#the jason Todd psychological analysis meta

[glitter-stained]

A psychoanalytical reading of Lost Days and Under the Hood, because I hate myself and hate Freud even more

*bracing myself to talk shit* Okay, let's do this. Last warning to back off if you like psychoanalysis or even have a nuanced take on this. This is the graveyard where nuance comes to die.

First thing first, this is not intended to be an attack on Judd Winick: I do not know if he has actually read anything on psychoanalysis, and though it would make so much sense if it were intentional, it could totally be that Winick had passing knowledge of psychoanalysis from a source similar to one my short-form tumblr shitposts and other general pop culture information, thought "huh, neat, I always thought manipulative hot MILF Talia was a cool concept" and ran with it. Or that any other thought process went into it. I am extremely critical of the decisions he has made in his portrayal of mental illness and Talia specifically, but I'm not gonna criticise him on the assumption that it was psychoanalytical. I say this because the rest of this post is gonna sound like I think it was on purpose: I think it could, but I don't think I have enough knowledge about Judd Winick and enough clarity in the text to be crystal clear that this is what directed his writing (unless I missed one Easter egg in the back of an image, that would be very fun.) I'm also not gonna make fun of Winick for writing psychoanalysis fiction if he did do it on purpose, because so did I when I was a misguided highschooler, and many therapists have not gotten past that phase despite dedicating their life to it so there's no judgement on that part. With that being said, I think it's a super valid reading, so let's talk about this. Also, I'll talk a lot about Freud because he's the founding father of this shit, but there are many other psychoanalysts who came after him, all putting their own brick in the wall; all of them are wrong, but many are more moderate and do not have the extraordinary audacity of the first culprit.

[gffa]

There are a lot of STAR WARS novels out there and that’s a really great thing, I would honestly be happy reading 90% nothing but SW books, given how good they are! But it can be a lot to navigate and sometimes you just want to know if one is worth putting at the top of your To Read list or not! SO HERE’S SOME CRYING ABOUT SW BOOKS. BECAUSE THEY ARE SO GOOD. STAR WARS NOVELS RECS: ✦ The Legends of Luke Skywalker by Ken Liu, luke & ocs, 432 pages    As a cargo ship rockets across the galaxy to Canto Bight, the deckhands on board trade stories about legendary Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker. But are the stories of iconic and mysterious Luke Skywalker true, or merely tall tales passed from one corner of the galaxy to another? ✦ From a Certain Point of View by [various authors], a new hope cast, 496 pages    Every scene is told from the point of view of a background character. Whether it’s the X-wing pilots who helped Luke destroy the Death Star or the stormtroopers who never quite could find the droids they were looking for, Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View places the classic movie in a whole new perspective. ✦ Star Wars Propaganda: A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy by Pablo Hidalgo, entire cast, 112 pages    Whether it’s a Star Destroyer hovering over a planet or an X-wing delivering a message of resistance, propaganda images have become synonymous with life in the galaxy far, far away. This in-world art book explores the creation and stories behind these images of power and persuasion. ✦ The Last Jedi: Cobalt Squadron by Elizabeth Wein, rose & page & leia & cast, 224 pages    New characters from The Last Jedi, including mechanic Rose Tico and her gunner sister Paige, get the chance to shine in this hardcover adventure. ✦ Forces of Destiny: Daring Adventures, Volume 1, Volume 2, The Rey Chronicles, The Leia Chronicles by Emma Carlson Berne, rey & leia & padme & ahsoka & sabine & cast, ~120 pages each    The choices we make, the actions we take, the moments–both big and small–shape us into forces of destiny. ✦ Episode I Journal: Anakin Skywalker by Todd Strasser, obi-wan & anakin & padme & qui-gon & cast, ~112 pages    My name is Anakin Skywalker. This is my story. ✦ The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition by Jason Fry, rey & luke & leia & kylo & poe & finn & rose & cast, 336 pages    From the ashes of the Empire has arisen another threat to the galaxy’s freedom: the ruthless First Order. Fortunately, new heroes have emerged to take up arms—and perhaps lay down their lives—for the cause. ✦ Star Wars: The Last Jedi: A Junior Novel by Michael Kogge, rey & luke & leia & kylo & poe & finn & rose & cast, 208 pages    A junior novel retelling of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, with deleted and extended scenes, as well as exclusive scenes you won’t find anywhere else featuring Rey, Chewbacca, R2-D2, Finn, and more! ✦ Star Wars Psychology: Dark Side of the Mind by Travis Langley + others, luke & leia & anakin & obi-wan & yoda & cast, 320 pages    This essay collection offers a fascinating psychological analysis of the compelling and complex universe of George Lucas’s richly rendered Star Wars series. A group of expert contributors examines such topics as family ties, Jedi qualities, masculinity, girl power, and the values embodied in both the “dark” and “light” sides of this psychologically spellbinding world. ✦ Last Shot by Daniel José Older, han & lando & cast, 368 pages    It’s one of the galaxy’s most dangerous secrets: a mysterious transmitter with unknown power and a reward for its discovery that most could only dream of claiming. But those who fly the Millennium Falcon throughout its infamous history aren’t your average scoundrels. ✦ Most Wanted by Rae Carson, han & qi'ra & cast, 348 pages    Han and Qi'ra don’t have a lot in common other than not having a lot. They’re street kids on the industrial planet Corellia, doing whatever it takes to get by, dreaming of something more. full details + recs under the cut! 

