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How is mental illness treated?

Posted: 2022-08-15 01:38pm
by Maximum7
I was on Reddit discussing mental illness in Star Wars and someone pointed me to a source that I had long forgotten. The very first novel after the Great Purge; A New Dawn actually touched on mental illness, something I believe the Jedi either don't believe in or largely ignore. E.g. Anakin Skywalker and Bariss Offee. Yet neuroscience is a very mature tech in Star Wars, so it is impossible they would not know about mental illness. Yet here is a quote from A New Dawn regarding Skelly, a dissident miner on the moon of Gorse:
"Skelly's frozen image lingered there before her, his
mouth stuck open mid-rant. It seemed a perfect pose-
and she knew she'd see it again. Because Skelly, she
knew, was red-stamped. Records digitally stamped with
a red star indicated visits from Gorse's mental health
authority.
"He gets any more stars, he can open up his own
galaxy,
" she said. She took a deep breath, relieved. Red-
stamped people tended to stay in the medical system,
rarely escalating to anything else. They were freer with
words than most, rarely intending action. And Skelly
had been fun to listen to in the past, at least. She un-
paused the feed."

Basically from what this is said, there do exist mental health facilities in Star Wars, but the level of concern is very low as they don't feel Skelly is much of a threat to the Empire, but SPOILER ALERT he may be. When Skelly goes to this facility so many times that it is almost ridiculous, do they just give him therapy or meds or some other treatment we don't have here on Earth?

The Jedi didn't help Bariss or Anakin and look how bad that turned out.....

Re: How is mental illness treated?

Posted: 2022-08-15 03:30pm
by Lord Revan
Well we know that the Old Republic was very corrupt by the time of the Clone Wars and if anything the Galactic Empire is even more corrupt, it's highly likely that you average Republic or Imperial citizen would have access to mental health treatments that only treat the symptoms and not the cause even if tech to properly treat the cause existed while the elite would have access to better treatments.

As for the Jedi Order, by the time of the Clone Wars the Jedi Order was very deeply flawed and had lost sight of their original mission so it's not impossible to think they would either not notice the warning signs or think Jedi couldn't have mental health issues.

Re: How is mental illness treated?

Posted: 2022-08-16 06:41am
by Solauren
Anakin and Bariss occurred during the Clone Wars.

Its possible between the effects on the entire Order, Anakin and Bariss concealing it, and resources diverted otherwhere, they were simply not noticed.

Re: How is mental illness treated?

Posted: 2022-08-19 11:47am
by Spice Runner
Well Sheev Palpatine who was a selfish megalomaniac, and psychopath, treated his mental ailments by murdering his own family taking on a Sith title, and murdering, maiming and destroying lives to take over the galaxy.

On a serious note, wasn't it a normal power of the Jedi to use for force to calm or heal minds. I wonder if it was in the Jedi purview to help people with mental and physical afflictions in addition to their peacekeeper role. Perhaps a Jedi medical corps?