- Post
- #1499814
- Topic
- How is mental illness treated in Star Wars canon?
- Link
- https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1499814/action/topic#1499814
- Time
I was on Reddit discussing mental illness in Star Wars and someone pointed me to a source that I had long forgotten. The very first novel after the Great Purge; A New Dawn actually touched on mental illness, something I believe the Jedi either don’t believe in or largely ignore. E.g. Anakin Skywalker and Bariss Offee. Yet neuroscience is a very mature tech in Star Wars, so it is impossible they would not know about mental illness. Yet here is a quote from A New Dawn regarding Skelly, a dissident miner on the moon of Gorse:
"Skelly’s frozen image lingered there before her, his
mouth stuck open mid-rant. It seemed a perfect pose-
and she knew she’d see it again. Because Skelly, she
knew, was red-stamped. Records digitally stamped with
a red star indicated visits from Gorse’s mental health
authority.
“He gets any more stars, he can open up his own
galaxy,
" she said. She took a deep breath, relieved. Red-
stamped people tended to stay in the medical system,
rarely escalating to anything else. They were freer with
words than most, rarely intending action. And Skelly
had been fun to listen to in the past, at least. She un-
paused the feed.”
Basically, from what this is said, there do exist mental health facilities in Star Wars, but the level of concern is very low as they don’t feel Skelly is much of a threat to the Empire, but SPOILER ALERT he may be. When Skelly goes to this facility so many times that it is almost ridiculous, do they just give him therapy or meds or some other treatment we don’t have here on Earth?