STAR WARS NOVELS RECS: ✦ The Legends of Luke Skywalker by Ken Liu, luke & ocs, 432 pages    As a cargo ship rockets across the galaxy to Canto Bight, the deckhands on board trade stories about legendary Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker. But are the stories of iconic and mysterious Luke Skywalker true, or merely tall tales passed from one corner of the galaxy to another?    If you’ve checked out my tumblr, you’ll know I’ve done a fair amount of blogging about this book and one of the reasons it hit me so hard is that it came at exactly the right time I needed it, when The Last Jedi was coming out and I really craved some good Luke Skywalker characterization. I’ve always enjoyed his character, but this book really hit exactly the right notes for me in a way that was above and beyond what I expected! It’s a canon novel, but the way it’s told–as a handful of people telling second or third hand stories about Luke–means you can’t take everything quite at face value, but some of them are so Luke Skywalker that I could have cried with how well Ken Liu gets the character. All of the stories are at least reasonably fun to read, but “Fishing the Deluge”, “I, Droid”, and “Big Inside” are the three stellar stories that capture the heart and spirit of who Luke Skywalker is.    The main theme is Luke going around the galaxy, learning about it and the Force, trying to uncover lore about the Jedi after it was lost, and getting into adventures along the way. There’s a ton of great detail in there, some things that connect to other stories (the fishing he learns on Lew'el that we see in TLJ, the compass that’s been making appearances in various bits of Star Wars), as well as we get to see other cultures’ connections to the Force as Luke interacts with them and learns more. But it’s really that he’s so good and kind and noble, that he’s eager to learn and yet has such a strong sense of self, that he’s bright and brilliant and so very Jedi. It gave me so many feelings about how the Jedi’s spirit absolutely lives on through Luke here, as well as just plain gave me feelings about the character himself! It’s one of the absolute must-reads for those who are looking for anything with his character or to feel better if TLJ disappointed you, because this shows that Luke’s life wasn’t all misery. There is so, so much joy to be found here, especially in those three stories. (As well as some great Luke & Artoo friendship moments that had me crying over them again!) ✦ From a Certain Point of View by [various authors], a new hope cast, 496 pages    Every scene is told from the point of view of a background character. Whether it’s the X-wing pilots who helped Luke destroy the Death Star or the stormtroopers who never quite could find the droids they were looking for, Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View places the classic movie in a whole new perspective.    I will warn ahead of time that not every story in this collection worked for me, that probably half of them were ones I could have done without reading (though, only a handful were ones I felt weren’t worth the time), but that’s a very, very subjective thing–any stories I haven’t liked I’ve heard from people who did love them!–and the ones that I did love? I love so much that I would have read this book just for them. The whole concept is a really neat one, where it’s 40+ different authors taking on different points of view from the various characters of ANH, whether a Stormtrooper or a mouse droid or a bartender or a bounty hunter or a familiar Jedi, all who add something to the tapestry around the movie that started it all. Some of them are just intriguing, some of them made me laugh out loud, some of them made me think, but all of them combined together to really make me feel like this was a living, breathing galaxy of actual size!    But, yes, my favorites were the Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Yoda stories, because they come the closest to the heart of the story, because they bridge the gap between the OT and my beloved prequels, because they are the one with the strongest sense of character. I have spent so much time talking about those three stories especially on tumblr because they’re richly written and have a ton of little details for me to pull out and Obi-Wan’s point of view, how his life and his death are so defined by his love for Anakin and Luke, how Qui-Gon looks over on Obi-Wan and where he’s at just before the movie starts, his views on all that have happened and what’s coming, Yoda’s story with the little things he kept with him (I DID NOT AS FOR FROG GRANDPA FEELINGS LIKE THIS) and what he can feel from Anakin when Obi-Wan dies. All of it is so, so worth picking up to read and crying over!    But also, for real, read the Motti chapter, because I fuckin’ cried during that one, I laughed so hard. It’s the most glorious thing I have ever witnessed in my life. But also-also read the whole thing! Breha’s story is heartbreaking, the Wedge chapter was actually really engaging and exciting, the Beru story is weird and artsy and I really liked it, etc. There’s a lot that’s just really, really cool here and stuff you might not get anywhere else in Star Wars! ✦ Star Wars Propaganda: A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy by Pablo Hidalgo, entire cast, 112 pages    Whether it’s a Star Destroyer hovering over a planet or an X-wing delivering a message of resistance, propaganda images have become synonymous with life in the galaxy far, far away. This in-world art book explores the creation and stories behind these images of power and persuasion.    I did not expect to ever get something like this or for it to be so incredibly fantastic, it’s exactly what I wanted, where it’s an in-universe meta book about the history of art as propaganda which is used to show the course of the plot from the Rise of the Empire era all the way to the First Order era. It sounds like a bit of a flimsy premise to stretch so far, but it’s really more that the art is the lens through with the book is telling the entire galactic history over those ~60 years of time, so you get all this history and reference and context about how things came to be. You get a sense of how the Clone Wars came across to the public, you get the sense of how the Republic failed the people it was supposed to represent and protect, you get a sense of how the Jedi were victim to this terrible war, you get a sense of how the Empire came across to the public, you get a sense of what the Galactic Civil War was like, you better understand the First Order. It’s a book told through the perspective of art history, how that swayed opionin, but it’s so much more than that, it’s a history of the GFFA.    I originally read the digital version, but then loved it so much that I also had to go buy the physical copy of the book (which looks really gorgeous in a way the digital version doesn’t quite match) because it balances being like an actual relic from the GFFA with being a great Star Wars merchandise book. I love that it’s structured the way it is, like I’m reading actual in universe essays and history papers, but also it’s coming from an author who is one of the best people at keeping the history of the GFFA in view and so it’s great on that front as well. It’s a book that I had a hard time putting down because it’s just so well done and so cool and so informative and actually gave me a lot of feelings (let me cry about all the Clone Wars-era stuff it gave us!!) and is one of my favorites out of everything I’ve read from LF. ✦ The Last Jedi: Cobalt Squadron by Elizabeth Wein, rose & page & leia & cast, 224 pages    New characters from The Last Jedi, including mechanic Rose Tico and her gunner sister Paige, get the chance to shine in this hardcover adventure.    I listened to the audiobook version of this one and I really recommend that way if you can, because Kelly Marie Tran narrates it and she does an absolutely fantastic job! This is another book I recommend if you want to have greater context for The Last Jedi, if you want more of Rose’s character, or you just want more Star Wars stories with female-centric stories! It’s not super plot heavy, the action is pretty standard, but it’s a great look at the characters, including some really lovely Leia moments, it’s a great look at the relationship between Paige and Rose, to give context to why Rose is so devastated by her loss in TLJ and why Rose has the views she has, given her history, and it’s a great way to care more about them, to feel like there’s more depth to them than the movie had time for. It also brings in some more context to just what exactly is happening with the First Order and so I liked it for filling in detail in that sense, too! But mostly it’s just a really, really good Rose Tico story and I adored it for that. ✦ Forces of Destiny: Daring Adventures, Volume 1, Volume 2, The Rey Chronicles, The Leia Chronicles by Emma Carlson Berne, rey & leia & padme & ahsoka & sabine & cast, ~120 pages each    The choices we make, the actions we take, the moments–both big and small–shape us into forces of destiny.    