How would everyone be if they all had therapy session?

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C.T.1290
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How would everyone be if they all had therapy session?

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Postby C.T.1290 » Tue Nov 15, 2022 7:50 pm

The one thing that made Evangelion a messed up world is the lack of therapy. The people in that world didn’t even get some proper treatment or ways to deal with their problems.

Shinji never got therapy, Asuka never got therapy, Rei didn’t get any therapy, Misato didn’t get therapy, Hell, no one got therapy! If any of them got some form of counseling sessions, they’d probably overcome their emotional problems, or find some way to work with them.

I’m not sure if Instrumentality actually counts as one big therapy session, but it may be a start of something. As some on here has pointed out in the past, they all need therapy. So, would any of them get any better after talking about their issues and work on solutions to their problems?

What do you think?
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Re: How would everyone be if they all had therapy session?

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Postby Axx°N N. » Tue Nov 15, 2022 10:56 pm

Yeah, it's amazing there weren't on-staff psychologists. Even in remaking the series, NTE maintains that there is apparently no such thing as an on-site mental health expert. Across both iterations, what psychology does exist is circa 1950s padded room, cold observation from afar type stuff.

The thread premise here seems to be that there are no situations bad enough that therapy wouldn't be some kind of solution. But there's no amount of therapy that can totally stave off the negative effects of living in an active war zone, for example. Therapy, from what I can tell, is best at dealing with past traumas and modifying current behaviors. Active traumas are difficult or impossible to penetrate beyond sedation. I assume what solutions a therapist would provided would be similar to any active military's, which I imagine would be focused not so much on dealing with self-actualization, which is clearly what the characters desire, but more so approaches that would aid in making them better super-soldiers. But then, given that these are child soldiers, would this therapy actually be good for them from an ethical standpoint? It's a totally different situation than someone who voluntarily joins the army and then struggles and receives mental evaluation and aid. These are people who don't want to be in their situation. Even for the adults like Misato, what would her therapy entail? Conditioning her to accept that she leads child soldiers into peril?

Even for non-combatants, the situation we have in the Eva universe is giant eldritch beings could attack at any second. I can't imagine that's easily soothed as an everyday existential threat. And toward the end it's a literal Armageddon scenario.

No matter how mentally strong or propped up by therapy the characters were I don't think it would've guaranteed a lack of mental breakdowns. Those who receive therapy irl can still have breakdowns, or their therapy contributes to their mental hardships in some way--it's like with addiction, it's a process that can easily relapse, and there are some people who are permanently or temporarily impossible to actually help. Not to mention the existence of bad therapists.
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Re: How would everyone be if they all had therapy session?

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Postby Forumfanboy88 » Thu Nov 24, 2022 10:24 pm

View Original PostC.T.1290 wrote:The one thing that made Evangelion a messed up world is the lack of therapy. The people in that world didn’t even get some proper treatment or ways to deal with their problems.

Shinji never got therapy, Asuka never got therapy, Rei didn’t get any therapy, Misato didn’t get therapy, Hell, no one got therapy! If any of them got some form of counseling sessions, they’d probably overcome their emotional problems, or find some way to work with them.

I’m not sure if Instrumentality actually counts as one big therapy session, but it may be a start of something. As some on here has pointed out in the past, they all need therapy. So, would any of them get any better after talking about their issues and work on solutions to their problems?

What do you think?


To answer this question- it’s because the Japanese don’t believe in therapy or mental health or at the very least they didn’t at the time Eva was made. Eva is simply following Japanese standards and hence no psychiatrists were involved with the characters.

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Re: How would everyone be if they all had therapy session?

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Postby orcot » Tue Nov 29, 2022 12:53 pm

Also some of the issues don't make much sence.
It would be strange to see someone like these characters to walk around.

Like why aren't these kids more popular you would expect them to be on talkshows, tvprograms, UN meetings etc. You would also expect the school to cater to their needs and reduce stuff like history classes and introduce for example weapon handling and be all out more militairy academy.

Also they would all be kept in the same social circle.

So that's probably bad for Rei who would quickly become a addict, as she would probably need (alcohol or sleeping pills) to combat anxiety and amphetamines to keep her focused and give her to pep to have conversations.
Wich is a shame as she probably would be able to recite some poetry but people want the answer to life the universe and everything in under 2 minute and half of it is better spent on a joke.

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Re: How would everyone be if they all had therapy session?

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Postby GWF Hegelion » Wed Dec 14, 2022 11:45 am

I'd posit that's the point, Evangelion -IS- therapy, beginning with Anno and ending with the viewer. The show explains precisely what is wrong with everyone, what's stopping them from relating to others. If they all had therapy, there'd be no narrative for us to buy into.

I'd also posit that this generation of directors, like Anno and Ikuhara (especially the latter) are quite aware that more people in Japan need therapy, and that their work is a nice motherly smack upside the head urging the audience to do some kind of self-assessment.
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Re: How would everyone be if they all had therapy session?

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Postby Asunji_Yuko » Fri May 12, 2023 9:17 am

I feel like everyone except Rei would probably get better.

Rei is kind of like an empty robot. At least in the original NGE and EOE.


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