Wonderland - Jags

Introduction
30
on managing my own condition. My own Infection.”
He looks at you meaningfully.
MOONEY: “Tell him about transmission.”
DR. SHATTER: “I wish I could. There’s so much we don’t know.
Infection occurs by exposure—but … most of us are highly resistant to
the sort of transmission that most Episodes threaten. In fact, I have seen
people who I considered psychologically fragile remain un-infected
even in the close proximity of those having episodes. It’s all too easy to
adhere to the mainstream mental health industry’s view of infection and
transmission as a fable—a figment.
“But I know for a fact this isn’t so.” His tone is dark. “Infection occurs
when the individual experiences something related to another’s episode
that convinces them that something more is going on—that something …
Impossible is happening.” You can hear the capital letter. Impossible.
“Cognitive Dissonance, the means by which we believe two contradictory
things is one of the great mechanisms of human rationalization. We
can believe our politics cause no ill while the other side’s politics are
responsible for everything that is wrong with the world, for example. It is
said that we cannot believe ‘Impossible things.’”
He looks evenly at you. “Sometimes, however, we must. That is when, I
believe, infection spreads. Most of us—those here in this room—would