Script Shrink

Writing about mental illness? Ask ScriptShrink!

[scripttorture]

Hello! I want to clarify that I know very well based on your blog that torture is not a way to get information. However it is a common misconception, and you've also said before that torture may cause memory problems. I'd like to know if it's plausible that a character after being tortured is worried that they might have revealed some important information even though they haven't? It would make for good drama/angst in my story but I want to check if it's plausible first. Thanks for your help!😊

Yes, that’s incredibly plausible and something that a lot of survivors grapple with. It’s not a universal experience but it is common.

 Things like sleep deprivation, which causes delirium and significant memory problems even outside of a torture context, feed into this a lot. So do periods of unconsciousness.

 The pattern I usually see has torturers feeding into these anxieties. They might tell a victim that they’ve already given up information for example or produce a confession that they say the victim has already signed. Torturers exploit the anxieties they expect victims to have.

 Having said that I can also think of accounts where survivors have been genuinely unsure what they said or did not say, what they did or did not do in a way that seemed completely separate from the torturers.

 I’ve also seen accounts where survivors were unsure about what happened to them at particular points because they passed out.

 Some survivors do come out incredibly sure that they did not say anything. Henri Alleg is a good example of this and his account in The Question is a pretty good one to use as a model for that kind of defiance.

 But his experience isn’t universal. A lot of torture survivors doubt themselves. A lot of them are aware that there are flaws in their memory or that they were delirious at some points. Memory problems can create a lot of anxieties.

 So yes. This is completely plausible and I think it is a good way to create drama in your story. Especially if you’re exploring this character’s mental state. Memory problems are a huge problem for survivors and while they’re relatively well studied in the scientific literature that message doesn’t seem to have filtered down to on the ground treatment.

 A lot of trauma survivors aren’t aware of how common, how normal memory problems are as a symptom. Or how they can manifest.

 And I think that creates a lot of unnecessary anxiety. They don’t know what they’re going through or how to combat it which makes life that much more difficult. The impression I get from the trauma survivors who have contacted me is that most doctors either don’t know about these memories problems or don’t communicate it to their patients.

 You might want to take a look at the masterpost on memory problems over here. You don’t have to use sleep deprivation in your story but the sort of thing you’re describing is more common in survivors who were sleep deprived. And I have a masterpost on sleep deprivation over here.

 Beyond that, this seems like a really good scenario.

 I hope that helps. :)

Available on Wordpress.

Disclaimer

[scriptshrink]

So, I think I know the answer to this, but I'm asking anyway: I have a character who was in a bad car accident and can't remember it. They know what happened because they were told, but a combination of traumatic memory loss and head injury suffered during the accident means they can't actually remember it happening. First of all, is this possible/realistic, or is it more likely that they would eventually recover their memory of it? And second, my main question, is: does it make sense that even without any actual memory of the event, they would have an aversion to riding in a car/be uneasy and even afraid when they have to as a trauma response? Basically, can they have PTSD symptoms from a trauma they can't remember? I think the answer is yes, but I wanted to be sure.

Yes, not remembering the accident under these circumstances is definitely possible, even probable when you throw the head injury into the mix. However, because of the head injury, that memory will likely never be recoverable. Think of it like typing up a tumblr post, and having your browser crash before you can post it - there’s no saved version if it. It’s just gone. 

And yes, it is quite possible to have PTSD from a trauma they can’t remember. One of the symptoms in the diagnostic criteria is actually not being able to remember part of the trauma. 

Disclaimer

[thewritingumbrellas]

I always found the 7 act structure helped me a lot more than the 3 acts.

Link right here

[transxfiles]

me: *writes fic*

me: great! time to post to ao3-

ao3 summary box: *exists*

me: 

ao3 summary box:

me:

ao3 summary box: 

me:

[rooksandravens]

[rjeddystone]

Ooh, this is actually kinda a neat thing, because you can think of it as a checklist:

Who: Main character(s)

Why: Character goal or desire (stated)

Why: Character need (implied)

When: Inciting Incident

What: Means (that achieves the goal/need)

Where: Place A >> Place B

How: The Plan

Obstacle(s): antagonist or challenge

For example:

Who: Bilbo Baggins, a respectable hobbit of Hobbiton

Why: Treasure, wealth (stated)

Why: Adventure, self-respect (implied)

