"You may not know this, but psychology and psychiatry are really young disciplines." Steve sighed, "When I was a boy, I heard many horrifying stories about insane asylums."
"Some of them were exaggerated, but some had indeed happened. In many European asylums, they even exhibited mentally ill patients with rare conditions like animals, selling tickets to create a sensation."
Steve folded his arms and bowed his head, a expression of struggle etched on his face. Stark took off his battle armor and moved next to him. When he turned to look at Steve, he saw a shadow of Howard in his expression.
Stark remembered clearly how his father, when he was drunk and slumped over his workbench, had shown the same expression. The good old days Steve was talking about were overshadowed by a layer of gloomy grey that nobody could penetrate.
Looking at the light that had come on in the emergency room, and the shadowy figures venturing forth through the door, Steve gathered his courage again. He took a deep breath, and then said:
"The level of medical knowledge in that era may seem ridiculously primitive to you now, even down to the level of early humans. If general medical treatments were likened to primitive humans, then treatments for mental illnesses were more like amoebas."
"If someone went mad, they were made to take sedatives to calm down. If someone tried to attack another person, they were knocked out and tied up until they regained their composure. And this was even considered a civilized method used by mental hospitals. As for the less civilized ones..."
Steve pursed his lips. He seemed to be uncomfortable revealing the darkness of a bygone era, but he persisted, "If Schiller really is from my era, then this kind of medical accident would be quite normal."
"Initially, the doctor hadn't given him enough medication, leading to him losing control and hurting someone who was good to him, leaving him with even deeper psychological scars. In that era, this couldn't even be called a medical accident, after all, he had still received some treatment."
Steve's face showed a sadness, and he concluded with some weariness, "That was a time that didn't permit weakness."
"If you expressed opinions against the public consensus, you'd be considered mad. If you behaved abnormally, you'd be sent to a mental hospital, and true mental patients would only get to spend their lives in a dark cell. Schiller was considered lucky."
Steve, a bit pained, closed his eyes and said, "All the motivation that I had acquired from that era, all the nostalgia I had for it, was actually because I was lucky to have undergone a transformation, acquiring abilities far beyond those of ordinary people."
"In that backward era, the suffering of too many ordinary people didn't even get recorded. I'm well aware of this, so I feel guilty for my nostalgia..."
Steve took a deep breath, ready to utter the next sentence, but Stark patted him on the shoulder and cut in: "So you're saying, Schiller was left with a mental scar due to certain accidents, but why did he never show it before, yet it suddenly erupted this time?"
Strange narrowed his eyes and said: "No, maybe it's not that he'd never shown it before, but rather, we didn't notice."
Having said that, he reminded himself: "The first time I met Schiller was at a very important joint consultation at the Elder Council Hospital. The patient not only had neurological issues but also certain psychological problems, so a psychiatrist was needed for the consultation."
"I got there early, but even when it was time for the consultation, it hadn't started yet. I asked an assistant there, and they said someone was late."
Strange knitted his brows; clearly, it wasn't a fond memory for him. He sighed, "I wanted to find out who dared to be absent from a consultation I participated in, didn't they know that my time was more precious than gold?"
"Just then, Schiller walked in…" with a wry smile on his face, Strange continued,"Nobody could imagine how terrible a state he was in — reeking of alcohol, it was clear he'd been drinking all night. He was slovenly dressed, his name tag reversed, and his glasses were smeared with some powder...he looked like a complete drunkard!"
Stark glanced at the door of the emergency room, making sure that Schiller wouldn't suddenly come out to punch him. Lowering his voice, he said:" The first time I met him, it wasn't much better either. Although I wasn't in a great state, neither was he."
"He looked like he had been up for several nights in a row, even worse than me, and clearly not a fitness enthusiast, he emanated an air of decadence." Stark shook his head and continued, "This isn't slander, for quite a while his condition wasn't great."
"So, you're saying that Doctor Schiller had a drinking problem before?" asked Peter, knitting his brows. "That's so different from the Doctor Schiller I know! He has always been a great physician since I first met him."