Counselor/Doctor's Log #27 - "Permission to Speak Freely"

Posted on 29 Oct 2014 @ 3:07am by Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle

634 words; about a 3 minute read

OOC: Opinions expressed in this log are IC only and do not reflect the writer's opinion of the writers of the characters mentioned!

We've reached the starbase and I'm grateful for the change of scenery. I might spend a few days in my quarters eating junk food and watching soapy shows on the net but then I'll see what other adventures are afoot. I don't have much time to watch my trashy soaps normally, but I admit, there's something strangely relaxing about getting to be a voyeur in even fictional characters' dysfunctional lives without having to diagnose them, treat them, and or genuinely sympathize with them. I'd be mortified if a member of my crew caught me yelling at the screen calling someone crazy, but a girl has to have a way to release built up tension somehow right?

It's funny, I would never say I suffer from claustrophobia most of the time I'm on the ship, but at the first opportunity to disembark and take in the wide spaces of the base, suddenly, it's like I've been cooped up in a tin can for an eternity. I'm sure there's a psychological term for the phenomenon I should look up, but I'd much rather find out of Brax on Days of Our Universe is out of his coma, or if Krax the honorable warrior has come out to his House yet...

Ok, I better stop talking soaps before someone listening to these things has me analyzed to make sure my brain hasn't actually turned to mush.

I will say this, though, sometimes I'm envious of soap characters. Not just for the obvious reasons either. I mean, sure, it would be nice to live in a mansion or aboard a luxury shuttle without ever being shown having to work for it. It would be nice to be gorgeous and to wake up every day in full make up and no bed head or bad breath. Not to mention to make out with half the cast for fun...

But it's more than that. Soap characters get to say and be whatever they want regardless of who they are or what they do. There's no such thing as professional or personal boundaries on soaps, and because of that, people can speak freely and love freely... even those characters who are theoretically supposed to follow a professional code of ethics.
Watch any soap on the net today and depending on your perspective, it's either a healer's worst nightmare or the ideal fantasy. No one pulls punches, and no one worries about whether speaking plainly about someone's professional conduct will affect their personal relationship with that someone. Every character is practically tripping over one another and knows each other's business as a matter of course, and no one fears it will result in being fired or losing credibility.

So, if for example, one highly respected character pulls a weapon on another character, the shrink can have a few choice words about that without having to be so diplomatic the shrink's back hurts from bending over backwards. She can tell said character she's lost it, and she better hope what's good for the bloody goose is not good for the bloody gander, because said shrink is not going to live in the OK Corral.

She can tell her good friend and immediate boss that she is not a doctor and that is something to consider when criticizing other doctors. She can say it's the height of unprofessionalism to discipline an entire staff in front of their department head. She can tell her friend that it takes more class to offer feedback in private than it does to cut down an entire group in public, and it doesn't make her efficient, it just makes her angry.

*sigh*
I need a drink.

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