"This will greatly alleviate your social anxiety, making you feel closer to yourself and more emotionally calm, aiding in your recovery."
"But the situation now is that they are all desperately trying to get our attention." Batman glanced towards the door and said, "They strive to provide us with meticulous care, as if afraid that we won't believe they are doctors and nurses."
"That's utterly wrong." Shiller shook his head and said, "I would ask my interns not to focus their attention on the patients, because being the center of attention inherently brings stress, which brings anxiety."
"The mental hospital is an illusion created by doctors and nurses. It's as if you can obtain the resources you need for survival from the air without bearing any survival or social pressures. The doctors and nurses' 'non-attention', in fact, is an important part of this Utopia."
"But wouldn't people here feel lonely?" Beihan asked in some confusion: "Human beings are herd animals, socializing is our instinct. If we are constantly ignored, with no companionship, wouldn't we feel sad and upset?"
"Have you ever felt this way?"
Beihan didn't even realize when Batman had left the room. He was completely immersed in the rhythm of psychological treatment and guidance. After recalling a bit, he said,
"In order to go out and fight crime at night, I occasionally take a nap in the afternoon to replenish my energy. The sound that wakes me is the bell of Gotham Cathedral."
"I hear the heavy bell sound coming from afar, the light behind the curtain is dim. From the gap, I saw a setting sun drifting at the end of the Gotham River, and the light gradually brightening in the buildings reflecting on the shimmering river, somewhat like candlelight."
"Were you saddened by this scene?"
"No, until the bell sound disappeared, the light on the Gotham River also disappeared. When I had to wake myself from the boundless thoughts, in that moment, I would feel a bit dismayed."
"Because of loneliness?"
"Maybe." Beihan thought for a while and said, "I can't determine if the usual sense of loss I often have is loneliness, but I occasionally feel similar dismay."
"Can you give another example?"
Beihan fell into a long memory, while Shiller just calmly waited. About three or four minutes later, Beihan started speaking again.
"I have a house in the suburbs. In the early morning, I walked out of the cold, damp bushes and saw the rainwater accumulated on the ground from the night before. As I trudged through the muddy puddles in my rain boots, the dark clouds hung so low they seemed to be falling to the ground."
Beihan pressed his hand down a bit, indicating how low he had seen the dark clouds drop. Then he said, "I sat on the sofa by the door and watched the trees sway in the storm, alone in front of the fireplace, adding wood, not even taking off my coat. At that moment, I felt as if my heart was continuously falling, that I was alone and helpless."
"What was the worst episode?"
"It's hard to say which one was the worst." Beihan shook his head and said, "If I have to say, it was when I told the shareholders dozens of times that everything was under my control, but they just didn't seem to understand. That's when I felt the most disheartened."
After a slight pause, Shiller said, "Do you occasionally feel like a piece of your chest is hollowed out, that you try to pay attention to your emotions but can't feel anything?"
Beihan recalled a bit and said, "I don't often pay attention to my emotions, but I seldom feel hollow, as I'm always busy."
"Do you ever question your purpose in doing things?"
"I think everyone does."
Suddenly, Beihan looked at Shiller and said, "Wait, Doctor, are you doing a psychological assessment on me?"
"I'm just giving you a preliminary psychological assessment." Shiller looked slightly puzzled, but apparently felt that it was enough for the day, so he said, "If you feel uncomfortable, I won't ask any more; you can go back to rest for a bit, and see if there's a way out."
Beihan appeared somewhat suspicious. He felt that Shiller's attitude was strange, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly how.
Shiller turned his head and half-closed his eyes, appearing ready to fall asleep. After hesitating a bit, Beihan eventually decided to leave. However, after he left, the uncertainty on Shiller's face was even more intense.
"What's the point of all these questions?" Lord Superman on the screen in front of him frowned and asked, "Why does it sound a bit like a topic that would be discussed in a philosophy class?"
"This is an emotional check." Bruce cleared his throat and said, "Many psychological problems are caused by emotional changes. By observing when and under what circumstances a person's emotions shift, and how he describes it, we can locate the triggers of emotional changes and thus find out where the emotional abnormality lies."
Bruce recalled the knowledge he learned and said, "Human emotions are not entirely erratic. For example, feeling happy when achieving something, feeling sad when hurt, these are all very normal emotional changes."
"But if you feel dismayed when achieving something, then you need to pay attention whether it's something in the process of achieving it that made you feel upset, the achievement itself, other people's praises of the achievement, or even a possibility that a certain number in the performance has triggered your upsetting memory."
"Psychologists determine step by step what exactly causes your abnormal emotions, guiding you to talk about it, letting go of your stress, or taking targeted treatment to lessen the abnormal state, thereby avoiding psychological problems caused by emotional changes."
The term 'abnormal emotions' reminded Lord Superman of the recent changes in Universe Batman, so he asked, "Then how do psychologists determine the causes of abnormal emotions? Is there always a cause? Can't it just be that that person suddenly thinks negatively?"
"I recall a metaphor that Professor Shearer once mentioned." Bruce stroked his chin in recollection, saying, "The entire emotional system of a human being is a very complex machine, with at least tens of millions of parts in it, along with connections to many other complex systems."
"So it's easy to have a situation where a single part within this system moves, and the chain reaction it triggers within the machine takes a whole year to finally manifest in his behavior one day a year later."
"As for what many people refer to as 'suddenly thinking negatively,' it's simply that they didn't carefully experience their counterpart's emotional changes, and they missed the most critical point of change earlier, only to clumsily think that the other person must have gone crazy to suddenly think negatively."
Lord Superman fell into contemplation.