I’m going to collect these books together because they’re all pretty similar to each other–they’re largely just retellings of the Forces of Destiny shorts, with occasional bits and pieces of extra moments added. There’s not a lot that’s added for character insight (of the ones out so far, the Rey ones are the best, I found the most to be excited about there–though, the Sabine one had some stellar lines about her and Ketsu!) or things that will surprise if you’ve already seen the shorts, but I did enjoy reading them! They’re very cute and would be great for younger readers or those who just want something cute and fun to read that won’t take a lot of time. There are also audiobooks (which I haven’t listened to) if you’d rather, and it’s all just a really cute, fun line-up that, while I wish they were telling more stories instead of the same ones over and over (though, the comics have more stories, which is fantastic!) they’re adorable and fun. ✦ Episode I Journal: Anakin Skywalker by Todd Strasser, obi-wan & anakin & padme & qui-gon & cast, ~112 pages    My name is Anakin Skywalker. This is my story.    I wanted to wait until I’d read more of this series to write up a review of them, but honestly they’ve been dropped down on my list of things to read, because I was hoping for some interesting character insights, but they’re really aimed more at young readers who just saw the movie and wanted to read it in novel form, so there’s not much that’s really new here, not much character insight or any added scenes. There are some cute Anakin/Padme moments, there was one moment that seemed to maybe imply that Anakin Force-whammied his mother without even realizing it, and one really nice Obi-Wan&Anakin moment at the end, but even with those, I struggled to find moments to talk about. Not because it’s bad, but because it’s a really, really straightforward retelling of the movie, just from the first person pov. But that’s what it’s meant to be, so it achieves what it sets out to do! Just that it wasn’t what I was looking for, unfortunately. ✦ The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition by Jason Fry, rey & luke & leia & kylo & poe & finn & rose & cast, 336 pages    From the ashes of the Empire has arisen another threat to the galaxy’s freedom: the ruthless First Order. Fortunately, new heroes have emerged to take up arms—and perhaps lay down their lives—for the cause.    My judgement of novelizations is largely based on the Rogue One book that really contributed a ton to my understanding of Jyn Erso’s characterization, that it gave depth to understanding her motivations and insight into how she thought, in a lot of ways it recontextualized her character in a really, really good way for me. So, my definition of what makes a novelization stellar is when it can do that for me, which most of them don’t. That doesn’t make them bad novelizations! And this one is perfectly functionable, it tells the story and adds small bits of character motivation here and there (nothing earth-shattering, though, nor does it fix some of the logic gaps I found TLJ to have) and I certainly had a ton to say about all those little differences on tumblr, especially because it was a good way to basically liveblog my feelings about the movie as well.    There are moments where I think the book did well (adding the moment of Luke and Rey dancing or Rey realizing in her thoughts that Snoke is just trying to manipulate her), but other times it highlights just how much chemistry the actors brought to the roles to make things fun (I think this is especially true for Finn, but the Luke and Leia scene felt much stronger in the movie, too) because the scenes read as very straightforward and plain. The prose is solidly readable, I never had trouble picking up the book and sliding right back into reading it, but neither does it elevate the story. There are lots of little details, fun shout-outs to various other bits of canon, and the gaps there (like the vagueness in referring to “their allies” in the Outer Rim without specifics) are often the fault of the structure of the sequels (ie, you can’t reveal too much because they’re always saving it in case the next movie wants to use it), but it is on display here.    It’s a book for fans who like novelizations, who like little bits of trivia or brief moments of cool additions (I’m not knocking this type of fan, this is exactly the type of fan I am!), but otherwise it’s about 95% a straightforward retelling of what was on the screen. ✦ Star Wars: The Last Jedi: A Junior Novel by Michael Kogge, rey & luke & leia & kylo & poe & finn & rose & cast, 208 pages    A junior novel retelling of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, with deleted and extended scenes, as well as exclusive scenes you won’t find anywhere else featuring Rey, Chewbacca, R2-D2, Finn, and more!    My feelings about this novelization are basically the same as the expanded novelization of TLJ–there are a handful of things to pull out that are interesting to talk about (and, boy, have I!) but that 95% of it is still a straightforward retelling of the movie. It’s a perfectly functional junior novelization and I have absolutely no regrets about reading it, because I like reading novelizations and I enjoy hunting down those handful of things that are different. But also I was at a point in time where I wanted to have something to pull out my TLJ thoughts, to give them structure, so much of the enjoyment I got out of this was an active blogging about it, rather than enjoying it as a passive read, which I don’t think it would be as strong for. What I mean is–if you’re reading this book to liveblog it, I think it gains something, because there are jumping off points to talk about! But if you’re looking for a book that will fill in the gaps that you felt TLJ had or to recontextualize the story for you, this isn’t going to do that, it’s a direct retelling aimed at young readers.    I do have some characterization caveats (most of them can be explained as unreliable narrators, though) but I did feel that the Kylo Ren characterization skewed too hard towards evil in the wrong way, that he laughed at things he should have been conflicted about, that he didn’t care about things he obviously did, etc. It felt like the author really hated the character and that bled through to the writing, so he was off or else it was written based on only the script and assumed things that later were given a different kind of depth by Driver. It’s not anywhere near enough to ruin the book for me, but it did feel like something was missing–however, reading it at the same time I was reading the adult novelization, switching off between the two, it was really kinda cool to see the way they each seemed to trade off points of view. If one book got the Rey pov, the other got the Kylo pov. If one book got the Finn pov, the other got the Rose pov. Given that each book didn’t have that much new material, it helped feel like it fleshed things out and made a bit more of a complete picture. So, do I recommend this book? Depends on what you’re getting it for, honestly. ✦ Star Wars Psychology: Dark Side of the Mind by Travis Langley + others, luke & leia & anakin & obi-wan & yoda & cast, 320 pages    This essay collection offers a fascinating psychological analysis of the compelling and complex universe of George Lucas’s richly rendered Star Wars series. A group of expert contributors examines such topics as family ties, Jedi qualities, masculinity, girl power, and the values embodied in both the “dark” and “light” sides of this psychologically spellbinding world.    I wasn’t sure what I was going to get when I picked up this book, what kind of essays, what kind of focus, what kind of writing it would be. But I got caught up in it pretty early and found that I just enjoyed the absolute hell out of the various topics, that it fit with a lot of how I viewed Star Wars, but as seen through much more professional lenses. There are essays around various topics, looking at various characters (but the usual ones are those that get the most focus, of course), things like how Anakin Skywalker’s nueroses led and inform his actions as Darth Vader, what the Jedi teachings say about how to handle various situations, the way role models influence us as we grow up, etc. Some of them are more generalized looks at topics or groups, some of them get much more specific (the Anakin ones are my favorites and felt very in line with the way I see him, especially as someone who is haunted by anxieties), but all of them are well laid out, well explained, and may be just the foundations of various psychology aspects, but are fascinating for it.    