Alright, Project Moon again, mental illness again.
I have two subjects today: Forsaken Murderer and Distortions.
Everyone knows I LOVE Forsaken Murderer, and in fact am Forsaken Murderer. That said: on the surface, he's not really good rep. He exhibits delusions/hallucinations - symptoms of mental illness - but he IS a murderer, he IS portrayed (hint: key word - portrayed) as violent and aggressive. What's good about that? Haven't we had enough of violent emotionless killers as "representation" of mental illness?
I want to argue using two points: 1. everything surrounding Forsaken Murderer, 2. himself.
Forsaken Murderer's "treatment"
I'd argue at least half of the representation is located in everything surrounding Forsaken Murderer. I have been to a psych ward, and I have seen and been a victim of how mentally ill people are treated in medical institutions. I'd argue that Project Moon does "fear associated with mental asylums" right without even having a mental asylum, only an unlabeled facility "in the underground" - it shows how terrible doctors are to people with mental illness.
Described as treatment for various conditions of the mind, forced drugging is common in mental asylums, even if not with experimental drugs. It's also rather common for medications to not work or make symptoms worse - represented through Forsaken Murderer becoming more aggressive and becoming an Abnormality (Abnormalities are also fundamentally a commentary on mental illness, I'll talk about this in the "Distortion" section). Restraints, too, are common, and very traumatizing.
Furthermore, the way Forsaken Murderer is treated in a less literal sense, is also deeply fucked up and evil.
2. Forsaken Murderer himself.
He is described as an killer on death row who killed the innocent with no remorse. Described that way he is by one of the researchers who experimented on him and sedated him.
Is that true, however, that he does not feel remorse? Let's check the facts.
His E.G.O name is "Regret".
He describes himself as a "mess" in Ruina.
He says it's pitiful that people die to "the likes of him", showing that he doesn't believe he deserves to kill people.
Yesod says he was fettered by empty anger and regret until the last moment.
His E.G.O name describes someone (likely himself) being crushed by regret
He most definitely feels regret, so much regret it's literally ALL that is left of him - resentment and regret.
So, that's one thing. He was demonized, and positioned as this heartless monster, while he very clearly regretted what he had done.
Furthermore, it's said that he used to be full of rage. Rage is something familiar for us mentally ill people, sometimes emotions like anger get too much and become uncontrollable. Therefore, it is my theory that the murders he committed and later regretted were impulsive rather than premeditated, and done out of a momentary urge.
I am not going to say that murder is an outcome of mental illness because that would be demonizing on my part. It, however, can be a result of a person already vulnerable being pushed to their limit, which happens quite a lot in the City. I also don't want to justify murder and saying taking someone's life should just be forgiven when it's done out of impulse.
But we result with someone who does feel regret, who likely did not want to kill anyone, being forsaken by everyone after a lapse in judgement. And, to my mind, the punishment Forsaken Murderer suffered is disproportionate - even death row would be, but what actually happened is even worse. He was offered no treatment, only torture.
So, that's that. I think Forsaken Murderer is a sort of scapegoat that represents how mentally ill people are treated, as soon as people are given a reason to resent them. It reminds me of L'Etranger. Something I've been bringing up quite a lot these past days.
Now, the second part of this rant:
Distortions (and a little bit of Abnormalities)
Tell me, what are Distortions? People going through a mental crisis? Whose problems become too big and too visible to ignore? Yeah, that's mental illness alright.
By the same logic, Abnormalities are people pushed way too far, to the point they completely lose themselves and become completely consumed by their trauma. THAT is also very mental illness.
And look at how they're treated. Referred to as "it", exploited, dehumanized, "no one treat these things like humans".
N Corp. specifically kills Distortions as soon as they kill someone, which we also saw with Forsaken Murderer - one misstep and you are no longer permitted to have your life, something seemingly not enacted onto non-Distorted people. If you are mentally ill and do something wrong, that means you are fundamentally broken and too far gone to fix, and are a blight to humanity.
This section is shorter because it speaks for itself.
I think Project Moon is really good at representing how mental illness is treated. It doesn't have "perfect victims", pretty much every character is flawed in some way and is a link in the chain of the cycle of violence in the City, but that just goes to show how hurt people hurt people sometimes. You know. Sometime I can relate to because I am normal
