busy
ravan is very well-written horror about a psychic vampire running a 'therapy group.' (Trigger warning for untrained empaths, or people with bad therapy experiences.)The really scary thing? That sort of thing can happen. The rendition is quite precise, and if you look closely, you can see the practical as well as the mystical clues that distinguish feeding from effective therapy. While I am not a fan of the horror genre in general, this is one of my favorite little branches of it -- creepy things on the edge of what we know for certain, where the story is fictional but at least some of the threatening content is valid, and meticulously described for psychological effect rather than just taking a cheap shot with buckets o' blood. Well done.
October 4 2010, 23:55:13 UTC 10 years ago
When I participate in groups, I try to focus on the coping skills of "now" rather than dredge up the triggers themselves. But I have seen kids really focus on others' pain, often as a way to forget their own.
Thoughts
October 5 2010, 06:54:21 UTC 10 years ago
Yeah. For some people, talking really does help. For others, it just makes things worse. And that's true for different types of problem too. If you've only got one tool in the box, that's trouble.
>> But I have seen kids really focus on others' pain, often as a way to forget their own. <<
Well, as a distraction from mortal agony, it works. As long as it's just that, it doesn't necessarily harm anyone, or at least not directly.
The things to watch for -- the danger signs that mark a psychic vampire -- are: 1) the attacker gains energy from the activity, and may become more active or settle into a satiated slump; 2) the victim loses energy, and may feel sick or exhausted or devastated; 3) it's a pattern that continues over time, and a person repeatedly victimized can be drained to collapse or worse; and 4) while not all psychic vampires are obligatory ones, those that are will wind down and eventually keel over themselves if they're prevented from feeding.
And in your environment, you'll probably run across some, because learning to feed on other people's energy is among the successful survival tactics for coping with abuse. It's one reason why the story rings a bell with a lot of readers. Focusing on coping mechanisms is ... probably a good oblique way of preventing a feeding frenzy.