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- Thread starter MangaDex
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Yikes, so the psycho kid must have did something
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[This is a little disgression that will most probably make you want to tear my head off. But I will not feel good about myself if I don't write it. Let me explain why Bongrim is NOT a psychopath. Now, you imagine me going on a rant about nature, nurture, etc. Not exactly. Not yet, actually (yeah, I will come to that too). First of all, psychopathy is quite an undefined term. We agree that it is associated with a personality disorder, predominantly with antisocial personality disorder, but there are components of narcissism that the DSM (the bible of psychiatric healthcare workers) likes to sweep under the rug for whatever reason.
Now, what difference does that make? Antisocial personality disorder can be diagnosed starting age 16. Narcissistic personality disorder can be diagnosed starting age 18. What does that mean? We cannot say that Bongrim suffers from either personality disorder (not a fan of this term "psychopathy", that could be everything and nothing; antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders are similar in certain aspects but still two very different personality disorders). He is 10.
He might develop one. Or he may not. The probability that he does not is higher than the probability that he does. Only 30% of children who have high markers of future antisocial personality disorder actually develop antisocial personality disorder by age 18. Now to be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, one must have exhibited, by the age of 15, conduct disorder (not oppositional defiant disorder; a lot of children have ODD, a non-negligible number have CD). There are two branches to CD, the one developed before age 10, which predisposes the child to more morbidity down the road, and the one developed after age 10, which has a better prognosis. Now, of the children with CD, between 25 and 40% will eventually develop antisocial personality disorder. Still not the majority.
Now here comes the nurture part. Childhood onset CD (the one that starts before 10 years of age) is caused by neurological deficits interacting with an adverse environment. The neurological deficits, which Bongrim may very well have, are NOT enough to precipitate a personality disorder. The important is the ADVERSE ENVIRONMENT. That is the variable, the thing that can be changed. And the thing that majorly causes the frightening problems.
What is an adverse environment? Being rejected by your father? Have your own father plot against you to cripple you socially and mentally? Have your father turn your teachers against you? Being completely shielded from interaction with your siblings? Being left to bore yourself to death in apartments you can only leave when your parents let you, as if you were an animal? Witnessing verbal and physical violence that maidservants have to undergo on a daily basis? Would you call that an adverse environment? You could argue that some children would never develop CD in such an environment. Absolutely they would not. But they do not have the NATURE part of the equation, namely the neurological deficits. There needs to be a conjunction of both the nature and nurture parts.
Why am I writing this? Well, because, though this is not widely known, children with CD and adults with antisocial personality disorder DO undergo treatment. There are psychotherapies for them, there are even pharmaceutical treatments (that need to be given in conjunction with psychotherapy) to control the symptoms and signs. How successful these are depends.
One thing is for sure, the younger you start with treatment, the better it is. Whatever the outcome down the road. At the very least, you create some relationship between the patient and the healthcare system. But now, tell me, when you have a child with an atypical behavior, are you tempted to go see a professional? Maybe you are. Or maybe you spend your days seeing the stigma associated with mental healthcare problems. Maybe you come to the internet and read about how the smallest of atypical behaviors, as benign at it may seem, be labeled as psychopathy. And you know that there is a paper trace of you going to get professional help for your child. You know that thing might eventually swim up. That the fact that once in his lifetime your child has had some medical help that society considers as shameful. Our comments, our calling anything and everything psychopathy and implying at the same time personality disorders, and other mental healthcare problems, to be equal to a crime (when it is no different from other chronic affections) have an affect that transcends our speech and computer screens.
Am I trying to shame anyone? Nope. Am I trying to police speech? Nope. So what am I trying to do here? Just pointing out that getting a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder is a very complicated process. That behavior that we see in children might not lead to anything chronic in the long run. And that nurture has a big part in eventually getting to the point in developing some personality disorders. Finally, we should encourage people to view mental healthcare problems as medical affections that need to be taken care of in the same way we take care of any other medical problem. And that stigma surrounding mental healthcare problems does not encourage people to seek help. Period.]
Now about Chapter 7.
Bongrim is 10 years old. From age 8, he should have had his own courtyard, his own teachers, his own servants and his own life. Being imprisoned in one's courtyard was the punishment of a crime, in Ancient China (and other ancient Asian cultures). Generally, it is imperial princes who have been deemed guilty of some form or another of rebellion that would see themselves be imprisoned in their compounds or courtyards, alongside their wives and children. Smaller crimes would be punished by deposing one from one rank to a lower rank, financial penalties or even just a slap on the hand. Bongrim is being punished as if he had tried to topple his father and steal power!
