Psychiatrist: Sorry, Ms. Klara.
Psychiatrist: You may have lost control of your arcane skill because of the trauma you've experienced. I should have focused on this in previous sessions; I missed it.
Psychiatrist: So, for the immediate future, we should keep you away from any mirrors or reflective surfaces until you overcome this disorder.
Psychiatrist: Do you agree?
The room has nothing but a pair of chairs and a table with a desk lamp. They sit across from one another.
Kakania: Yes, miss, uh, Doctor.
Psychiatrist: Alright. Let me explain the treatment plan the Foundation has created for you.
Kakania: ...
The psychiatrist keenly identifies that Kakania's mind has started to wander.
She taps the writing board with her pen.
Kakania looks up and blinks.
Kakania: Hmm?
Kakania: Oh, my mind wandered again? Sorry.
Psychiatrist: What's on your mind this time?
Kakania glances around the room, her eyes eventually falling on the dim, yellow lamp.
Kakania: Nothing. It's just this room reminds me of somewhere.
Kakania: I've been in one similar to this before. Back in Vienna.
Psychiatrist: What were you doing there?
Kakania: I was going to meet a friend.
Kakania: A friend, it seemed that I never really knew.
Psychiatrist: Would you like to talk about this friend?
Kakania: Sorry, I don't know where to start.
Psychiatrist: It's okay. Let's get back to our topic, then.
Psychiatrist: I'm sure you've noticed, Ms. Klara, that I've never stopped you from consciously or unconsciously recalling traumatic memories, as you did just now.
Psychiatrist: This is the initial stage of our treatment. We guide the patient to trace back their traumatic experiences in order to identify any causes and triggers of their disorder.
Psychiatrist: Then, through controlled exposure to these triggers, we start the process of desensitization, with the final goal being to help the patient create positive coping strategies to deal with these triggers.
Kakania: This treatment, it's quite different from the therapeutic strategies I'm familiar with.
Psychiatrist: In what way?
Kakania: For me, pushing patients to relive their traumatic memories is never good.
Kakania: And recalling trauma too frequently would only serve to damage the patient's psyche further—even exacerbate the isolation of these traumas in their mind.
Kakania: While free talk—and the more difficult conversations that stem from it—can be a useful tool to build trust, focusing only on trauma won't benefit anyone.
Psychiatrist: So you prioritize psychoanalysis. I see.
Psychiatrist: Remember the first time we met? You expressed your disagreement with the session arrangement.
Kakania: I still think that a weekly session is too infrequent for sustained psychological observation.
Psychiatrist: I understand, and as I've explained before, psychology has moved far beyond the exploratory stage of the early 20th century that you're familiar with.
Psychiatrist: Psychoanalytic therapy—"talk therapy," if you will—has seen many advancements throughout the century.
Psychiatrist: To be more specific, Laplace's psychotherapeutic method has long been separated from Freud's. Many of his theories have been proven wrong.
Kakania: ...
Kakania: I ...
This is not her era anymore. It has never been clearer than now.
She clenches her fist, and a sharp pain shoots from her palm. She looks down to see a blood-soaked shard clutched in her hand.
Kakania: This ...
Kakania: Hmm?
Psychiatrist: What are you looking at, Ms. Klara?
Psychiatrist: Ms. Klara?
Kakania: I—
Kakania: I'm hallucinating.
Psychiatrist: Thank you for telling me. What do you see?
Kakania: A fragment of a mirror.
Kakania: As I said, my mirror broke, and I haven't been able to use my arcane skill since.
Psychiatrist: Yes, the report stated that your arcane skill is related to mirrors—that they serve as a kind of "wand" for you. But it didn't tell me this.
Psychiatrist: What is it that you can do with a mirror?
Kakania: My arcane skill is "Vingler's Mirror." It allows me to see what people are thinking.
Kakania: You can understand it as reflecting people's inner desires into the mirror.
The psychiatrist takes a moment to contemplate this.
Psychiatrist: I see. This is how you treat your patients. So now, during our conversation, you fear I'm "prying" into you.
Psychiatrist: Because now you think that's what you did to your patients.
Kakania: ...
Psychiatrist: You no longer consider that treatment the right way of helping people, do you?
Psychiatrist: During our treatment, I'd like you to shift your understanding of yourself. You're not a psychiatrist in our sessions, Ms. Klara.
Psychiatrist: You're a patient who needs treatment.
Kakania: ...
Psychiatrist: To be honest, you're not the first psychiatrist I've treated. There are a lot of people at headquarters who have been traumatized by the "Storm," including some of my colleagues.
Kakania: How are they now?
Psychiatrist: Before I answer, I want to ask you a question. Have you heard about this theory:
Psychiatrist: "Growth is the process of behavior reinforcement."
Kakania: This sounds like behaviorism.
Psychiatrist: I thought you'd recognize it. Well, our method could be seen as a distant, less extreme evolution of behaviorism.
Psychiatrist: It's called "recognition reappraisal." We work with patients to identify and reframe the negative emotions they hold toward a particular traumatic event. Eventually, as they learn to better recognize and manage their emotions, the trauma will feel less overwhelming than it once did.
Psychiatrist: And to answer your question, most of my colleagues were able to modify their emotional response to the events that traumatized them through this process.
Psychiatrist: A small number of them are still under treatment because they haven't been able to reframe the negative emotions associated with their trauma.
Psychiatrist: Their friends didn't make it to the safe zone. Seeing the hands reaching out to them, the melted painting-like faces ... It keeps haunting them.
Psychiatrist: Much like how it haunts you, doesn't it?
Speechless, Kakania looks down again, opening and clenching her fist repeatedly.
There's nothing in it.
Psychiatrist: You unconsciously replay the events in Vienna before the "Storm" over and over in your head. And you keep mentioning that mirror. You relive those negative emotions again and again but are unable to reframe them—to understand them differently.
Psychiatrist: I'll need some more information in order to help you in this process.
Kakania: What do you need to know?
Psychiatrist: You identify yourself as a psychiatrist, and, outdated though it may be, you have a strong knowledge of psychoanalysis, yet you still use your arcane skill to treat your patients.
Psychiatrist: It sounds counterintuitive to me.
Kakania: ...
Kakania furrows her brow.
Kakania: You're right. It is counterintuitive for a psychiatrist.
Kakania: My arcane skill is one of my therapies. But there are many others I employ. All based on Dr. Freud's theories.
Kakania: I treat my patients with science. This arcanum is just a kind of parlor trick.
Psychiatrist: I see. A fusion therapy using an arcane skill and following Freudian theories could have some lasting value.
Psychiatrist: I wonder, have you ever used this on yourself?
Kakania: ...?
Kakania: What do you mean?
Psychiatrist: I mean, have you looked at yourself in your own mirror?
Kakania: I ...
Kakania: I'm sure I must have, but—
Psychiatrist: Yes or no?
Kakania: It's not possible. I—
Kakania: "Your first hand mirror is for reflecting yourself. Your first table mirror is for observing others."
Kakania: Every Vingler knows this.
Kakania: I had a hand mirror, so I must—
Kakania: I must have ...
Kakania: Have I?
Kakania: Have I looked at myself in my own mirror?
