Greetings,
Thank you for the response. The rant was that the mental illness in question was later revealed to be feigned. It is true that throughout the ST mythos all kinds of people and aliens experience many mind wrenching situations and recover, but it seems that there is something of an idea that mental illness except for rare exceptions does not exist in the world where most problems are solved. It is true that starship captains etc. have amazing amounts of power and therefore their minds must be watched most carefully by counsellors and perhaps by AIs too. It is also true that revising the DSM IV - TR to 23rd Century standards (and Starfleet Medical standards) may be something that writers do not wish to do -- but at the time of the formation of the Star Trek mythos astronauts were among the elite examples of people who were the standard for everyone else. The idea that a starship captain could suffer a real mental illness and still preserve the institution with the recovery and reinstatement of the captain would be a nice development. There is a certain ambivalence about whether there be poverty, energy shortages, economic problems, and/or mental illness (or even other illnesses and stigmas) in the Federation.
The standard issues for handicapped people (according to a recent book by Michael Prince) are the three Rs: Recognition, Representation, and Redistribution. Where there is a desire for infinite diversity in infinite combinations there shall be opportunities for many person-environment combinations with assistive technologies. Star Trek has not been blind to these areas (no pun intended). I am just not so sure that the stigma around mental illness (and other stigmas such as racism) have not been prematurely dismissed by the rosy scenario of the hoped for future.
It is true that I have not read too extensively of the Star Trek universe and there may be many issues around the eugenics wars and their aftermath which I am unaware of. And, I am aware that there is a certain handicap to using 21st Century English to explicate a perceived 23rd Century society, but, the idea that there could be beneficial illnesses (as suggested by ancient Greeks - erotic, prophetic, dionysian, and poetic madnesses at least -- Is this in Bertrand Russell's History of Philosophy?), which nevertheless need to be subject to a graceful transition, could enliven ship drama. I suppose this is brought out in some the the TNG novels.
A syndrome is a collection of symptoms around a common theme; word association does a cluster of associations around a common theme often; naming the demon of demonic possession amounts to a cluster of associations around a common theme; complexes and introjections by day = demons by night according to June Singer's formula. Signs, symptoms, & correlates. More semiotics in Star Trek could make it more interesting -- again, perhaps I have not read far enough.
The particular book in question Unspoken Truth did have a medical vulnerability attacked by a foreign foe. The mystery was solved through use of scientific method. Perhaps scientific progress is too facile in the ST mythos.
Well, I guess all told, one cannot rant forever. Saavik did suffer much and might well have been a feral child and perhaps did not totally recover; but there is the suspicion that more recovery than may be attributed to nature or nurture has ocurred. And, nature and nurture in the 23rd Century may well be more auspicious.
llop
Endgame, :-)