When: After supper

What: Quest

Where: Hobbiton >> The Lonely Mountain

How: A company of dwarves, a wizard, and an ancient map and key

Main antagonist(s): a dragon

Thus, in less than 100 words:

Bilbo Baggins is a respectable hobbit in Hobbiton, never making any trouble or having any adventures. But when a wizard and a company of dwarves invite themselves to dinner, Bilbo finds himself joining their quest from the shires of Hobbiton to the legendary Lonely Mountain, the home of a long lost treasure, and quite, possibly, a dragon.  

~~~~

The Anatomy of Story by John Truby is a really good book by the by, if anyone’s interested in this sort of thing.

[roguecompanion1812]

This is super helpful!’

[thewritershandbook]

[git-writing-good]

The best character flaws are just their normal traits taken to an extreme!

[miniherodesktales]

Thanks for posting this :)

I think we could add more feelings:

Jealousy

Envy 

Compassion (not quite the same thing as love as it means to share in another’s suffering, or to feel their suffering)

Nostalgia might be interesting to cover, whether it’s nostalgia for another place, time, maybe even a feeling.

[alcego-writes]

Oh, I can help with this!

Jealousy

Function: The vigilance over and protection of relationships that are valuable to us.

Over-reaction: When jealousy compounds upon itself, it can grow into paranoia and obsession; this desire to protect valued relationships can backfire and cause the relationships to deteriorate.

Envy

Function: Motivates you to try harder to achieve your goals.

Over-reaction: Envy and jealousy are closely related. Similar to how anger is a secondary emotion (which stems from other emotions), envy can turn into jealousy when your response is not to improve yourself, but rather to steal/covet another’s achievements/belongings.

Compassion

Function: Allows you to consider and become concerned with another’s experience (without necessarily “feeling” what the other feels, as with empathy). May lead to a desire to help them improve their experience.

Over-reaction: An over-abundance of compassion (or empathy) can lead to feeling guilty/responsible for another’s feelings/experience. You may feel obligated to put others before yourself at all times, causing yourself to suffer in order to aid others.

Nostalgia

Function: The function of nostalgia is a bit harder to pin down; however, scientists believe that “powerful nostalgic memories can help us cope with transition in our lives, give us comfort, and help our sense of identity.”

Over-reaction: May cause you to remember things “through rose-colored glasses”—effectively altering your memory of events. In the past, some theorists believed nostalgia was “a retreat in the face of uncertainty, stress or unhappiness.” In essence, an over-abundance of nostalgia may cause you to alter your perception of potentially important events to make them seem better than they really were, and over-indulging in the feeling may lead to you becoming detached from your current actions.

[charlesoberonn]

Writers: Bad people are still people with their own problems and emotions, even when they cause problems and distress and hurt other people.

Tumblr Gremlins: Problematic. Blocked.

[against-anti-antis-deactivated2]

If you portray bad people as good people, then you’re normalizing abuse. Of course that’s fucking problematic.

[untitled23343]

[alarajrogers]

Newsflash: people and good people are not synonymous.

If you portray a villain, that villain has thoughts, emotions, desires. Maybe even loved ones. They have things they want. They have reasons for what they do. And none of this excuses their villainous acts.

If you portray a good person, all of the same things apply. Thoughts, emotions, desires, loved ones, things they want, reasons, etc. And when you look at the acts they commit, you think to yourself, “That is a good person. I consider this person heroic, someone worth emulating.” Whereas when you see what the villain does, you think, “Man, that is fucked up.”

The entire difference between a good person and a bad person is not whether or not they are people, but whether the things they do and their reasons for doing them are good or bad. So you can portray a bad person, who abuses people, as having emotions, and desires, and thoughts, and they can still be a bad person. 

So yeah. The OP says “bad people should be written as if they are people.” This is true. “Normalizing abuse” is what happens when you write bad people as if they are incomprehensible evil monsters with no common humanity with the rest of us, because this tells abuse victims, most of whom love their abusers, “You’re not really being abused because the person you love is not a bad person! Bad people are 100% evil monsters and the person who is hurting you obviously has feelings!” No. Bad people are people. When you write an abuser, write them as a person, with thoughts and feelings, because real abuse victims know that their abusers are people, and you don’t want to convince them that their abusers can’t be abusers because only monsters are abusers. You want them to understand that abusers are human too, because they already know the person abusing them is human. What they don’t know is whether or not they can consider what’s happening to them to be abuse. 