This is not typical. He is being treated like an animal. And this raises the question … What type of education did the Empress Née Sookjung give Bongrim? Has he been taught self-control, has been taught to interact with others? Has he had the chance of having contact with other children. Imperial children would have study companions their age, they would have eunuchs (yes, not everything that shines is not gold - you do not want to know how far the Ancient went when castrating children to become eunuchs) their age. They would not be left encaged in a room with no intellectual stimulation whatsoever.
But Imperial Father and Mother are keeping him in a cage. Why? Because of his strange appearance? Because of behavior that they consider atypical? Because the Emperor just hates him?
And what to say of his demanding positive feedback. Sogeo is supposedly lonely and sad. The maidservant invites Bongrim to go play with Sogeo. And Bongrim goes. And here comes my question. There is this whole story of Sogeo's sadness, loneliness, of how Longhee left him to go to that banquet. Did Bongrim project his own life onto Sogeo? The busy mother, the absent father and that pervasive loneliness. Bongrim might have developmental issues, but does he lack in empathy? Is he callous? Intorno is playing with us really here. He is playing with what he knows to be our prejudice. We will hate Bongrim because he does not answer our standards of the perfect child, of the perfect little prince, and we might, by antipathy, condemn him without a trial. How much of Bongrim's behavior is the by-product of nature and how much nurture?
What a deeply complicated relationship Empress Consort and Consort Deok have. They have lived together for a very long time. They know each other's secret. And can predict each other's movements. Consort Deok's hatred and fear is warranted. But is Empress Née Sookjung's? I already discussed how Née Sookjung has it all. The family backing, the son, the standing, the power. Consort Longhee is her problem. Not Consort Deok. Yet, she hunts her down. She knows Consort Deok's is in a race against time. And she relishes to see her desperately trying to breathe, like a fish out of water.
And here appears another player, not Consort Sung who is the most mysterious character for now, not the Emperor's sisters who seem to be quite cut off from the politics of the harem (at least for now), but the ethereal, the legendary Imperial Noble Consort Hyehwa. The one single woman who, by standing, could have faced the Empress Consort on equal standing. An Empress Consort is an Empress Consort, with a political role to play. But the more she tries to grasp political power the more she neglects the Inner Palace. And that is where an Imperial Noble Consort is almighty. She has control over the servants, over the goods that enter the palace, the organisation of banquets, the lower-ranked concubines. And though all of this is under the Imperial Noble Consort's control, it is the Empress Consort who has to answer for every mishap that may happen in the Inner Palace. Do you see how an Imperial Noble Consort can be a danger to the Empress Consort?
And Consort Deok seems to wish to rub her in. What did Empress Née Sookjung do to one dead Imperial Noble Consort Hyehwa and what as the relationship Consort Sung had with that dead woman that is still haunting the harem?
Now, what difference does that make? Antisocial personality disorder can be diagnosed starting age 16. Narcissistic personality disorder can be diagnosed starting age 18. What does that mean? We cannot say that Bongrim suffers from either personality disorder (not a fan of this term "psychopathy", that could be everything and nothing; antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders are similar in certain aspects but still two very different personality disorders). He is 10.
He might develop one. Or he may not. The probability that he does not is higher than the probability that he does. Only 30% of children who have high markers of future antisocial personality disorder actually develop antisocial personality disorder by age 18. Now to be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, one must have exhibited, by the age of 15, conduct disorder (not oppositional defiant disorder; a lot of children have ODD, a non-negligible number have CD). There are two branches to CD, the one developed before age 10, which predisposes the child to more morbidity down the road, and the one developed after age 10, which has a better prognosis. Now, of the children with CD, between 25 and 40% will eventually develop antisocial personality disorder. Still not the majority.
Now here comes the nurture part. Childhood onset CD (the one that starts before 10 years of age) is caused by neurological deficits interacting with an adverse environment. The neurological deficits, which Bongrim may very well have, are NOT enough to precipitate a personality disorder. The important is the ADVERSE ENVIRONMENT. That is the variable, the thing that can be changed. And the thing that majorly causes the frightening problems.
What is an adverse environment? Being rejected by your father? Have your own father plot against you to cripple you socially and mentally? Have your father turn your teachers against you? Being completely shielded from interaction with your siblings? Being left to bore yourself to death in apartments you can only leave when your parents let you, as if you were an animal? Witnessing verbal and physical violence that maidservants have to undergo on a daily basis? Would you call that an adverse environment? You could argue that some children would never develop CD in such an environment. Absolutely they would not. But they do not have the NATURE part of the equation, namely the neurological deficits. There needs to be a conjunction of both the nature and nurture parts.
Why am I writing this? Well, because, though this is not widely known, children with CD and adults with antisocial personality disorder DO undergo treatment. There are psychotherapies for them, there are even pharmaceutical treatments (that need to be given in conjunction with psychotherapy) to control the symptoms and signs. How successful these are depends.
