Who would study psychology unless they had some issues?!-Chapter 116 - 115 The Purpose of Judgment and Assignment

The left hand holds the handwritten materials from Nan Zhubin, the right hand holds the visitor’s recently completed scale, and in the middle is the score calculated by himself.

After quite a long time, the teacher in charge at the center raised his head mechanically like a rusty clockwork robot and asked:

"For this consultation, what did you do and how did you come to your judgments?"

Nan Zhubin did not answer immediately.

He pulled out a chair, motioning for Xia Tian, who had been standing by the side, to sit down first.

After receiving a sunny smile, he approached the teacher in charge at the center.

He said, "The visitor’s initial purpose was to consult about academic issues, and that’s correct; her recent emotions are indeed caused by academic problems, that’s also correct."

"If she had come in her freshman year because she couldn’t adapt to the academic changes, your consultation plan would have been fine—soothing emotions and offering a study plan—these are all standard solutions."

Nan Zhubin looked at the face of the teacher in charge at the center: "However, these solutions are too ’standard,’ aren’t they?"

The face of the teacher in charge at the center showed some signs of loosening.

...

Standard.

In the past, when college students came to the psychological center for consultations, the issues were nothing more than these few: academic pressure, social anxiety, emotional problems (campus youth version), and parental relationship conflicts.

And the scale of these problems was not too large.

For larger-scale issues, they would be referred to senior professors or external consulting rooms at the first opportunity.

Cases like those Nan Zhubin had experienced involving infidelity or rage after being cheated on are never encountered by the school’s consultants.

Additionally, although the teacher in charge at the center also carries out consultations, his main job remains as a "teacher" with an established position, rather than a "consultant," which means that although he is at the consultation center, it is not his primary job. As a result, he doesn’t spend much time on consultations and unconsciously forms path dependency when faced with visitor issues.

When encountering students saying "poor academic performance," he would categorize it as an academic issue and then mechanically impose former intervention plans.

In doing so, he overlooks those underlying issues masked by academic problems.

This is "standardized" psychological consultation—which cannot even be called psychological consultation, but merely "student intervention work."

...

Nan Zhubin pointed at the materials he wrote on the table: "After her first year, the visitor’s problems have transitioned and deepened, shifting from mere [academic issues] to [emotional responses triggered by academic issues]."

It’s akin to breaking an arm; if medical help is sought immediately, then bone-setting, medication, and splinting are appropriate. However, if help is delayed for a week or two, the primary concerns might first involve rampant inflammation, infection, and other complications, with treatment addressing the fracture coming later.

Nan Zhubin recalled: "When she first entered the consultation room, even though the air conditioning was on, she was huddled in her down jacket and scarf, not opting to ventilate even when her forehead started sweating a little."

"Her eye contact with me was minimal, her indifference to external stimuli was strong, and her interaction was weak."

"According to her complaints, her current life has entered a state of declining energy, [fatigue], which is not a good signal."

"What worries me the most is that because of her studies, she has started to feel [boredom] with other things in life, lasting several months, even up to half a year—this is a very bad sign, prompting me to start probing her situation focusing on [depression]."

"Subsequently, I uncovered more: social anxiety, feelings of inadequacy, potentially some issues within her family of origin; I’ve only lightly touched upon these without delving deep, but they cannot be ignored."

"And most importantly—"

Nan Zhubin tapped his head: "Cognition."

Those with cognitive impairment are like individuals with innate physical weaknesses or abnormal physiques in medicine and sports who are far more prone to injury than "standard people."

"Even if we forcibly resolved her current academic issues, she may later return to the consultation room for many other reasons," Nan Zhubin said.

"Therefore, she needs subsequent consultation interventions to change her cognition."

This perspective aligns with the viewpoint of the [Cognitivism] school within the four major psychology schools and serves as the foundation for [cognitive-behavioral therapy].

...

Xia Tian looked at Nan Zhubin with eyes beginning to sparkle.

The teacher in charge at the center steadied his emotions; Nan Zhubin’s words had a significant impact on him.

He reflexively started contemplating in a learning mode, delving deeper.

After several breaths, he struggled to say, "So, what was the reason for the homework you assigned to this student?"

Nan Zhubin explained, "During the consultation, I didn’t use any terms related to [depression] with her. When discussing related topics, I used words like ’frustration’ and ’discomfort’ instead to avoid her starting to engage in [self-fulfilling prophecy]."

[Self-fulfilling prophecy] refers to the tendency of people to unknowingly act according to known predictions, eventually making the predictions come true. "Prediction" here refers to a personal expectation directed towards the future, such as "This exam is difficult, I surely won’t pass."

This phenomenon is prevalent in the field of [depression]: when some visitors are convinced they are depressed, their thoughts, behavior, etc., will unconsciously align with the patterns of a depressed patient, leading them to actively cut off social interactions and become subjectively fatigued, thereby turning non-depressed individuals depressed, and mildly depressed individuals severely depressed.

This is also why psychology professionals maintain intellectual property control over many resources; money is one aspect, but who knows what issues might arise if internal material is viewed by outsiders.

Because of [self-fulfilling prophecy], in the assessment and diagnosis related to psychological illness symptoms, consultants and visitors adhere to a lightweight principle during communication, describing [severe depression] as [moderate depression], [moderate depression] as [mild depression], and so forth.

"Her current situation broadly fits within the [mild depression] category; she still has some sense of empowerment and hasn’t completely lost expectation from the outside world, which is a good thing."

"Previously, she halted her exploration of the outside world due to anxiety over academics, and my approach was to hope that my ’homework’ could replace her ’academic work’ to alleviate her anxiety, then purposefully turn her attention outward instead of focusing on her issues."

Nan Zhubin sighed: "If she can achieve transformation and eliminate the depressed mood, that would be the best; if not, at the very least, our agreement for the ’next consultation’ can serve as an expectation and become an anchor point for her life to move upwards."

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