Foreshadowing would be done for the audience's sake, not the characters'. Showing B'Elanna with symptoms, even little things like putting on a happy face and not being able to hold it once the person she smiled for has left, being listless or distracted, or hiding self-damaging behavior, would have gone a long way to build up to the episode's big reveal.
Mental Illness in Star Trek
- Thread starter DanGussin
- Start date
Well, whatever the treatment practices for mental illness in Trek, the one thing we can say is that they work.
All crime is considered mental illness in that society. Yet people emerge from the system nicely cured, never repeating an offense to our knowledge. Say, Harry Mudd is his affable self after therapy, capable of coming up with new offenses (sometimes even ones No Man Has Committed Before!) even though forever cured of the need to murder a man in 53 innovative ways, or to blackmail a starship captain with shady dilithium deals, or to circumvent Denebian IP laws, or to operate a spacecraft without license... The sheer volume of crimes committed by Mudd indicates the "penal" system (without any known punitive element to it!) has to deal with lots of cases even if there are few individuals involved, and it deals with those extremely well. Out of supposed trillions, four are considered incurable as of the 2260s!
In contrast, our Starfleet heroes face weekly ordeals that ought to drive them mad within a season or so, yet never appear the worse for the wear. Getting cured of suicidal depression in 42 minutes is not a poor dramatic conceit, it's a prerequisite for the existence of Starfleet as an organization. And somehow it works on techniques that do not involve heavily fortified "penal" asylums. Although solitary confinement or other isolation does appear to play a key role, and is actively used especially on underage patients ("Hero Worship", "The Bonding" etc), to good effect. Clearly, methods alien to us are in use, and work very well indeed.
I gather this advanced psychotherapy (be it a method or a pill) is what makes the UFP so paradaisical, not replicators or stun guns or surveillance systems. It might also make people unlikely to worry about asylums as a therapy practice, since the society would be too far removed from any where asylums still carried negative connotations.
Timo Saloniemi
All crime is considered mental illness in that society. Yet people emerge from the system nicely cured, never repeating an offense to our knowledge. Say, Harry Mudd is his affable self after therapy, capable of coming up with new offenses (sometimes even ones No Man Has Committed Before!) even though forever cured of the need to murder a man in 53 innovative ways, or to blackmail a starship captain with shady dilithium deals, or to circumvent Denebian IP laws, or to operate a spacecraft without license... The sheer volume of crimes committed by Mudd indicates the "penal" system (without any known punitive element to it!) has to deal with lots of cases even if there are few individuals involved, and it deals with those extremely well. Out of supposed trillions, four are considered incurable as of the 2260s!
In contrast, our Starfleet heroes face weekly ordeals that ought to drive them mad within a season or so, yet never appear the worse for the wear. Getting cured of suicidal depression in 42 minutes is not a poor dramatic conceit, it's a prerequisite for the existence of Starfleet as an organization. And somehow it works on techniques that do not involve heavily fortified "penal" asylums. Although solitary confinement or other isolation does appear to play a key role, and is actively used especially on underage patients ("Hero Worship", "The Bonding" etc), to good effect. Clearly, methods alien to us are in use, and work very well indeed.
I gather this advanced psychotherapy (be it a method or a pill) is what makes the UFP so paradaisical, not replicators or stun guns or surveillance systems. It might also make people unlikely to worry about asylums as a therapy practice, since the society would be too far removed from any where asylums still carried negative connotations.
Timo Saloniemi
When I see people worried about a 42 minute cure for depression, I realize how much higher the bar has been set as the new series have been developed. In those prehistoric olden days, we just accepted that McCoy could reinstall Spock's brain in a similar amount of time. 
If they're that good, one wonders why they'd need a ship's counselor.
Most shows have a bit of the "I'm ok after a horrible situation" problem. Chuck Norris in "walker Texas ranger " is a great example. Get captured, tortured, kill a bunch of people to escape then end the show at a bar that night cracking jokes. Many other shows have a similar issue to this.
For Trek, I think there is at least an attempt made to show some negative effect. Picard and often talks to Troi, Barkley was still introverted , LaForge struggled to recover from being brainwashed by the Romulans. And of course Picards Borg encounter remained with him.
It occurs to me that perhaps a medical intervention has been found in Trek that allows for the edge to be taken off a trauma without psychoactive or addictive side effects that allow a person to better process an event and heals some of the injury to the brain triggered by extreme or prolonged stress. or regular day to day life events, talk to Troi, but in the event of a massive trauma a combination of medical and therapy interventions are employed.
For Trek, I think there is at least an attempt made to show some negative effect. Picard and often talks to Troi, Barkley was still introverted , LaForge struggled to recover from being brainwashed by the Romulans. And of course Picards Borg encounter remained with him.
It occurs to me that perhaps a medical intervention has been found in Trek that allows for the edge to be taken off a trauma without psychoactive or addictive side effects that allow a person to better process an event and heals some of the injury to the brain triggered by extreme or prolonged stress. or regular day to day life events, talk to Troi, but in the event of a massive trauma a combination of medical and therapy interventions are employed.
