Make Psych Great Again!

[Krayvern]

So I've noticed Psychologist is a pretty useless and boring role that needs something to spice it up. I was thinking of having mental disorders a thing that can randomly occur due to events, or even have some roles be able to artificially create them in people, that the Psychologist then has to Psychoanalyze and give treatments as necessary. Some medicine might be able to help, at the risk of other side effects though. The Psychologist could also attempt to help via various treatments. 

Brainwashed Crew could possibly be cured via hypnosis from the Psychologist, as well, making them more vital to the station.

[Nil]

Which perspective are you approaching from? Biological? That would mostly be pill pushing. I don't think there would be any difference in RP that you'd find enjoyable with pill pushing. Nor would it be interesting to forcibly have to RP a disorder that someone may have zero concept of. Psychology is a little bit more complicated than giving pills until an infliction passes. Or probably anything that could feasibly be put in a game. 

Diagnosis of any given ailment could vary wildly depending on background and perspective. Treatment; even more so. 

Beyond that; role playing a psych is only fun if you treat it like anything else; fantasy, not based in reality. Like a kid playing call of duty and thinking they'd make a fine soldier and it'd be "fun". After a while of any given psych bullshit; it can weigh down significantly on anyone actually worth a damn. Seeing the same people over and over that fail to recover or improve, even with extensive and varied treatment, is extremely taxing. The only people that persist with it, seemingly; are either total pants on head, naive, or chasing after insurance money. Very rarely will you find a psych of reasonable quality that has enough legitimate knowledge, wisdom, insight, to effectively understand or address anything. 

Otherwise, I'm simply jaded and apathetic towards psych colleagues and much of the field in general. There is insufficient success rate or treatment for my liking. Beyond that; tolerating the people seeking treatment can be the most difficult, at times. So I am beyond biased. My pocketful of cents.

[Threeinone]

I aggree that pill pushing wouldn't work too well, but i think that the brainwashing thing could work. maybe the psych could be more like a psych-ic than psych-iatrist, with certain mind powers like mind swap to help put the "fantasy" into the job.

Edited March 3, 2018 by Threeinone

[Krayvern]

It's almost impossibly to role play as a Psych if no one else role plays that they need to see one. And these are just ideas to make Psych have more of a role in the game, other than just being there. I'm not a game designer, I'll say that straight up, that's why I'm spitballing ideas in the hopes that something might get done about it.

And as someone who's taken multiple Psych classes, I can say that just giving pills isn't the best idea, as there is much more when choosing the type, the amount, ect. 

Also I'm not saying that they have to RP the disorder, the devs can do research and add in symptoms each disorder can involve, such as hearing things, seeing things, ect ect, and the symptoms worsen over time, and if they want to they can potentially RP with the symptoms.

Again, these are just ideas. They can do with them with what they want, but I really want Psych to have a more engaging role

[Normalyman]

Well the Therapist is a pure RP role like the NT Rep for example and I'm pretty sure it will stay that way. So yes if no one plays along you won't get any patients but if you are creative you'll allmost allways find interesting people to take care of.

The problem with adding mental dissorders that are coded into the game is that you need something to else that removes them right? From what you said it would be something similar to a virus, the patient get the mental dissorder for whatever reason and it worsens over time. But what would trigger for a mental dissorder to appear and what would be the cure for it? 

The only logical option I see are pills and that would horrible RP wise, because I'm allready not a fan of the Therapist havin Meth inside his locker for example.

To sum up I think it's fairly hard to implement mental disorders and the Therapist should stay a pure RP role.

Let your imagination flow and you'll have fun with him.

[ZN23X]

My suggestion if you aren't getting any patients as the psych is see if you can hang out at the brig.  You can treat any prisoner who is freaking out about thier 5-10 minute sentence as if they are mentally ill. If nothing else security will sure get a kick out of it. And youll be punishing crininal for screaming like the angry child they are IRL

Anyone can RP that they need help from the psych at any time for whatever reason. You don't need some sort of objective holding your hand and guiding you. We already have a game mechanic that causes people to start hallucinating. Many players largly ignore or just meme about because it's "normal"

Adding random mental disorders would be treated the same way. 

RP heavy roles are only pointless and boring when people don't RP.

Edited March 3, 2018 by ZN23X

[Normalyman]

Exactly, here are some other things I allways do when I'm the therapist:

1. Writing a formal flyer advertising your services and encoraging people to visit your office 
2. Making 10-15 copies of it and taping it to wall in public areas of the station
3. Handing a copy to the CMO and IAA, as well as some people you personally know
4. Making an announcement on the common channel

I hope this helps you preventing boring rounds as therapist

[Nil]

So it just dawned on me, that many people don't actually know what a psychiatrist is, what they do, what they know, etc. In a lot of ways, they'd actually (potentially) know more than the CMO. They would probably be a senior doc, second in command, if you think about it that way. 

So, it would be 12 years, at least, of school/study/practicum/research/etc. That is your first 4 of normal college. 4 more to be a doctor, then 4 more of psychology study/etc. In all of that time, you would have learned everything a normal doctor would have (this includes all aspects (surgery, emergency medicine, etc)). You would have learned some chemistry. You might have even learned some genetics (because this is scifi, and there is no way of knowing what the real word equivalent would be). Okay, so, you know a little bit of everything. Or, a lot of everything. What gives?

You're not payed to do shit. No patients? No problem. But what could you do, what do you actually know? Well, you studied for 12 years. Do you remember it all? Maybe you forgot. Maybe you cheated, lied, and bribed. 

You got options. If you aren't feeling that intensity, change the title to psychologist, or therapist or whatever the alt titles are. 

A psychologist is probably more geared towards researching, or being a professor. Has a PhD.

A therapist might have a masters, maybe only a bachelors. 

A councilor might only have an associates, but might have a bachelors or a masters, maybe.

 

The role allows for a lot of freedom. You can be super competent, and have a lot of knowledge. You could also be a total dunce that thinks everyone is ill and can't find your way out of your own chair. 

[Tayswift]

Having mechanically built in mental disorders was rejected a while ago.