I wound up quoting a lot of the book (and will probably quote a lot more over time) because it does a great job of explaining things, like why Jedi mindfulness is a really good thing, why faith and religion can be so helpful for us, depending on our motivatons for it, why having a role model like Leia Organa was so important, why Luke’s journey is set up the way it is, why the Sith are not actually a stable force, etc. It’s a great place to start if you want to learn a bit about psychology through the lens of Star Wars OR a great place to go if you want to read about Star Wars through the lens of psychology, as well as that it’s clear that a lot of thought has been given to the characters and what George Lucas was putting into the story, so that one flows really well into the other and back again. It’s a great book to read and a really great look at the whys of behavior and meaning to us as complicated humans. ✦ Last Shot by Daniel José Older, han & lando & cast, 368 pages    It’s one of the galaxy’s most dangerous secrets: a mysterious transmitter with unknown power and a reward for its discovery that most could only dream of claiming. But those who fly the Millennium Falcon throughout its infamous history aren’t your average scoundrels.    I have a lot of conflicted feelings about this book, because there’s a lot it really did wonderfully well, but a lot that was ultimately really unsatisfying. My two biggest problems are the tone of the book (there’s a lot of meme-speak that feels off for a galaxy far, far away) and the way Han and Lando seem to really lack any thought of how their significant others have internal worlds of their own. What I mean is that Lando is getting ready to Maybe Settle Down For Real, but Kaasha is someone we know practically nothing about, we learn almost nothing about her or have Lando think about what her wants and desires are. Whenever he thinks about her, it’s about how he feels about her. The same is true of Han with Leia–it’s not until three fourths of the way through the book that there’s anything touching on what Leia is going through that’s entirely her own, rather than it being about Han. Previous to that, all of Han’s thoughts about Leia are about her understanding him, her reading between the lines of his terrible way of expressing himself, her packing his bag because she knows he needs to go, her comforting him about his fears on being a terrible father. He misses his family, but there’s little sense of them that’s beyond being extensions of his character. To a degree, that’s fair enough, this is a book about Han (and Lando), but we can tell that Leia clearly does have her own world (she’s rushing off to meetings for the New Republic, she’s mourning Alderaan, she’s probably still dealing with the blow about Vader being her bio-father) and clearly thinks about Han’s internal world, but he doesn’t do the same for her even within his own thoughts. And I’m not sure if he’s meant to come off as that self-centered, despite that he’s genuinely trying to be a good husband and dad!    The book does seem to try to say something about various issues, like one of my favorite things is that there’s diversity in gender and body types (there’s an explicitly non-binary character–a dark-skinned nb character!!!!–who is simply part of the narrative, they’re just there, and it’s fantastic, they’re a stellar character, also Lando is clearly attracted to a heavily curvy woman and it’s not a joke, it’s legitimate “that lady is hot” and the narrative agrees, which is also wonderful! and there’s an apperance by a m/m couple who got married!! like, all of this could make me cry from how happy I am to see Star Wars inching its way forward in progress in such wonderful ways!) as well as it seems to touch on the idea of droid rights. But then that doesn’t really go anywhere, it’s brought up and then never really finished. Or there’s a Gungan who is offended that Han thought he spoke with a Gungan accent–is this a commentary on racial stereotypes or a dig at the prequels (as the author definitely had some anti-prequels things to say a few years back) or just a quirky thing to add? How am I supposed to take that, when just a few pages later, there’s a different character with a similarly over the top accent? I’m just never quite sure what this book was trying to say.    That said, I’m glad I read it, there’s some really stellar stuff in it–L3 is great, I love that Lando is a fashionista, that he’s dramatic and Extra about it, but in a way that’s delightedly charming and clearly a great thing about him. I loved the brief mentions of baby Ben showing up, there was some SERIOUS cute going on there, but also a great quick peek into what his early life was like, how he was difficult, but still such a sweet kid at that point, how loved he was. I loved “Uncle Wanwo”, like, holy shit, worth the book right there! I was absolutely delighted that there was a very strong sense of this being placed in the Star Wars galaxy, from droids to aliens to planets to tech, it was recognizable (though, I could have done without almost all the aliens being described as ugly), and the plot was a solid action chase plot. Ultimately, while I find it easier to talk about the things that didn’t work for me (but isn’t that often the case with most people?) I don’t want to discourage people from reading this, because I’m genuinely glad I read it, I thought there was a lot of good stuff here and I really enjoyed getting to see Lando, who was still a gambler and a bit of a scoundrel, but with the good heart he’s always had. That there’s progress made on giving him character depth! That Han genuinely struggled with having a family and how to deal with that, that it doesn’t do a disservice to that part of his character or that he genuinely loved them and wanted to be there with them and support them. There was a lot done to make these characters more relatable and human, which goes a very long way with me, so I’m glad to have gotten this book and I’d love to see more about Han and Lando again! I also plan to listen to the audiobook after seeing the Solomovie, as I think more familiarity with the updated versions of the characters might help, but even without that, I thought this was a solid read I’m glad to have gotten! ✦ Most Wanted by Rae Carson, han & qi'ra & cast, 348 pages    Han and Qi'ra don’t have a lot in common other than not having a lot. They’re street kids on the industrial planet Corellia, doing whatever it takes to get by, dreaming of something more.    I wish I’d had more time to read the rest of this book before seeing Solo (and I would have swapped the publishing order with Last Shot, but I also recognize that there wasn’t time because the author had other committments that pushed this one back and am totally sympathetic to that) because I think reading the first handful of chapters did an amazing amount to help me with Qi'ra’s character in the movie, as this book dovetails so very well with who she is there. She made perfect sense to me, someone who was genuine about being glad that Han got out, who genuinely had feelings for him and kept those feelings close to her, wasn’t going to betray him if she could at all help it, would have probably died to help him, but also wasn’t going to stay where she was, that she knew shutting the door on the possibility of more was what she had to do. This book really does a fantastic job of showing who these characters are prior to the movie and gives a lot more depth to the opening scenes on Corellia, a lot more meaning to the White Worms and Lady Proxima and just how desperately hungry both Han and Qi'ra were to get the hell off that world. It also does a fantastic job of connecting it to the rest of the GFFA, that there are recognizable aliens amongst the new ones, that there are references to the rest of the galaxy, that this fits with Han feeling isolated in how he grew up yet it’s not unrecognizable as the galaxy we know.    So I would have enjoyed the book and recommended it for that alone, but it’s also just a fun book, one of the most enjoyable ones I’ve read of canon! It has a good blend of action with character insight, it very obviously kept the future in mind (working up towards Han’s characterization in ANH especially, what with his saying the Force is a bunch of mumbo jumbo or why he doesn’t join causes, as well as the book felt aware of Qi'ra being similar to Leia, except the more you get to know her, the more she’s not really Leia 2.0 but instead her own character, one that I adored) and yet was legit exciting. I knew things had to work out reasonably well, given that it was set before canon events, but the path to how it would work out, how they’d get out of this seemingly impossible mess (and I loved the how of how it worked out!) to put them in place for the movie, all of that was great. I legitimately cared about these characters, Han was this great character who is smart but somewhat naive even as he’s street smart in other ways, you can’t help but fall for his entirely genuine charms, Qi'ra was wary and closed-off, except she was a person who had respect for others, she had a core of strength that you could feel, no matter how hungry she was, she was someone I hope we get to see more of. And having them run all over Corellia and running up against crime syndicates and droids and rich people who may or may not be truly helping them, all of it was just pure Star Wars fun! One of my faves, especially ones tangent to the Solo movie!

