Who would study psychology if they didn't have some kind of problem?

Chapter 616 Shift of Command

"【Mass Hysteria】?"

This word is like a boulder thrown into water, instantly creating a huge wave.

The experts and teachers present were initially taken aback, astonished by Nan Zhuren's exceptional work efficiency.

Then, they began to carefully consider the term Bai Qinghua had uttered.

After they finished thinking, their bodies jolted again.

This is because it is a form of mass hysteria.

One major reason why psychological counseling and intervention are at the bottom of the hierarchy of psychology is that individual interventions do not generate publications.

You say you cured someone with depression and prevented someone from committing suicide. That's no easy feat. Experts will applaud you, while also lamenting that they might also fail in such a difficult situation.

Then there is no more then.

Case studies that are specific to an individual have very limited applicability; at the same time, the circumstances of an individual do not have any theoretical significance or value.

Even if someone has enough free time to compile the case intervention process into an article, it will only be published in a second-rate academic journal and will never touch on the core issues.

There is also a similar view in universities that articles written about case interventions are at best at the undergraduate level, and master's students would not be able to graduate if they wrote them.

However, **mass hysteria** is different.

This thing can publish articles.

Articles from the core area.

Moreover—it's not just one article.

The intervention process for the current "mass hysteria" alone could be the subject of an article;
A study on the physiological mechanisms behind this "mass hysteria" could also be published.
Another article could be written about the local cultural causes behind this "mass hysteria";
Even a questionnaire to measure this "mass hysteria" could probably be published.

Not to mention that this phenomenon of "mass hysteria" is also closely linked to the current psychological intervention in disaster areas...

“Oh, by the way, my apprentice discovered two suspected cases of not just one case of mass hysteria,” Bai Qinghua added, “and they belong to different groups and are of different types. It’s just that one of them was a little smaller in scale.”

? ……！ ！ ！
The experts present were shaken again; they had selectively ignored Bai Qinghua's last few words.

They came here to build a disaster relief psychological assistance model that can be promoted, but... it's just "one" project, and the number of articles that can be produced is limited.

There weren't enough to go around.

Moreover, it is foreseeable that Professor Ji's research group will be the main force behind this project; at most, they will simply add their names when compiling the instruction manual.

But... the cake has been made too big!

Will Bai Qinghua's research group monopolize these... no, these two cases of "mass hysteria"?

The answer is clearly no. After all, Bai Qinghua and the others have already brought it up on the table and proposed making it "our" top priority!

In an instant, the room, which had been damp and dark, became faintly bright.

The eyes of the experts and teachers present lit up.

Those experts and teachers who had initially sided with Professor Ji in the debate now had shifty expressions.

A mix of emotions began to swirl in the small meeting room.

The only question now is whether Nan Zhuren's assessment is correct, and whether there really is a problem of "mass hysteria" at the disaster site?

Although Professor Ji's face had turned red from being provoked by Weng Pingting, her thoughts remained clear.

He immediately realized the problem he was facing.

The psychology professor, despite her advanced age, had honed her impressive debating skills through numerous lectures and conferences. Professor Ji retorted directly, "Mass hysteria? Isn't that a rather arbitrary conclusion?"

Professor Ji waved his right hand: "Professor Bai, how old is your apprentice named Nan Zhuren? Is he even 25? How many hours of consultation have he accumulated, and how much clinical consultation experience does he have? Large-scale qualitative analysis like [mass hysteria] requires very rigorous investigation and evidence. How can we draw conclusions based on just a few cases and expect us to immediately adjust the direction of our work?"

"Could it be that you encountered a difficult client during psychological intervention and misinterpreted the situation through a catastrophic narrative? Young man..."

Bai Qinghua involuntarily squinted his eyes halfway through Professor Ji's speech, and then sat down as if he had sensed something.

Beside him, Weng Pingting suddenly sprang up.