[lines-and-edges]

^^^

[golbatgender]

Antis: “Only good people are actually fully human beings! This totally isn’t fascist or anything!”

[wetwareproblem]

“If you write well-rounded, deep, believable characters you’re a fucking abuse apologist!”

[junemondegreen]

This is way too similar to that god damn “if you write characters being traumatized/in traumatizing situations then you are fetishizing abuse and you’re bad!” Like stories need conflict and sometimes being involved in conflict can be traumatizing, do you really want to consume only media that is entirely Good People Doing Good Things, Everyone Is Happy And Nothing Bad Ever Happens?? Because that’s sounds like a whole lot of boring to me

[wetwareproblem]

Given the alternative that we’ve had forever now, where characters go through intensely traumatic shit but have absolutely no trauma whatsoever - thus conveying the message that the problem is YOU, YOU’RE the only one who breaks like that - I’m gonna have to say I’ll take the realistic portrayals of trauma.

[hazel2468]

There is something, I think, to us as a whole, as humans, that is INSANELY disturbing and difficult about viewing irredeemable, evil people as PEOPLE. Like, we cannot accept that people who do things like commit genocide or murder people or abuse people are, in a lot of ways, just like us. That they have families and feelings and complex inner lives. And my gf just summed up why the portrayal of evil people as something apart from human is such a problem:

Because it keeps us from confronting evil when it DOES actually show up. It keeps us from confronting other people, who we know, who espouse hatred. Because how can this person, whom we know , who maybe we are even friends or family with, be an empty evil husk? It’s what keeps us from addressing things like racism, fascism, white supremacy- you name it. 

When we dress up evil people as something apart from us, when we act like humans are inherently better than the evil people we see in media, it means that come being faced with a person who is doing abhorrent things, we are unable to process that. Because we feel like humanity and evil are incompatible. 

[theassholeantiarchive]

You know it’s funny but we really need more bad people depicted as real people because it’s meant to be a warning to what you can become if you aren’t careful. Antis are good examples of that because they genuinely don’t realize how evil their behavior is because they think they are doing it for the greater good or with the best intentions justifies it. People are always the hero of their own story and if you can’t recognize that you are capable of being a monster then you will become a monster because you see everything that you do as good. It takes any complex thinking about morals out of the picture because you aren’t a laughing disney villain so why should you be concerned if your decisions hurt people if it wasn’t apart of the big picture or plan you have.

Think the Original The Lorax where the bad guy was viewed as complex and had good points even though he still was the bad guy. He was complicated and Kids could understand it through Seuss’s writing that he was just a person. Then look at say Ursula or Makeficent who had the complexity of a wet napkin and few kids could imagine themselves becoming. Obviously some kids can imagine themselves as them but which story really teaches you that good people do bad things or bad people don’t always realize they are bad.

It’s not some evil pro villain thing to make bad guys real. It’s a warning that you need to be careful because you could easily become the bad guy even if you have the best intentions.

[fantasiesescape]

good thread about bad people.

[scriptshrink]

I hope everyone is having a good day, because I certainly am :D

[sassenachsansa-deactivated20201]

The narrative of ‘this person was disabled but their disability was cured as part of their story’ is ableist

[kipplekipple]

The narrative of ‘this person is disabled but “overcame” disability in order for them to be a hero’ (e.g. a paralysed person finding a way to walk) is ableist

[explorerrowan]

And just for clarification for the non-disabled, using adaptive technologies, like prostheses or whatever, is not ableist as long as you never forget. Ask yourself questions about the benefits but also the limitations of whatever adaptive thing you’re giving the character.

They have to take a pill every day to treat a chronic illness or chronic pain? Okay, what happens when they forget, or are in a bad situation and run out of pills?

They lost a limb or are paralyzed and now they have a sci-fi cybernetic prosthesis/exoskeleton to replace the lost functionality? Cool. What does maintenance look like? Does it ever malfunction? What happens if they don’t or can’t take care of it? Do they still get phantom pains even with the adaptation?

They’re deaf or blind or anosmic, but they’re a wizard who uses magic to adapt to the lost sense? Fine. What does it take to maintain that magic? Do they have adaptive strategies for when the magic fails?