[glitter-stained]

It's so funny to me when I see people call Jason overly impulsive and incapable to hold back his anger issues because not only is that very untrue, but the fact that he isn't is a medical miracle. Homeboy had two severe traumatic brain injuries from direct hits to the frontal lobe in a period of his life (teenagehood and early adulthood) where the executive functions (developed in the frontal lobe) are not done developing, the classic symptomatology observed almost always in children/teenagers (and so many adults) in that case is dysexecutive syndrome which is characterized by an intolerance to frustration and impulsivity, and it happened to him twice!!! (At least, idk where the Joker hit his head so it's maybe even more) Like do you understand??! Yeah lucky him the Pit healed the first one and then it happened again!!!

I don't necessarily like RHATO #25, but it's incredibly funny to me that not only is the characterization of Jason as impulsive extremely wrong, but it is so in spite of canon events. Like if post RHATO #25 Jason suddenly became extremely impulsive and struggling majorly to control his anger, it would make sense! It would be realistic! The irony of it is wild.

[glitter-stained]

As someone who is very much not well-versed in medical things/psychology, I have no idea how to research this efficiently, so, would you say that Jason would in any way benefit from being on some sort of medication, like anti-depressants or something like that? Not in a way of "oooh that would fix him and make him not murderous" or whatever, but to improve some of the very clear mental health issues that affect him in his day-to-day life, first and foremost.

Oh I love that one! Answering quickly for once because I've already dissected it in my head

Fuck yeah he would benefit from medication. Of course, I'm neither a psychiatrist nor a pharmacist, but I did have classes on neuropharmacology and it was one of my favourite things to study, so I'm confident I'm not saying random shit but if someone in there

So- of course, it depends on the era, but there are three molecules I'd consider useful for him :

> Rebirth Jason:

-sertralin

> any and all Jasons:

- lamotrigin

-propanolol

Sertralin

So, the antidepressants. Basically, sertralin is an SSRI, which means it works by altering your brain chemistry to heighten the chances that your neurons will get the possibility to transmit serotonin, a neurotransmitter (brain molecule) that is linked with happiness (very very basically. Please don't misunderstand this as "sertralin/serotonin makes you happy".) I'll admit I haven't read enough of rebirth Jason to establish whether he fits the criteria for a characterized depressive episode rather, but he already displays, at minima, subclinical signs of depression. One reason why I don't need to wait for an established diagnosis to say I think trying out antidepressants would be a good idea is that Jason is suicidal as fuck (has made several attempts on his life + documented suicidal ideation... and at least according to Bruce) has been for a very long time.) This makes it a total emergency.

Now if we're considering post Gotham war Rebirth Jason, this guy has an anxiety disorder (like, I wish Batman #148 had shown Jason abusing benzos so bad.) The thing is, Joker might have made Jason "functional" enough not to be paralyzed by fear in Man Who Stopped Laughing (and hey! Laughter is a good strategy to regulate anxiety. Thanks, Joker.), but that is very much not enough: as Joker says, Jason still feels that anxiety, he's just not having outwards panic attacks about it. The thing with anxiety (aside from the risks of such extreme chronic stress) is that 1) some SSRI, like sertralin, have a positive effect on symptoms and 2) if untreated, it very often leads to depressive symptomatology (kinda like fatigue from all the stress). All of this to say if a patient has anxiety, in my country it's recommended to give them antidepressants, both to soothe the anxiety and to decrease the risk of developing depression. So yeah, I would definitely give him antidepressants!!

Lamotrigin

Listen.

Listen. I know what you're thinking. "Why would you recommend giving Jason an anti-epileptic? He doesn't have epilepsy." He doesn't. Stay with me.

So, lamotrigin is originally an anti-epileptic. However they realized that using smaller doses could make it into a thymoregulator for bipolar disorder (I and II). Now, a thymoregulator is a medicine that people with bipolar take to regulate their emotions. Bipolar disorders are characterized by three phases: mania(or hypomania), depressive phase, and euthymia. Mania (or hypomania) is characterized by elevated mood and/or agressivity (though the most characteristic of mania is still elation/euphoria) that can be associated with overestimation of abilities, augmentation of risk taking, sometimes psychotic symptoms (such as grandiose delusions, etc.) Depressive phases are the symptoms of a characterized depressive episode, but in the context of bipolar (they're often very severe, and can sometimes take on melancholic and/or psychotic characteristics). They're not rapid mood swings: manic and depressive episodes can sometimes last weeks. And then there is euthymia, which is "normal, non-pathologic mood". So basically, your mood is a spectrum from "so high it's harmful and dangerous to you" to "so low it's harmful and dangerous to you", with euthymia in the middle as "neither too high nor too low". The goal of thymoregulators like lamotrigin is to keep the patient in euthymia. That doesn't mean that the person will never feel sad or happy, this isn't a mood dampener: it's just that they won't have to leave with the fear that every stressor or sad moment will send them spiralling in a depressive episode, or that they have to be careful not to feel too much joy in case in tumbles into euphoria. It's just a way to compensate the chemical dysfunction in the brain that makes it so incredibly hard and painful to emotionally regulate.

Now, as we said, mood is a spectrum, and in bipolar, it's like you're swinging from one end of the spectrum to the other. But it's not perfectly symetrical, not for everyone. For example, you can have one patient who has very high mania and severe depressive episodes, but you could also have patients with high mania and less severe depressive symptoms, or patients with severe depressive symptoms and hypomania rather than mania. This is why we need different types of thymoregulators! Each thymoregulator's effect span can be situated on the mood spectrum. For example, lithium works best for patients where there's a symetrical dysregulation (so the mood goes about as high in the maniac phase as it goes low in the depression phase), and lamotrigin works best with patients whose disorder tends more towards the lower end of the mood spectrum (ie patients with very severe depressive episodes and whose high episodes tend more towards hypomania. (That's classically what we get with cohort studies, but of course every patient is unique! This is why it sometimes takes many tries before finding A) the right molecule for the patient and B) the right dosage for the molecule, which requires evaluating and re-evaluating with the psychiatrist as the treatment is established, blood draws to figure out absorption etc... It's a very careful balance to find.)

Now, it's a hc I've seen a bunch, but I don't personally hc Jason as having a bipolar disorder. So why do I think lamo could help him?

As we've seen, lamo's job is basically to help regulate negative emotions. To which, someone had the brilliant idea to realise hey, there are other disorders in which there are major issues with regulating negative emotions because of alterations to brain chemistry, one of the best-known being PTSD! So they conducted studies and it turns out, some thymoregulators (including lamo), in lower doses than those used in treatment for bipolar, are efficient in supporting emotional regulation in PTSD! It's pretty recent, but professionals have started to prescribe those thymoregulators to people with PTSD, and I for one think it's really really cool (partially because research in ptsd is doing amazing rn, and partially because my doctor decided i had enough trauma to qualify for prescribing lamo- i didn't necessarily agree with him, but of all the medication I've been prescribed it's the one that helped the most and I'm really really happy about it.) So with all of that said, I hope it makes sense why Jason, whose brand of complex PTSD (which is imo clearly associated with negative emotional dysregulation) might benefit from lamotrigin or a similar thymoregulator.

[glitter-stained]

I'm wondering whether I should do a short post about psychoanalysis in Red Hood: Lost Days but also the way I was taught psychoanalysis was "look. You hate this and don't believe any of this is real and feel like it does actual harm to patients. We also hate this and don't believe it's real and feel like it does actual harm to patients. However, a therapeutic team that can't understand eachother and communicate is much more harmful to the patients, so let's get through this together so you have a basic understanding of what your psychoanalytical coworkers will be talking about."

