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Hannibal 2x09 - “Shiizakana”

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learning about psychology through Hannibal

Recently I have realised I have learnt quite a bit about psychology through the Hannibal lecter series! here are some of the interesting things that I have learnt :)

example number #1 : Encephalitis

I learnt about Encephalitis on episode 10 of Hannibal Lecter when Will goes to Hannibal after "losing time" when will talks about losing time he goes over some confusion and dissociation he is experiencing, Hannibal asks him to draw a picture of a clock as a screening test to judge wills cognitive ability, Will draws a clock which he thinks is good but it looks very messed up, this is when Hannibal starts to fully suspect that Will has Encephalitis, which is later proven true after Will sees a neurologist called Dr. Sutcliffe and he gets a brain scan where it shows one side of his brain is inflamed which is a majoure symptom of it, meaning he has Encephalitis, after watching this episode I was interested in if Encephalitis was a real disease, which I later found out that it is, and if they portrayed Encephalitis correctly in the show, which they did, Encephalitis is the inflammation of the brain, it is known as an auto immune disease (a disease in which the bodys immune system attacks healthy cells) in less severe cases symptoms of Encephalitis inlcude headaches, fevers, aches in muscles or joints and fatigue or weakness and in more severe cases of Encephalitis symptoms include confusion, agitation, hallucinations, seizures, paralasis in certain areas of the face or body, muscle weakness, problems with speech or hearing and loss of conciousness, causes of Encephalitis can be Herpes or other viruses such as mosquito born viruses or eneroviruses etc it can also stem from childhood infections.

example number #2 : Dementia being a symptom of disease

I could not find as much information on this but in another episode of Hannibal Jack Crawford, Alana Bloom and Hannibal are discussing what could be wrong with Will even though Hannibal already knows Will has Encephalitis he hasnt told anybody because he wants to continue studying Wills psyche, Jack Crawford mentioned Dementia but then Alana Bloom snapped back at him saying "Dementia isnt a disease, its a symptom of disease" I personally never realised this, I always thought Dementia was in general a disease just by itself, dementia is actually described as a collection of symptoms that are caused by disorders affecting the brain, Dementia effects thinking, behaviour and ability to perform every day tasks, so technically will could have dementia but it would only be a SYMPTOM of his Encephalitis. (because I did not show it in the previous paragraph and I have no images that are relevant to put here, below is a picture of the clock that Will drew)

example number #3 : Different types of therapys

It was quite difficult for me to find exact names for all these types of therapies but one thing I found quite interesting was the therapies that Hannibal used on the majority of his patients, the main therapy I found that Hannibal used on his patients was "Jungian Analasis" this specific therapy was not actually mentioned in the show as in the term "Jungian Analasis" was never said by anyone, but all the things Hannibal actually did with his patients, especially Will Graham shows that he is utilizing Jungian Analasis as his main therapy on people, now what is Jungian Analasis? well Jungian Analasis is the psychotherapeutic approach of analytical psychology in which the analyst and patient work together to bring unconcious elements of the psyche into a more balanced relationship with concious awareness and experience in an effort to discover meaning and become whole, Hannibal wanted patients to look at their "real" selfes and not the self they showed to the outside world, Hannibal also analysed dreams alot and is pro-psychodelic which is shown when Hannibal gives Abigial Hobbs Psychodelics in the form of tea (mushroom tea) as a form of therapy to make Abigail have positive associations with the traumatic things that happened in her past, some other forms of therapy Hannibal uses are hypnosis, light therapy and even psychic driving, after some extra research into these I read that while hypnosis is used for deep relaxation to treat mainly psychological and emotional issues, which is kind of obvious, I found out some really fascinating information on light therapy and psychic driving, light therapy is thought to affect brain chemicals linked to mood and sleep, it mainly helps with sleep disorders and mood disorders, and on the topic of psychic driving I found out that it was a psychiatric procedure of the 1950s and 1960s in which patients were subjected to a continuously repeated audio message on a looped tape to alter their behaviour, both of these things are shown on Hannibal and sometimes Hannibal would even combine light therapy with psychic driving, obviously Hannibal wasnt always using his therapys to really help his patients or do what was best for their mental health but none the less I found all of his methods interesting.

I hope you enjoyed these facts and psychological things I leant from Hannibal lecter :)

- written by Bodavin