"Arbitrary?" Weng Pingting's voice rose sharply as soon as she spoke, directly interrupting Professor Ji. "What do you think 'mass hysteria' is? Does it only count when half of the people are convulsing and paralyzed at the same time? Can you even recite its definition? How much counseling experience do you have? My junior brother probably has more counseling experience than you!"

As she spoke, Weng Pingting pointed to Chonghui sitting next to her.

The big guy blinked, seemingly not expecting that he would have anything to do with it.

Of course, Weng Pingting didn't need Chonghui to give any response.

Weng Pingting quickly withdrew her hand: "Right now, it's just an early-stage risk, which is still manageable. Once it fully erupts, will your framework still be able to function?"

The change of opponents made Professor Ji's face flush red immediately, and Weng Pingting's merciless yet sharp attacks made him a little dizzy.

Professor Ji opened his mouth as if to say something, but Weng Pingting's rapid-fire attacks cut him off: "Psychological problems, mental illnesses, and mental health issues are objective realities. You can't pretend you can't see or hear them by covering your eyes and plugging your ears!"

"This is crisis intervention, not writing an academic paper. By the time you have a complete 'rigorous chain of evidence,' the crisis will already be out of control!"

……

Professor Ji's face was getting increasingly red and hot, and it looked like she was about to catch a fever herself.

Suddenly, with a "click," the conference room door opened, and a gust of cold air rushed in, slightly cooling Professor Ji's face.

The first person to enter was the camp's manager surnamed Zhou, followed by several other second-in-commands in charge of rescue, material dispatch, and other matters.

"Dear teachers, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting." The person in charge opened the door, seemingly oblivious to the atmosphere inside. "There are quite a few things going on at the camp."

Professor Ji quickly composed herself and spoke up before Weng Pingting and the others could, saying, "No, it should be us who have troubled you all."

The intrusion of this group of "outsiders" shattered the atmosphere that was just beginning to form in the meeting room, and Professor Ji seemed to see this as an opportunity. Those who followed the person in charge, seeing the seating arrangement and Professor Ji's initial greetings with the camp leader, naturally assumed that Professor Ji was the person in charge of the entire psychological expert group, and they all nodded to him.

Weng Pingting's eyes narrowed involuntarily.

As Professor Ji offered seats to everyone who entered, she continued, "But it's necessary to trouble you all, because our work involves your subordinates. Therefore, we must integrate ourselves into your daily command processes. Only through mutual support can we achieve better results, all for the sake of enabling our subordinates to work better in the future..."

Professor Ji is not entirely academic; he is fascinated by organizational structures and frequently collaborates with social enterprises and government agencies. In some ways, he is even more adept at diplomatic rhetoric than at academic debates.

The person in charge and the people following him nodded with smiles and said, "Yes, it's all for the sake of our comrades below... But speaking of which, the teachers here are quite capable!"

"Especially Teacher Nan, who helped us solve a lot of problems in half an afternoon and also discovered some significant hidden dangers."

As he spoke, the person in charge's expression turned serious.

Professor Ji blinked, finally realizing she was stuck in thought and didn't know how to respond.

Weng Pingting raised an eyebrow, and her narrowed eyes involuntarily relaxed a little.

Then the person in charge continued, "That teacher, Xiao Nan, just gave me a brief report, saying that there is a risk of... [mass hysteria] in the camp."

The person in charge seemed a little unfamiliar with the term when uttering it, but there wasn't much confusion in their expression.

It seems that although it hasn't been long, he has already learned about the risks behind this term and the urgency it implies through various channels.

"Teacher Xiao Nan said she has already reported this issue to Teacher Bai and Teacher Weng, right? I guess the teachers were discussing this issue in their meeting just now?"

Bai Qinghua and Weng Pingting nodded slightly to the person in charge, indicating that this was indeed the case.

Professor Ji's neck was stiff and he couldn't move it, so he couldn't nod in agreement.

“This is no small matter,” the person in charge continued. “So I immediately contacted the person in charge at the hospital to provide the necessary documents for verification. She might arrive a little later, but she should be here soon…”

Before the person in charge could finish speaking, footsteps sounded outside the door again.