So if I talk about it it's gonna be disrespectful it's gonna be messy and it's gonna be filled with thinly veiled shade thrown at my least favourite psychoanalyst (no, it's not even Freud if you'll believe it). And it's not because I hate people, it's because I am frankly incapable of not throwing shade when it comes to the themes we're talking about in Lost Days.

As a frame of reference, the neuropsychology VS psychoanalysis dispute here has led, in some of the places I've interned at, to feuds so intense people have screamed in the staffroom, stormed off in the middle of meetings, and even in some cases, mass quitting because people couldn't stand to work in the same space, not to mention the criminal incidents. Me throwing shade under a pseudonym on the internet is the nice alternative.

So I guess the question is : are you guys interested in an intensely bitchy and relatively short (because I have better stuff, like actual science, to talk about) analysis of Red Hood: Lost Days that will give you an explanation as to why they had Talia and Jason sleep together at the end and simultaneously make you wish you hadn't?

[glitter-stained]

Let's talk about Jason's TBI(s) in Lost Days!!!

The first thing I'll say is, as I've stated before, Jason's outwards symptoms (which I've stated remind me of a particularly severe dissociative episode) make it almost impossible to determine the extent of his actual cognitive disability- though they do allow us to rule some things out. This is a rather baseless exercise in pondering what his cognitive issues would have been, aka what brain damage did the pit heal aside from jostling him out of the dissociative state. But hey, it's fun!

Simple physics

Now, I don't like physics. Physics math always tells you to approximate numbers and gives me the creeps, don't worry, we're talking toddler physics here (literally). We're doing a thought experiment. Also, er, tw for animal abuse (here and for the rest of this post) because of the questionnable thought experiment. Sorry. I promise no actual animals were harmed in the making of this post.)

First, take a box (must be solid, that's very important). Second, take a scoop of easily bruising organic matter (usually these physics thought experiments use a cat, which would be appropriate but is also really fucking cruel to picture.). It must be both soft and fragile (like me). This scoop of organic matter has several zones, including a zone on one side, which we'll call frontal loge, and a zone on the opposite side, which we'll call occipital lobe. Still with me? Now, what you're gonna do is, you're gonna put the scoop of organic matter in the box so that your body is facing the frontal lobe side, you're gonna seal the box shut, and then you're gonna kick the box as violently as you can.

Now let's open the box. Where will we find bruising? The first thing that happened when you kicked the box is you hit the frontal lobe, which was right behind the box wall: it has a very big bruise. The second thing that happened, is that, because the box is not a perfect plastic glove sealed tightly around the scoop, the soop of organic matter went flying in the box, and the occipital lobe hit the other side of the box: it also has one big bruise. And the third thing that happened, is that the movement of the organic scoop, when it went flying, jostled and damaged some of the fibers inside the scoop (shearing damage, much harder to evaluate than the first two kinds of damage.)

Hold on a second. Fibers? Why would there be fibers inside the organic scoop? Alas, I fear we must take one second to talk about...

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I have no medical knowledge but JT had me googling the five levels of consciousness I’m like what is this some specific form of hypoactive delirium JT has going on like what is thissss is this based off the movie Awakenings

Hell yeah! I love this ask so much

Let's talk about catatonia

Could Jason's TBI have given him catatonia?

Okay so catatonia is a syndrome that can be caused by either an underlying mental disorder (best known causes are schizophrenia and some forms of depression) or another medical affection (this is what the characters in The Awakenings have!)

I'm basing myself on the DSM-5 revised text here because it's my favourite classification (as shown by the fact I talk shit about it all the time). So, in Lost Days, Talia's hypothesis for Jason appears to be catatonia caused by another medical affection, this affection being caused by the brain damage he sustained. Because this hasn't been proven (i am, btw, very intrigued: does the LOA have MRIs? We know they interrogated the medical professionals who worked on him during his coma, but we don't have any info on that... What do the images say!!! I wanna know!!! And did he have an EEG? 😭😭😭 I wish we had these images... Alas.)

Anyway, so because the medical cause isn't confirmed, the actual diagnosis would be "unspecified catatonia" but that's more of a "eh, can't know for sure" diagnosis so it's not really important.

So I asked the one of my teachers who sees a lot of children and teenagers with TBIs, and he told me that while he couldn't tell me this didn't exist, he had never seen a patient develop catatonia as a result of a TBI. Because my personal hypothesis is a dissociative episode, I also asked my teacher who specialises in trauma if it was possible for dissociation to induce catatonia... He confessed that he wasn't sure what catatonia was and thought it was an outdated category people didn't use anymore and then when I was starting to detail the symptoms he kinda ran away from me in a pretty comical manner... (I'm not kidding, it was very funny). So, safe to say that this man (otherwise a really good teacher, with a great and in-depth understanding of trauma and the psychopathology around it) hasn't seen many catatonic patients lmao. So, that makes catatonia relatively improbable in terms of etiology, but nowhere in the dsm does it say that it's impossible for a tbi or dissociation to induce it, so let's check!!!

[glitter-stained]

I'm writing a Jason Vs Dick fic for a secret santa exchange...

The prompt has the fic set during the Battle for the cowl arc - Jason is the villain. He's delusional (the dyeing his hair thing never really happened - he dyed his black hair red) and seriously messed up. It is a pretty dark fic.

Basically Jason knows on some level how badly messed up he is. He wants Dick to be his Robin, because he believes that it was Robin Dick who saved Bruce from darkness. He wants Dick (who is already juggling too much responsibility) to do the same for him... Be the light to his darkness...

Saw your posts about the BTFC arc in particular and mentally ill villains in general.

Any suggestions on how to handle the BtFC Jason?

...don’t ?

No, wait, listen. I know I said “write what you want as long as it’s self-aware”, it’s just you’ve chosen to write an absolute nightmare of a minefield to be self-aware about. I believe it’s possible to write Btfc fanfics that aren’t psychophobic, I just think it must be incredibly hard; Btfc is my second least favourite comic because all of it is soaked and drenched in psychophobia and I wish with all of my heart for dc to continue ignoring it and hopefully bury it under layers and layers of retcon until it’s less significant to Jason’s modern characterization than Waldo the clown (no hate on Waldo, he was much better than anything about Btfc though). So, I can give you advice for sure, I’m just concerned it will not be enough, because I wouldn’t trust myself to write a non-psychophobic Btfc fic, but you sure can try!

The core issue about Btfc (and any villainous characterization of Jason) is that, at the difference of other characters like the Joker, there’s a strange kind of coherence to it. For all we talk about Jason sometimes acting OOC, he’s reliably showing symptoms of BPD, like, to me, it’s pretty blatant. The difference between UTH and BiB or Btfc isn’t that he has BPD in one and not the other, it’s that BiB and Btfc are much more brutally psychophobic renditions of BPD than UTH (though UTH isn’t fully clean either). In other words, Btfc is a violent caricature of Borderline Personality Disorder. I’m not sure if this is on purpose, because on the one hand, it’s so consistent I feel like someone at dc told the writers “Jason has bpd” and they all ran with their caricatural representation of the disorder, or (because I don’t wanna underestimate dc’s ignorance regarding mental disorders) if they just read about him, thought “hey, he kinda fits into that subtype of stereotypical mental illness I have in mind” and projected their stereotypes about BPD about him without even knowing those are BPD stereotypes. The end result is the same: bpd on a spectrum from “almost well written” to “nastiest rep I’ve ever read”.