I guess it depends a good deal upon what the trigger was/is, as well as the level of mental health of the individual on the whole. She may have bounced back quickly for the same reason that somebody in good overall physical health recovers quickly from the flu, whereas someone in declining/poor overall health might develop pneumonia instead.
Lenore Karidian was rehabilitated as stated in Foul Deeds Will Rise. She underwent therapy, got medication and went on with her life under an alias. Yet she got implicated in some murder investigations, finally found not guilty.
I don't remember the details of the novel, but I think Lenore has to take medication for the rest of her life to remain sane and mentally stable.
What happens to people who refuse to take their medication?
I don't remember the details of the novel, but I think Lenore has to take medication for the rest of her life to remain sane and mentally stable.
What happens to people who refuse to take their medication?
I think it would have been more fitting for a paramilitary organization like Starfleet to have MD psychiatrists instead of psychotherapists.
Kor
Who did Janice Lester kill? A lot of attempted murder maybe.
Yikes, you're right:
COLEMAN (to Lester in Kirk's body): You killed every one of the staff. You sent them where you knew the celebium shielding was weak.
I think this sounds much more sinister than brainwashing people after the fact to prevent repeat offenses. I mean, everybody is mentally ill in the Trek universe, considering Harry Mudd got therapy for "transport of stolen goods" and "purchasing with counterfeit currency". Being mentally ill is not the problem. Acting on it is. And how could the doctors working on Mudd the Harmless Fence establish that he would be capable of brutally murdering a man 53 times? I mean capable of actually doing that? The point being, tests might show that he had it in him - but as of the 2260s, he's the harmless fence, never having murdered a man 53 times for real (as far as they know), so the tests mean nothing in practice. Should Mudd be given an extra dose of neural neutralizing just in case?
Picard in "Justice" mentions more or less offhand that there's screening for tendencies in the UFP. We never learn what happens as the result of the screening revealing dark things. Quiet and painless putting down? Lifelong monitoring? Extra points when applying to Starfleet, which is in constant demand of mass murderers? A footnote in a research paper?
Timo Saloniemi
I don't think B'Elanna's "mental illness" was an illness at all. Sometimes, you go through a "funk", where you act out in ways that is contrary to what is considered to be the norm. And, considering the fact that she is half-Klingon, testing to limits on one's mortality might be her version of going through a "funk". And since there wasn't a ship's counselor, a friend like Chakotay could be of use to her. Also, we should not assume that it took 42 minutes to "cure" B'Elanna. It is possible that her "rehab" continued for some time after.
Garth of Izar and his fellow inmates were "criminally insane", so isolating them was a necessary thing, until a means of curing them could be found.
And Jack's Pack had mental illnesses brought on illegal augmentations that failed, which is why their rehabilitation would be difficult.
Lest we forget Chief O'Brien's "mental breakdown", after spending years in a virtual prison, only to find it difficult to readjust to the real world to the point of wanting to commit suicide. He certainly could have used a counselor, but had his friend Dr. Bashir see him through his ordeal.
Personally, the Federation has done good to address mental illness, which is why Counselors would be mandated for ship duty, circa 24th century.
Garth of Izar and his fellow inmates were "criminally insane", so isolating them was a necessary thing, until a means of curing them could be found.
And Jack's Pack had mental illnesses brought on illegal augmentations that failed, which is why their rehabilitation would be difficult.
Lest we forget Chief O'Brien's "mental breakdown", after spending years in a virtual prison, only to find it difficult to readjust to the real world to the point of wanting to commit suicide. He certainly could have used a counselor, but had his friend Dr. Bashir see him through his ordeal.
Personally, the Federation has done good to address mental illness, which is why Counselors would be mandated for ship duty, circa 24th century.
That Voyager's attempt to deal with depression is dismissed as "a funk" just goes to show how badly it failed.
I know TNG is an 80's version of the 24th century but in light of counselling being a norm from the 20th century, counsellors or medical therapists should be part of the crew for any deep space assignment from Archer's time, TOS had Dr Dehner in WNMHGB then no one seemed to fill the position afterwards.
Killing the ship's only psychiatrist tends to put a damper on recruitment...
Also, with most of the mental disorders cured, there's not a lot of need for psychiatrists/psychologists anymore, so, these may be a very rare medical field in the 23-24th century.
During the TOS era there seemed to be more of a range of command structures aboard starships than the more uniform approach that developed by TNG. Other ships could have had a therapist aboard.
The longer term mission and family oriented set up of the Galaxy Class also lean more towards the need for a trained therapist.
Yup. McCoy's explicated area of expertise was space psychology, as per "Court Martial". Perhaps Starfleet thought it clever to combine the jobs of Dehner and Piper in one, much like they conflated (or allowed Kirk to conflate in the field) the Executive and Science Officer positions? A ship lacking McCoy and Spock could not do that, but their Tactical Officer might double as their Chief of Security, say.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
Similar threads