They’re autistic or have ADHD or schizophrenia or some other cognitive disorder, and they have a chip in their head to make it easier to communicate when non-verbal? Okay. What exactly does it do for them? Does it ever malfunction or give them headaches? What are other ways they’ve adapted to their disability apart from this chip?

Other questions to ask that go for all kinds of things:

Do they have a service animal? For what tasks or situations is it trained?

Do their family/friends know how to help if their adaptive technologies/strategies fail?

Is their disability (or the adaptation) visible or observable to others? How do others react?

Has their society adapted to accommodate disabilities, and if so, in what ways? (Ramps, closed captions, sign language, etc.)

Basically, think about what it adds to the story to have your character disabled. If you were just going to completely cure it with no ongoing repercussions or adaptations, why did you bother making them disabled in the first place? What story were you telling?

[angiethewitch]

really good addition

[scriptshrink]

I'd like to ask exactly what critrea shrinks use to determine if a criminal is mentally unfit to stand trial.

This is completely dependent on the jurisdiction your story takes place in. Different states in the US have different standards that would apply; and the Shrink does not know enough about the criteria in other countries to comment.

Disclaimer

[scriptshrink]

What would the beta reading include?

First and foremost, I would be helping to make sure that your writing isn’t offensive in its portrayal of mental illness. I’d provide detailed feedback on your mentally ill character(s), the symptoms they’re experiencing, and overall help you make your characters as close a reflection to reality as I can. If you don’t know what to diagnose your characters as, I’d help you out with that as well.

If therapy or hospitalization is depicted in your story, I would also go over the accuracy of what you’ve written - or even help you figure out what a therapist would say in the first place.

In short, you would be paying for the full and complete attention of the Shrink, who has a masters’ degree and clinical and personal experience with mental illness.

I’ve spent years helping out writers on my blog, but there’s only so much I can do within the confines of an ask or two. This is a chance for you to get detailed, private feedback, specifically directed at you and your story, rather than through short questions and masterposts.

Thanks for asking! I’m glad this is something people are interested in!

[scriptshrink]

If the Shrink were to begin doing paid beta reading, would there be any interest in that? Let me know if it’s something you’re interested in!

[scriptshrink]

Hi! I sent this in before while you were on hiatus. I have a character who commits suicide and ends up in the afterlife (an afterlife where people can kind of like receive the things they were missing in life) and while there she starts recovering from depression (through the support she finds from others there) and she falls in love with someone too. Is this something dangerous to depict? I don't want to make anyone more likely to commit suicide by making it seem like it fixes things. Thanks :)

CW: suicide

Oof, this is a difficult one to answer. I’m honestly leaning towards this not being a good thing to write.

But if you do still want to go through with it despite that, I do have some suggestions that lets you keep a lot of your story the same: have your character have been suicidal in life, but their actual death have been unintentional / an accident - something not under their control. Another thing I’d recommend is not having your character being actively suicidal - perhaps experiencing suicidal ideation rather than outright suicidal thoughts.

Even still, though, this is a very sensitive topic to write about, and I do highly recommend you reconsider. 

Whatever one’s religious beliefs (or lack thereof) are, the time you spend on alive on earth is important. Stories and fiction are important influences on our lives, and if a single person gets the message from your story that dying and going to the afterlife is the answer to curing their depression, it would be a true tragedy.

Disclaimer

[horrormoviecws]

Welcome to Horror Movie Content Warnings!

Who are you? Call me skeletoma (he/him pronouns). I’m a lover of all things horror, whether it’s movies, books, or art.

What’s this? It’s a database of content warnings for horror movies. The warnings cover both kinds of violence and potentially upsetting topics like sexual assault or physical abuse.

Where can I find the database? Right here.

Why horror? I’m glad you asked! Horror, by its very definition, contains things that are designed to be disturbing whether it’s on a physical or psychological level (or both). It’s like how an action movie is supposed to be exciting or a comedy is supposed to be funny. However, someone may go into a horror movie not expecting or wanting to see certain things and may not think to look it up beforehand.

Doesn’t giving content warnings just spoil the movies? While plot points or twists may be revealed if you look up a movie’s entry, I won’t be giving a detailed summary. If you want to avoid spoiling yourself while still checking to see if, say, Final Destination has a plane crash in it but you don’t want to know anything else about it, you can shoot me an ask and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. For more info about why content warnings are good things, check out @scriptshrink’s excellent post about them.

