Yep! And in the antebellum south, some bright spark invented a name for the "mental illness" of slaves who wanted to run away: drapetomania. The cure: whipping and hard labor.
Really though, what you want is to inculcate the populace so thoroughly with the idea that wanting to overthrow the system is a symptom of illness that you don't have to wait for the neighbors to say something. The prospective patients should start turning themselves in, convinced of their own insanity. "I have these irresistible invasive thoughts about how much I'd like to rip President Snow's face off," the patient whispers, staring down at her hands as she sits in the uncomfortable chair. "Please help me."
A few people grumble that the drugs given out to combat this disease (I am currently calling it RED, Rebellious Emotive Disorder, at least till i can think of a better word for E) seem to turn the sufferers into zombies, even to heighten the risk of suicide. But that just goes to show that they don't know anything about mental illness and are deeply prejudiced against drug therapy and probably mental illness in general.
And anyway, it's not like suicide is the worst possible outcome. Better dead than RED, am I right?
rebellious emotive disorderasakiyumeFebruary 27 2017, 16:49:07 UTC
Can we have a spinoff of this where you write the fic of this? Or, frankly, would you consider this as a novel or novella, in an own-universe dystopia. I would buy, read voraciously, and promote.
Re: rebellious emotive disorderosprey_archerFebruary 27 2017, 23:45:11 UTC
At very least, this is going to be next week's installment of How to Be a Better Dictator. (So much for using this purely as a fundraiser. The idea has taken hold of me and will not let go! It must be shared!)
As for a dystopian novel of my own: MAYBE. I think it might be hard to write as a novel rather than an essay about methods of social control; the satirical aspect might get lost in translation, especially given that the characters are unlikely to be in on the con.
Really though, what you want is to inculcate the populace so thoroughly with the idea that wanting to overthrow the system is a symptom of illness that you don't have to wait for the neighbors to say something. The prospective patients should start turning themselves in, convinced of their own insanity. "I have these irresistible invasive thoughts about how much I'd like to rip President Snow's face off," the patient whispers, staring down at her hands as she sits in the uncomfortable chair. "Please help me."
A few people grumble that the drugs given out to combat this disease (I am currently calling it RED, Rebellious Emotive Disorder, at least till i can think of a better word for E) seem to turn the sufferers into zombies, even to heighten the risk of suicide. But that just goes to show that they don't know anything about mental illness and are deeply prejudiced against drug therapy and probably mental illness in general.
And anyway, it's not like suicide is the worst possible outcome. Better dead than RED, am I right?
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I LOVE the concept.
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As for a dystopian novel of my own: MAYBE. I think it might be hard to write as a novel rather than an essay about methods of social control; the satirical aspect might get lost in translation, especially given that the characters are unlikely to be in on the con.
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