PTSD and Neural Resocialization

[Visions of Khas]

The Terrans in the Koprulu Sector are by no means new to warfare and suffering. The Koprulu Sector itself owes its existence to a minor holocaust on old Earth, when the UPL purged itself of "inhumanity" -- mutants, empaths, cyborg augments, neatly rounded off with religious and cultural extirpation.

Since that time, the Terrans have been almost constantly at war with each other. Now, with the advent of the Protoss and Zerg, entire Koprulu worlds have been picked clean of life; colonies ignited by the skies; oceans boiled away. And each of these events have had a voluminous terran audience.

Now I've heard nothing of soldiers -- or civillians, for that matter -- suffering post traumatic stress. Does Neural Resocialization offer some protection against this? Does Ghost conditioning immunize them? Or do authorities depend on routine memory wipes to cleanse their soldiers? If the latter, how deep is this conditioning? Because simply having your memories excised wouldn't change your limbic system's excitability to such deeply imprinted experiences. And are these services offered to civilians?





Blame a post-work NPR session for this bout of macabre fascination.

[Shadow Archon]

Well, there's what happens in Speed of Darkness.

I'm pretty sure what happens to Ardo directly answers your question when his memory starts to come back.

However, given what happens to Nova, stronger memory wipes gets rid of PTSD completely. They completely erase past memories and can result in drastic changes in personality. In fact, I'd assume that what they do to Ghosts results in a Babylon 5-esque Death of Personality.

Memory wipes and Neural Resocialization aren't technically the same thing though.

[Visions of Khas]

I'd assume that what they do to Ghosts results in a Babylon 5-esque Death of Personality.

A what now?

- - - Updated - - -

I'd assume that what they do to Ghosts results in a Babylon 5-esque Death of Personality.

A what now?

[Shadow Archon]

A what now?

It's very similar to Neural Resoc actually.

There are a few differences though.

[Turalyon]

Now I've heard nothing of soldiers -- or civillians, for that matter -- suffering post traumatic stress. Does Neural Resocialization offer some protection against this? Does Ghost conditioning immunize them? Or do authorities depend on routine memory wipes to cleanse their soldiers? If the latter, how deep is this conditioning? Because simply having your memories excised wouldn't change your limbic system's excitability to such deeply imprinted experiences. And are these services offered to civilians?

Given their history, I'd take it that any current living Terran civilian would have to have a generally pretty "thick skin" when it comes to an anxiety disorder such as PTSD. It's possible they could have just learned to live with constant anxiety given the non-stop traumatic events the Terrans keep collectively experiencing (if it's not at the hands of aliens, it's wrought by their own kind). Those that don't cope probably just commit suicide and are forgotten, which is why we don't hear about them - not that we hear much about Terran civilians generally anyway.

As to the soldiers, I'd imagine it'd be hard to distinguish PTSD from the long-term side-effects they get from standard issue Stimpacks. Even then, given they have technology to remove memories without incurring any other noticeable harm, have a history of deviant experimentation on themselves and having more advanced medical science in general compared to now, I'd imagine the Terrans could easily tinker with the brain (like the amygdala for anxiety and the hippocampus for memory formation) to control control such things from even happening at all.