A doctor, around forty years old and looking exhausted, opened the door and came in.

Upon seeing the other person's appearance, Chonghui couldn't help but blink, realizing that he had actually met the other person a few times before.

If I remember correctly, this seems to be the chief physician in Li Lingling's department, and her surname seems to be... Hu?

Dr. Hu, carrying a stack of files, greeted everyone in the conference room briefly and sat down. After receiving a signal from the person in charge, he said in a deep voice, "After receiving the report, I immediately reviewed all the medical records of the seven rescuers mentioned in the report and urgently verified their recent medical records."

Dr. Hu paused for a moment, then picked up a folder from beside him.

As she handed it to the person in charge, she explained to the person in charge and those present, "Based on purely physiological indicators and existing medical examination results, none of these seven individuals have been found to have any organic lesions that could fully explain the severity of their current symptoms."

"Four of them had chronic lumbar muscle strain, and two had mild hypertension, but these underlying conditions were not enough to cause them to exhibit such severe symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, palpitations, and transient limb numbness."

"Not to mention that these symptoms appeared around the same time period."

In psychotherapy, Dr. Hu is now doing the most important step—ruling out organic lesions.

"Before the experts arrived, we already suspected that their problems were not clinically significant and planned to invite their intervention," Dr. Hu said.

Dr. Hu's statement contains many key words.

As she narrated, the previously uncertain things gradually came to a conclusion.

Professor Ji had already begun taking deep breaths to adjust her state and thinking. It was clear she knew the situation was hopeless and was planning to change course.

The person in charge nodded and said, "Then at least we can confirm that our camp does indeed have more than one problem that requires the immediate intervention of all the teachers."

Dr. Hu's account can only provide preliminary evidence of the rescue team's "mass hysteria," but it has little corroborating effect on Wang Lili's "Dragon King" part.

The person in charge said, "Therefore, there is still another issue, which is whether the situation described by Teacher Nan could be another psychological or mental problem. This requires the teachers to spend some more time verifying it..."

The person in charge still has some misunderstandings about the overall strength of the expert team. They still think that the young-looking Nan Zhuren is only the lower limit of the team, at most the middle level.

"Teacher Nan?" Dr. Hu suddenly spoke up.

She glanced at the members of Bai Qinghua's research group present, and after noticing that one person was missing, she looked at the person in charge and asked, "Was the person who proposed this 'mass hysteria' hypothesis Nan Zhuren?"

The person in charge raised an eyebrow at Dr. Hu's reaction: "Yes, you know him?"

Dr. Hu nodded: "If it's him, then the judgment is very credible."

These words made the person in charge blink.

Seeing this, Weng Pingting knew that it was finally time for them to speak.

She subtly nudged Bai Qinghua with her elbow, and Bai Qinghua, as a teacher, quickly reacted.

"Zhu Ren's psychological intervention skills are indeed among the best in our area. Although he is young, he is more experienced than many counselors in their thirties and forties. We also thank Dr. Hu for valuing Zhu Ren so much."

Bai Qinghua first praised his apprentice, then humbly added, "However, this is the young man's first time in the disaster area, so there may still be some oversights in the details. We will need to verify the problems he discovered after the meeting."

Weng Pingting had already praised Nan Zhuren once before, but the person in charge only took it as a formality at the time.

Hearing this in this setting, with Dr. Hu, one of our own people, offering his support, makes it all the more meaningful.

After a few glances, the person in charge paused, then made a sighing expression and picked up the proposal that Professor Ji had just handed him.

"After that, Teacher Bai will still have to put in a lot of effort. You guys had a well-prepared plan, and the proposal was so detailed, but it still needs to be adjusted at the last minute because of the situation at our camp..."

"Not at all, plans can't keep up with changes, that's normal. Practical matters are meant to be based on the actual situation on-site," Bai Qinghua responded quickly.

Professor Ji, who was taking deep breaths to calm herself, opened her mouth.

What do you mean?
That project proposal... was clearly created by their research group.

(End of this chapter)