Bruce pondered for a moment, then came up with a question, but before he could ask, Shiller already gave the answer, "Of course, it's the normal state that collapses, which is why Shiller becomes incapacitated. If the morbid state were to collapse, wouldn't he be healed outright?"
Bruce looked helpless, and Shiller shook his head, "More accurately, I can't be considered a characteristic of personality because characteristics of personality are actually part of consciousness, but I am a product of a brain mutation, part of the physical entity."
"No matter how Shiller's personality collapses, his brain structure remains unchanged, so no matter what the normal state turns into, the morbid state remains the same."
Upon hearing this, Bruce developed a new question, "If you're not a personality trait, how can you control the body?"
"That brings us to the doctor who treated me." Shiller took a sip of perfectly warm tea, "Tell me, who's more miserable, a person undergoing a mental breakdown, or someone whose personality has completely collapsed and who can't even think?"
Bruce pursed his lips, thinking carefully about the question, but found it beyond his comprehension. He'd never experienced a personality collapse himself, let alone know what it feels like to be unable to take care of oneself or think.
"The doctor believed that it's better to be a patient with mental illness than to be a monster for the rest of one's life." Shiller concluded, and Bruce had no rebuttal.
"After the normal personality collapses, there needs to be an external force to help Shiller reestablish the order of personality. But even a very skilled psychologist, being a separate individual, cannot directly enter the consciousness, so maybe there's a different approach."
"You're suggesting..."
"The doctor, through certain methods, stimulated me, triggering the recurrence of my mental illness in my state of personality collapse, and guided me to sort out my chaotic thoughts in the absence of a normal state under continued illness, and then reconstructed an orderly personality."
Bruce's eyes widened slowly, he remarked in disbelief, "Is it really possible?"
"I know it sounds a little far-fetched, but you must understand, Shiller is extremely unique, it was because of his uniqueness that he encountered this, but also because of his uniqueness that he received treatment."
After speaking, Shiller slowly put down his teacup and leaned back into his chair, adding,
"In other words, it was actually me who helped Shiller build the entire Tower of Thought, sort out all the shattered personalities, witness their births, give them names, and teach them how to regain control of this body—I'm their teacher and father, I am the real, Professor."
Bruce lowered his head and exhaled, "So the psychologist's treatment of Shiller was completely ineffective...no, what I mean is, the psychologist only treated Shiller's broken normal state, without treating his morbid state at all?"
"That's not quite right." Shiller shook his head and looked at Bruce, "How far have you actually read in those books? Is there any psychologist in this world who would dare say they can cure Autism Spectrum Disorder? It's an incurable disease."
"What you see, Autism Spectrum Disorder patients who seem no different from ordinary people, are mostly pretending, or rather, teaching ASD patients how to pretend to be normal is the most standard treatment method."
"But pretending to be normal does not mean he is normal, a morbid state can be masked by a normal appearance, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist."
"You must be disappointed, but I still have to tell you, up to now, the cause of Autism Spectrum Disorder is still unknown, and it's not simply a psychological problem, it might be a brain mutation."
Shiller stood up from the sofa, went over to the cabinet behind the glass screen wall and tidied up some newspapers, "Don't tell me you can cure Shiller, if you could completely cure any ASD patient in this world, you'd win all the top medical awards until your hands got tired, and the next textbooks for psychology, psychiatry, and behavioral studies would be written by you."
"But..." Bruce felt a lump in his chest, he stood up and turned to Shiller, "But even if you represent Autism Spectrum Disorder, you shouldn't... I mean, ASD patients aren't necessarily..."
Bruce couldn't bring himself to say the word because just mentioning it was already crossing his moral boundaries.
But Shiller seemed to understand his meaning, he picked up a newspaper and sat back down on the sofa, flipping the newspaper open, glanced at Bruce from above it, "You're worried I'll turn out like Professor Pig?"
Although Bruce didn't respond, his expression was a clear yes. Shiller took one look at him, and Bruce saw a negative answer in Shiller's eyes. Bruce was about to take a sigh of relief, when Shiller's next sentence startled him even more.
"Don't worry, I don't like eating pork."
In that moment, Bruce felt as though a bucket of ice water had been poured over him from head to toe, each sweat gland on his body breaking out in cold sweat. He hadn't felt like this since the gunshot in the back alley years ago.
Then he thought of something even more unsettling—if morbid Shiller eats human flesh, but he sees ordinary people not as his own kind, but as pigs... then what does he eat...