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Why isn't River better at dealing with seeing the dead?

posted 8 years ago by elocs1
6 replies | jump to latest

I'm up to episode 4 now but why isn't River at age 55 (?) better at dealing with seeing and communicating with these dead people since he said he had experienced this since he was a boy?
He said he manages them with difficulty but he doesn't trust what they can make him do, so after decades of experiencing this the dead are still able to make River do things, to manipulate him, to get him to react. But if this is how he is now I'd hate to see how he was for the first 20 years and how he was even functional in society because the dead still seem good at manipulating him now and causing him to react in front of others who can neither see nor hear anyone else but him.

[–] ToHelenBackAgain 8 years ago

I think he must have been better at it before the trauma of Stevie's death. If he'd always been as we see him now, no way he could have become a police detective.

At the same time, it's hard to swallow that he's kept his job now. This was my only real problem with the show. Maybe they wouldn't fire him, but compassionate leave wouldn't be optional.

"Oh, dear. Mr. Dictionary seems to have deserted us again."

[–] urnotsk 8 years ago

To understand why, you have to understand what he has. He isn't seeing ghosts. They are manifest of his own thoughts, thinking, memories, fears... The subconscious confronting the concious via hallucinations. It's a mental disorder that can't be helped without psychiatry intervention. He said he was off his meds, thus he was bound to be symptomatic. With the trigger of Stevie's death, refusal of psychiatric support and PTSD setting in, the symptoms were going to flare up moreso than his earlier years of ever dealing with this condition.

[–] Catdubh 8 years ago

That verbiage came straight out of the script of the series, word for word, with your own added explanation. And it is conscious not concious.
None the less, it an excellent reply and it sheds clarity on River's "condition".
Thank you.

Jack's not dead! Jack would never die without telling me, first!



[–] Ithilfaen 8 years ago

To understand why, you have to understand what he has. He isn't seeing ghosts. They are manifest of his own thoughts, thinking, memories, fears... The subconscious confronting the concious via hallucinations. It's a mental disorder that can't be helped without psychiatry intervention. He said he was off his meds, thus he was bound to be symptomatic. With the trigger of Stevie's death, refusal of psychiatric support and PTSD setting in, the symptoms were going to flare up moreso than his earlier years of ever dealing with this condition.

 What he said.

Not the Sixth Sense, people.

For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco

[–] writermaia 8 years ago

He's 59! (mentioned in episode 1.3)

[–] barkbarkwoof 7 years ago

He halucinates.