How can I request a movie or content warning? Just send me an ask!

What movies have you done already? Here’s a link to an alphabetized list!

Is there anything you won’t do? Yep. I won’t do: Non-horror movies TV shows or miniseries (because of the time commitment involved, I would not be able to guarantee that I’d finish them) The Human Centipede movies The Chucky movies A Serbian Film (do not look up the plot summary if you are sensitive to child sexual abuse or sexual assault)

Anything else? I’m still working on polishing the spreadsheet, so it may be a little rough in places.

[scriptshrink]

What an awesome project! Shrinky-dinks, check out this cool resource!

[horrormoviecws]

Welcome to Horror Movie Content Warnings!

Who are you? Call me skeletoma (he/him pronouns). I’m a lover of all things horror, whether it’s movies, books, or art.

What’s this? It’s a database of content warnings for horror movies. The warnings cover both kinds of violence and potentially upsetting topics like sexual assault or physical abuse.

Where can I find the database? Right here.

Why horror? I’m glad you asked! Horror, by its very definition, contains things that are designed to be disturbing whether it’s on a physical or psychological level (or both). It’s like how an action movie is supposed to be exciting or a comedy is supposed to be funny. However, someone may go into a horror movie not expecting or wanting to see certain things and may not think to look it up beforehand.

Doesn’t giving content warnings just spoil the movies? While plot points or twists may be revealed if you look up a movie’s entry, I won’t be giving a detailed summary. If you want to avoid spoiling yourself while still checking to see if, say, Final Destination has a plane crash in it but you don’t want to know anything else about it, you can shoot me an ask and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. For more info about why content warnings are good things, check out @scriptshrink’s excellent post about them.

How can I request a movie or content warning? Just send me an ask!

What movies have you done already? Here’s a link to an alphabetized list!

Is there anything you won’t do? Yep. I won’t do: Non-horror movies TV shows or miniseries (because of the time commitment involved, I would not be able to guarantee that I’d finish them) The Human Centipede movies The Chucky movies A Serbian Film (do not look up the plot summary if you are sensitive to child sexual abuse or sexual assault)

Anything else? I’m still working on polishing the spreadsheet, so it may be a little rough in places.

[scriptshrink]

What an awesome project! Shrinky-dinks, check out this cool resource!

[scriptshrink]

Blog reopening!

Hello lovelies! Some of you have noticed already, but I’ve started posting again. 

If you have questions, send them in! If you have sent them in before, send them in again - I’ll be prioritizing new questions, since my inbox goes back 2 years at this point, and I’m not sure if people who’ve asked questions that long ago still need help.

Thanks to everyone who’s read and supported this blog! 

- The Shrink

[scriptshrink]

Hey! I'm new here so I'll go anon, I hope you don't mind 👁️👄👁️ so I have this character, I'm still in the process of fleshing him out, and what I have of him is that he's a member of the army who lied in all of his psychological evaluations so he could get into the sniper team. Every time he shoots someone he Has to go and check if they're actually dead or at least shoot again, and if he doesn't he thinks they're not dead and are gonna come back for him. Is it considered OCD? Is it decent?

It’s definitely an unusual manifestation of OCD, and I don’t know if anyone IRL has ever experienced it, but I could potentially see that working for a fictional character!

The important thing here is that you shouldn’t just have them go check on the body once, or shoot the body again only once. OCD typically isn’t so easily reassured. He might feel like he has to check his victim’s vital signs over and over - what if his fingers weren’t in the right place to feel their pulse? What if their victim is holding their breath and is really good at playing dead? 

He may also feel the compulsion to check on his victim a certain number of times before finally managing to force himself to move on - numbers can be very important in expressions of OCD.

You may also want to consider having other expressions of OCD in addition to checking the bodies. Check out my post here for some examples of what he might experience.

Disclaimer

[scriptshrink]

Blog reopening!

Hello lovelies! Some of you have noticed already, but I’ve started posting again. 

If you have questions, send them in! If you have sent them in before, send them in again - I’ll be prioritizing new questions, since my inbox goes back 2 years at this point, and I’m not sure if people who’ve asked questions that long ago still need help.

Thanks to everyone who’s read and supported this blog! 

- The Shrink