#in case you can't tell i have NOOOO interest in this topic whatsoever /s

[katsidhe]

Re: your post about Sam and Lucifer, how did he keep Sam sane at all? I mean normally, humans tend to go batshit from much less trauma (not like, millenias), and I know the Winchesters are extraordinary, but still. Plus, I can't believe that the whole 'Cas lifting Sam's Hell-burden in 7x17' solved all the shit he's been dealing with before, after the Wall crumbled. While I loved Crazy!Cas, for me, it seemed like a cheap way for the writers to never have to address it again.

There are two main questions here: one is how did Lucifer keep Sam sane, and the other is how did Sam manage to be sane on Earth. These are distinct questions not only because of the change in scenery, but also because the value of “sane” changes dramatically! I’ll answer part 1 here, and part 2 in another post because this got long.

Here there be Cage talk! Discussion of abuse, torture, and dubious psychiatric practices to follow. 

Before I dive in, let’s define insanity for Lucifer’s purposes: insanity arrives at whatever level of irretrievable non-functionality that Sam becomes ~no fun~. It’s a...flexible metric to say the least, but I think it’s got clear boundaries. Lucifer doesn’t need Sam mentally healthy, but he doesn’t want Sam to forget who he is or why they’re here. Nor does he want Sam to forget his life on earth—not only is it such a rich playground for psychological torment, but it’s an important part of Lucifer’s beef with him. What’s the point of punishing Sam for crimes he can’t remember or no longer has the capacity to grasp? Where’s the poetry there?

But it’s not just about the fun in punishment. Lucifer’s motivations aren’t nearly as one-dimensional as pure revenge. He knows exactly what thousands and thousands of years of solitary feel like; he’s beyond relieved he’s got companionship this time. Lucifer is keenly aware that his real enemy is boredom: the creeping insanity of facing down eternity alone in a tiny box. That’s a fate he fears like nothing else. 

Luckily, Sam’s just about perfect for the job of keeping Lucifer entertained! (Yaaaay.) Here’s the guy who was promised to him, here’s his downfall, here’s one of the vanishingly few humans he’s ever wanted any kind of connection with, here’s his chosen disciple, here’s his Judas… Sam really checks all the boxes as a target of both Lucifer’s sadism and his fascination. He’s the most interesting fellow prisoner Lucifer could have asked for!

So, yeah, he wants to make Sam suffer. He also wants a captive audience who will "willingly” engage with him intellectually (so, Michael’s not a great candidate). Lucifer wants to skin Sam alive and he also wants to, I dunno, play Parcheesi and talk philosophy. No point in trying that with a sack of meat.

Okay, so those are Lucifer’s priorities. How does he keep Sam from utterly losing himself? The answer is: carefully, and with a several-pronged approach. (I think he enjoys the challenge.)

Firstly, Lucifer’s got no shortage of incentives and disincentives. Lucifer can make it abundantly clear to Sam that insanity is no escape, and the only way he’s going to get any type of reward for good behavior is if he actively stays lucid and plays his part. Otherwise, Sam’s going to try to go mad as quickly as possible, in the hope of losing touch with reality or getting too boring to bother with. 

Plus, Lucifer puts a premium on interaction and conversation, making sure Sam stays alert and in the moment. In s7, Hallucifer is constantly demanding Sam’s attention and active engagement. Sam’s in the habit of talking to Lucifer. Conversation is a pretty good way to keep someone functional.

But even highly motivating threats and treats won’t solve everything. Which is why I’m pretty sure Lucifer also gave Sam time for supervised recovery—that one is heavily implied by canon; we know from 7.02 that Lucifer likes giving Sam things he can take away.

I think Lucifer also provided some form of, basically, acute psychiatric treatment. Much in the same way that Lucifer surely repaired Sam physically, he’d be diligent in providing…. fucked-up involuntary therapy. Which has a whole different set of attendant psychological problems, of course, and I’m no doctor, but those are more entertaining issues than, say, an inability to do anything other than huddle in a corner and sob. Whenever Lucifer pushed Sam too far, he was capable of talking him back into functionality, by virtue of the pattern of conversation and give-and-take that he’s maintained.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, is that Sam’s convinced that Lucifer knows exactly how far he can take him while keeping him “sane”, and Lucifer cultivates that assumption carefully…because it’s rather self-fulfilling. If Sam assumes he’s never going to go insane and cooperates with Lucifer’s efforts to keep him functioning, Lucifer’s job gets a lot easier. As I mentioned in my other post, Sam overestimates Lucifer’s skill in this regard; I’m sure Lucifer’s pushed him past the brink of functionality plenty of times when he didn’t necessarily intend to (and the opposite is true too, where Sam’s more resilient in a particular moment than Lucifer expects). Sam’s cooperation is crucial, so Lucifer makes sure he doesn’t lose that cooperation.