One thing is for sure, the younger you start with treatment, the better it is. Whatever the outcome down the road. At the very least, you create some relationship between the patient and the healthcare system. But now, tell me, when you have a child with an atypical behavior, are you tempted to go see a professional? Maybe you are. Or maybe you spend your days seeing the stigma associated with mental healthcare problems. Maybe you come to the internet and read about how the smallest of atypical behaviors, as benign at it may seem, be labeled as psychopathy. And you know that there is a paper trace of you going to get professional help for your child. You know that thing might eventually swim up. That the fact that once in his lifetime your child has had some medical help that society considers as shameful. Our comments, our calling anything and everything psychopathy and implying at the same time personality disorders, and other mental healthcare problems, to be equal to a crime (when it is no different from other chronic affections) have an affect that transcends our speech and computer screens.
Am I trying to shame anyone? Nope. Am I trying to police speech? Nope. So what am I trying to do here? Just pointing out that getting a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder is a very complicated process. That behavior that we see in children might not lead to anything chronic in the long run. And that nurture has a big part in eventually getting to the point in developing some personality disorders. Finally, we should encourage people to view mental healthcare problems as medical affections that need to be taken care of in the same way we take care of any other medical problem. And that stigma surrounding mental healthcare problems does not encourage people to seek help. Period.]
Now about Chapter 7.
Bongrim is 10 years old. From age 8, he should have had his own courtyard, his own teachers, his own servants and his own life. Being imprisoned in one's courtyard was the punishment of a crime, in Ancient China (and other ancient Asian cultures). Generally, it is imperial princes who have been deemed guilty of some form or another of rebellion that would see themselves be imprisoned in their compounds or courtyards, alongside their wives and children. Smaller crimes would be punished by deposing one from one rank to a lower rank, financial penalties or even just a slap on the hand. Bongrim is being punished as if he had tried to topple his father and steal power!
This is not typical. He is being treated like an animal. And this raises the question … What type of education did the Empress Née Sookjung give Bongrim? Has he been taught self-control, has been taught to interact with others? Has he had the chance of having contact with other children. Imperial children would have study companions their age, they would have eunuchs (yes, not everything that shines is not gold - you do not want to know how far the Ancient went when castrating children to become eunuchs) their age. They would not be left encaged in a room with no intellectual stimulation whatsoever.
But Imperial Father and Mother are keeping him in a cage. Why? Because of his strange appearance? Because of behavior that they consider atypical? Because the Emperor just hates him?
And what to say of his demanding positive feedback. Sogeo is supposedly lonely and sad. The maidservant invites Bongrim to go play with Sogeo. And Bongrim goes. And here comes my question. There is this whole story of Sogeo's sadness, loneliness, of how Longhee left him to go to that banquet. Did Bongrim project his own life onto Sogeo? The busy mother, the absent father and that pervasive loneliness. Bongrim might have developmental issues, but does he lack in empathy? Is he callous? Intorno is playing with us really here. He is playing with what he knows to be our prejudice. We will hate Bongrim because he does not answer our standards of the perfect child, of the perfect little prince, and we might, by antipathy, condemn him without a trial. How much of Bongrim's behavior is the by-product of nature and how much nurture?
What a deeply complicated relationship Empress Consort and Consort Deok have. They have lived together for a very long time. They know each other's secret. And can predict each other's movements. Consort Deok's hatred and fear is warranted. But is Empress Née Sookjung's? I already discussed how Née Sookjung has it all. The family backing, the son, the standing, the power. Consort Longhee is her problem. Not Consort Deok. Yet, she hunts her down. She knows Consort Deok's is in a race against time. And she relishes to see her desperately trying to breathe, like a fish out of water.
And here appears another player, not Consort Sung who is the most mysterious character for now, not the Emperor's sisters who seem to be quite cut off from the politics of the harem (at least for now), but the ethereal, the legendary Imperial Noble Consort Hyehwa. The one single woman who, by standing, could have faced the Empress Consort on equal standing. An Empress Consort is an Empress Consort, with a political role to play. But the more she tries to grasp political power the more she neglects the Inner Palace. And that is where an Imperial Noble Consort is almighty. She has control over the servants, over the goods that enter the palace, the organisation of banquets, the lower-ranked concubines. And though all of this is under the Imperial Noble Consort's control, it is the Empress Consort who has to answer for every mishap that may happen in the Inner Palace. Do you see how an Imperial Noble Consort can be a danger to the Empress Consort?
And Consort Deok seems to wish to rub her in. What did Empress Née Sookjung do to one dead Imperial Noble Consort Hyehwa and what as the relationship Consort Sung had with that dead woman that is still haunting the harem?
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