault?" Arthur narrowed his eyes.

"Not entirely," Shiller answered calmly. "You know you have made mistakes that are unrelated to environmental factors, just like everyone else, because it's almost inevitable, whether you're an ordinary person or a genius like Bruce Wayne, no one can always be completely right."

"I have to admit, if you could perfectly make every choice unrelated to environmental factors, then maybe your life wouldn't be like this, but that's an invalid hypothesis. If your life is already some sort of tragedy, it's nearly impossible to make the right choice."

"So, in the end, it's still their fault?" Arthur leaned back in his chair, resting only one hand on the edge of the table.

"Yes, but a person's life is an extremely complex proposition. Your choices are intertwined with the choices of society, shaping the current you. Objectively speaking, who is more to blame is not important, and it's also not within the purview of psychology."

"What we're discussing is who you actively attribute the failure of your life to. Normal people would say, 'Although I'm not that great, my current mess isn't entirely my fault,' and that's a relatively healthy mindset."

"Even though it's possible that he really is terrible and the tragedy of his life is entirely his fault, or perhaps he's actually very good and not to blame at all. But if he views the issue more neutrally, it helps keep his mindset balanced, avoiding the depression that comes from blaming oneself too much or failing to objectively judge oneself because of blaming the external environment too much."

"If you ever have a moment where you think 'Why is everyone doing well except for me?' or 'Why am I the only one who's bad?' it shows that your subjective attribution leans towards yourself. But if you think 'My life turned out this way,' or 'I deserve this kind of life,' it shows that the balance has dangerously tipped to one side."

Arthur looked away again, and no one knew if he ever truly had such thoughts for a moment.

"But when you became Joker, you killed the people who mocked you, telling the world no one cared about you, no one loved you, their indifference made you what you are now; you're going to take revenge on this unfair society. It proves your scales have finally balanced."

"Isn't it tipping too far the other way?" Arthur asked again.

Shiller reached toward his chest as if to take a pen from his pocket, then realized he wasn't wearing his doctor's coat and had no pocket there, so he had to withdraw his hand and place it back on the table before responding.

"That has to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis, taking into account moral and personal emotional aspects as well..."

"You said you'd keep it brief."

"Then, from a social moral standpoint..."

"Let's not talk about morality."

"Then, from a personal emotional standpoint..."

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"There's also no emotion."

Shiller seemed somewhat helpless, while Arthur finally began his counterattack. Mimicking Shiller's previous posture, he leaned his forearm on the table, leaned forward, and asked Shiller, "How do you view my criminal actions?"

"You do know that standard psychological treatments are recorded, right?"

"Of course, but I don't..."

"I care."

Arthur was initially stunned, but then it dawned on him. He looked at Shiller, staring straight into those calm and resolute eyes.

"I am a doctor, and you are a patient seeking my consultation. We should talk as little as possible about my personal opinions and focus more on your condition. You are here for treatment, for me to help you see yourself clearly, not to probe into me."

Bruce, who was eavesdropping from the side, and Arthur both furrowed their brows. Arthur was troubled by Shiller's attitude, while Bruce realized that Shiller's greedy personality was much more cautious in this regard. Was it because he often found himself in a place where social order prevailed?

If it were arrogance, he would outright say, "I don't care about the fact that you killed someone. First, the person you killed has nothing to do with me, and second, you, the murderer, have nothing to do with me either."

In this world, someone has died, but people are al

But greed refrained from expressing his perspective from beginning to end, obviously avoiding statements that might touch upon legal and moral issues. It seemed like a habit to stay safe under the law.

It was not surprising. In Gotham, a death was hardly a matter of consequence, even in the Gotham Arthur knew, where dozens of homicides happened every day in public places; people had long become desensitized.

Murder wasn't even the fashionable topic of the day; rather, it was just one of the topics of casual conversation. Only a mass murder involving more than five victims could barely make the front page, and a terrorist attack with at least 200 deaths might possibly lead the news.

Therefore, people here didn't really care about discussing such matters. Even if you told Gordon to his face how many people you had killed, he wouldn't arrest you just for that. After all, if they were going to arrest anyone for talking about murder, they might as well turn Gotham into one big prison.

But beyond Gotham, especially in places where social order still held steady and the law was strongly enforced, in other words, in civilized societies, people had to be very careful with their words. Any opinion expressed about a murder case could end up as court evidence later on.

So, even though these things never ceased to exist, and people always discussed them, they always found the most appropriate attitude, subtly expressing their feelings but perfectly avoiding potential accountability in the future.

Arthur certainly realized. He originally wanted to say he didn't care about the recording—he had already killed, the court had already judged, what was there not to talk about?

But Shiller had said he cared. This indicated that if Shiller were to discuss the murder case from a personal standpoint, it probably wouldn't be a viewpoint that the law would appreciate. So what kind of viewpoints would the law dislike?

The suggestion was overly subtle, the attitude ambiguous and delicate. You could say he said something, but at the end of the day, he said nothing at all. You could say he expressed his viewpoint, but ultimately, he had no viewpoint.

"You are very much like the lawyer who defended me before," Arthur commented.

"The action is commendable, but I do not agree with the level of professionalism," Shiller shook his head and said.

Arthur felt he was implying something else. Although it seemed like he was saying that even a poor murderer having a defense attorney exemplified the justice of the law, his professional standard was not on the same level as the attorney's.

But it also sounded a bit like, "I think you are innocent, so it's right that someone defended you. It's really regrettable that he couldn't acquit the innocent you."

The difference between these two meanings is great, even diametrically opposed attitudes. The former stands on the side of the law, the latter completely scoffs at it.

You can't find any evidence in that short statement to prove which one Shiller meant. All you can do is take what he says for what it seems at face value, without comment.

Arthur reflected on all the previous words Shiller had said and found Shiller's argument to be quite reasonable, the analysis very clear. The so-called subjective attribution causing emotional illness and the theory of balance were all justified and easy to understand.

There were two main conclusions derived: Arthur was an ordinary person, and Arthur's condition was improving.

The method used was indeed the Psychoanalysis Method, accurately pointing out some of Arthur's depressive thoughts before he became the Joker. From the theory of the ordinary person, it gradually delved into attribution theory. Even the ordinary Arthur could identify through this psychological treatment where his problems lay and how to adjust them.

This was an eminently normal psychological treatment from a psychologist, the only issue being it did not quite seem like Shiller.

There was no analysis whatsoever of Arthur's personality, focusing completely on the facts and identifying the cause of the ailment, truly treating the disease.

The question was, since when did Shiller treat a condition seriously?

His words that appeared to be psychological guidance were actually just a prelude to breaking down others' defenses. The therapeutic effect came as a freebie from watching others crumble from what he said. People had long agreed that Shiller's psychological treatment was like the ticking sound before a bomb exploded.

So, was he really, unexpectedly, a psychologist after all?!