Now in Btfc (just as in UTH or BiB tbh) I’d say Jason is splitting, having an episode in which his BPD symptoms are flaring up completely. This can absolutely include brief psychotic episodes, and tbh the part you mentioned about dyeing his hair I can totally get behind. And because you’re writing Jason in the middle of a particularly intense episode, you can’t make the economy of considering the question of moral responsibility. If Jason is committing morally reprehensible actions as a consequence of the disordered patterns in the context of the episode, whether we’re talking about splitting or delusion or disordered thought patterns, you have to consider the question of responsibility, and on a spectrum. You also have to identify who is deciding those actions are morally reprehensible (is it Dick? The law? You, the author? The anticipated reader? All of them?) and whether you expect this judge is passed on the action, the person, or, who knows, even the disorder itself. And of course consider the implications of that fact. (For example, it’s completely possible for Dick, in the context he’s grown and developed in, and considering the insane stress he’s under, to be psychophobic as fuck; and obviously, writing a character doing something doesn’t mean that you support it, but if Jason is the villain and Dick is a hero and Dick is being psychophobic you should pay attention to whether the narrative is implying that Dick is right to be psychophobic about it.)

[glitter-stained]

Jason Todd Meta VS psychology: Masterpost

Glossary:

The different types of psychology

Intro:

I.1. psychophobia in DC

I. 1. 2. Psychophobia and the pitfalls of tragic backstories

I.2. the complicated question of responsibility

I.3. Jason's age and age as a concept

1. The CSA headcanon

2. Red Hood : Lost Days

2.1. Is it just me, or does Jason not have catatonia in Lost Days?

2.1.1. Catatonia and hypoactive delirium

2.1.1.1. Update on the hypoactive delirium question

2.2. More on Jason's elusive TBI (feat an uncomfortable number of rats)

2.3. Why Jaytalia happened, aka a very begrudging study of psychoanalysis in Lost Days

3. BPD, PTSD, CPTSD... Did someone say ✨trauma✨?

3.1. Does Jason have BPD?

3.2. Tips for writing a dissociative episode

3.3. The limits of personality (and what it means to be OOC)

3.4. Putting Jason through the BPD dsm-5 checklist

3.5. Putting Jason through the CPTSD icd-11 checklist

3.6. Battle for the Cowl special

4. Under the Hood! Jason VS Rebirth Jason (feat a surprise guest)

.

.

.

Jason go to therapy 2024 challenge: Let's talk meds!

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Dw, I'm keeping the other options for later! ( It's like videogame levels: you can't unlock the comparison between UTH Jason and current Jason until we've gone through "the limits of personality" and "did somebody say trauma", and the more therapy bits until we've gone through all of those.) Again, feel free to send me asks or request topics/comics for analysis!!

Masterpost

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Hii pls don't feel pressured to answer this but I really enjoy your Jason mental health meta posts and I was wondering, do you think jaybin has BPD? I've been told my writing of him is relatable to folks with BPD and I wanted to figure out why lol!

Oh boy I love love this question, and I'm glad you're enjoying my posts!!

I'll talk about it later in the "BPD, PTSD, CPTSD and trauma" chapter of the meta but for now short answer is "yeah, Jason 100% has BPD, but only insofar as I agree with the BPD diagnosis. (To be very clear: BPD symptomatology 100% exists, and people with BPD's experience and clinical pathology is valid and must be taken seriously. However, there's a lot of debate amongst clinicians in the way we characterize personality disorders, and especially when it comes to the difference between BPD and CPTSD. So basically, "should we consider that BPD and CPTSD are two different disorders or are BPD symptoms just a form through which CPTSD expresses itself -which is made especially complex by the fact the CPTSD diagnosis exists in some common classifications (I think CIM-11 includes it) but not in others (the DSM-5 for example doesn't yet include it). It's a whole mess, and I'm very excited to see how it pans out. One interesting way to think about it: you asked "do you think Jaybin has BPD?" And well, he shouldn't be able to get a personality disorder diagnosis as Jaybin because he's 12 to 15 years old, and you're not supposed to diagnose personality disorders before adulthood (until personality is considered to be "fully formed"). So it wouldn't make much sense to say Jason has BPD imo on that front (though some clinicians sometimes do diagnose teenagers with it in some cases); however, you could definitely say he has CPTSD.

For the time being, @dukeofthomas shared an awesome meta about Jason and BPD!! I'll share my own point by point analysis of his symptoms in that part of the meta because some stuff of our conception of Jason diverges and also just because putting fictional characters through the dsm checklist absolutely rules, but their analysis and the way they explain stuff is a really really good read!!!

@carmineskiesandspidereyes you should also have fun with this one!

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Hey hii you're incredibly smart and if u want to i would love to hear more psychoanalysis of jason :) just any thoughts you might have, like a free space

Tysm, that's lovely!

I have so much to talk about, might you help me order it?

I'll probably come up with more later (though there's already a lot of material in there) so glad i get to be normal about my interests on the being normal about your interests website

[glitter-stained]

You guys!!!

Update on the Jason Lost Days delirium hypothesis!

So, delirium is frequent in old age psychopatholgy (because of reasons). Today I had a class in old age psychopatholgy (rare event) from a professional who came to talk to us about his job and the disorders he encountered, and he talked about delirium. The question about Jason and delirium concerned me (because Jason may not be real but the possibility of not being able to identify delirium symptoms because of cognitive impairment is) so I asked him about it after class. Well, I said "someone has picked my brain about a fictional clinical case [something we do often to practice diagnostic hypothesis] and I didn't know what to say so I wanted your advice", but, yk. Anyway I explained the issue of not being able to rule yes or no for the symptoms because of how locked into himself Jason is, and his answer was "oh yeah, redirect to a medical professional specialised in delirium is the correct move. The issue with psychopatholgy is you're working with disorders at the frontiere between your domain and medical domains you don't specialise in so you're easily overwhelmed that's why you need to work with a team. In terms of that case though, you could gather some information from the evolution." - "which would be?" - "well, unless the medical issue underlying the delirium is treated within a few hours, the pronostic isn't good, it's probably death, unfortunately." - "oh." - "Yes... Well, in some very rare cases they don't die and we see and eventual evolution towards very very slow recovery, but it's rare."

So you heard it here! The probability of Jason having delirium in Lost Days: First Steps, considering that he remains in that state for two years, is very low (but never zero, as he could be part of that very small percentage.) Oh and also, you know delirium tremens? That thing where your buddy's all confused and their hands are shaking after quitting drinking cold-turkey? Or if people in general start showing signs of delirium around you? Vital medical emergency. Haul their ass to the hospital (even if you're not sure it's that, if it's unclear). Better to be safe. Accurate diagnosis is not your job, your job is to make sure your buddy gets to the hospital where the team can do its job. This has been a psa.

[glitter-stained]

Would be hilarious if my Christmas gift this year was just an extraordinarily bitchy jason meta post where I find new and creative ways of talking shit about freud

[glitter-stained]

Hey Glitter, what does neuropsychology mean?

(Because I realise the name doesn't clarify stuff at all)

So, in my JT psychology meta, I don't exclusively write neuropsychology meta. For example, the TBI meta is a neuropsychology meta, but the catatonia meta is a purely atheoric psychopathology meta (we'll get back to what that means).

Academically, I study clinical psychology and psychopathology with a speciality in developmental psychopathology and child neuropsychology. That means I get classes on stuff like general clinical stuff (ie how to conduct a clinical interview, suicide prevention etc), some stuff about adult psychology, general psychopatholgy classes) and on top of that more classes about child psychology.

> clinical psychology: The psychology of care, what we do in therapy. Now the whole JT meta is organised under a clinical logic: first figure out what the issues/cause of suffering/diagnosis/etc. is, also identify the resources, and then based on that knowledge and where the patient is at, establish routes for therapeutical intervention: all of this is clinical psychology. As a field, I would oppose it to fields like social or IO psychology, which are focused on understanding how society or organizations work. Social psychologists are not therapists, however, it's not a disconnected field either; we owe them concepts that help in our understanding of psychopatholgy and clinical psychology at large, like learned helplessness (a concept we'll talk about in the UTH VS Rebirth Red Hood meta). The concepts I refer to in the victim-blaming meta come from social psychology.

> psychopathology: Pathology = study of illnesses; psycho= mind: the study of mental illness. With pathology, you can do two things: simply describe it without trying to explain/understand it according to a theory (what I called atheoric psychopathology) or use the framework from your theoretical field (or invent one, if you're a revolutionary) to understand it. Atheoric psychopathology is what the DSM-5 does (though sometimes imperfectly). That's what the S in DSM comes from: Diagnostic Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, because we're basically doing statistics to see which group of symptoms are usually grouped together, and we use that to describe those disorders and make up diagnostic categories. It's an essential tool that allows clinicians to understand what everyone is talking about and communicate about patients without attempting murder on their colleagues, but it's also limiting because you take the risk of grouping two things that manifest the same way but don't work the same way, so that's why it's essential to understand how the disorders work.

> developmental psychopathology: So this is kind of the popular model in psychopathology rn, especially child psychopatholgy. Basically instead of studying disorders as classifications we study the development of psychopathology in terms of trajectories, and study the factors that may impact those trajectories. It's maybe a little complicated to explain simply here, but it's, for example, why children with very severe, super early criminal neglect might end up displaying symptoms akin to autism. I'll try to include it across my meta where I can, because I believe it's the most adequate perspective.

> neuropsychology: And this one is a lie. Well, not technically a lie so much as an abuse of the word? The thing is, neuropsychology is a real thing, but also when we talk about neuropsychology we conflagrate actual neuropsychology with cognitive psychology (at least in the country I'm studying in. Maybe in English speaking countries it might be different.) Let me explain.

-cognitive psychology is the psychology of cognitive functions. The study of intelligence, memory, attention, inhibition, flexibility, working memory, etc, etc. It has nothing to do with the study of the brain, and what we're doing is basically, through scientific experiments and the study of people with specific disorders, make models according to our theories of how those things work and develop, and of course study how the develop over time and what impacts them. And then, we use this knowledge to analyse how disorders work in terms of cognitive functions, conduct evaluations that help not only with the diagnosis but with designing strategies that help with the disorder and its manifestations in the person specifically. That therapist conducting your IQ test, autism evaluation, adhd tests, etc.? Cognitive psychology. That therapist helping you design a planner and come up with time management that actually work for you, designing flexibility exercises that cater to your special interest to keep you invested? Cognitive psychology. Nothing neuro about it. But for some godforsaken reason, we call the people who do it neuropsychologists (at least in my country) so, in practice, neuropsychology.

-actual neuropsychology, however, is also a thing! Now technically, neuropsychology is just the study of the association between psychological concepts and neurology. However, in practice, I've only ever seen and heard of cognitive neuropsychology, which is focused on the association between neurology and cognitive psychology (and that makes a lot of sense, I struggle to even envision what kind of scientifically valid neuropsychology would be based on any other kind of psychology).

In practice, the guy who makes your cognitive evaluation before and after a brain surgery to make sure you don't lose any major cognitive function during the surgery is a neuropsychologist (and that's important as fuck, ask the HM patient). The TBI meta, and evaluating the damage caused by a TBI in general, or by an epilepsy/encephalopathy or hypoxia (lack of oxygen in the brain) or an aneurysm or a stroke or a brain bleed etc, etc is neuropsychology. In terms of research, neuropsychology is super useful, but also be careful! A lot of research in neuropsychology (neurosciences in general) is badly interpreted and relayed in media, politics etc. and give way to a whole new branch of pseudoscientific bs, because neurosciences are 1) a very young branch of science and 2) a real bitch to explain simply. (I said it before, but what I explain of neuropsychology is a grossly simplified version that's good enough to explain how TBIs work, but would be insufficient to explain how recovery works.)

In any case, I hope that clarified what all those branches of psychology refer to, be mindful of pseudo-science, and don't hesitate to ask if you have questions!

Masterpost

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First of all ilysm for your detailed met posts! Secondly how do you research them? Asking as a desperate fic writer lol

I'm so sorry, I'm afraid the answer to that question is college (I'm in my last year of clinical psychology with a speciality in child development psychopathology and neuropsychology.) It really sucks because sometimes I'll be like "well we've theorized that this could be the reason why... but it hasn't yet been proven" and I wanna put the source, but the source is "well I know the guy who's running the study".

In terms of what you can do, you might want to get your hands on the DSM-5 TR (2022) to check out pathology symptoms if you're into analysing your character's psychology in terms of disorders, and don't hesitate to check out the Wikipedia pages of these disorders for more info, because wikipedia often has sections for possible causes, treatment options etc. And if you're weird like me you can check the Wikipedia pages for all those molecules, causes, therapies etc. In terms of personal research, there's a lot of stuff to be weary off, pseudo psychology etc, but I will say this one thing: beware of psychoanalysis. Seriously, don't trust Freud and his followers. (On just about any topic).

And if you have a question don't hesitate to ask! I might take a while to answer because I'm trying to give an accurate and complete answer, but I love getting asks and people showing interest in that stuff it makes me so incredibly happy ❤️🥰

If you have specific questions about how to portray from the pov of someone having an episode from a disorder accurately in fic, checking out testimonies of the people who have it, or reaching out to those of them that do educational work about it, is a good idea!