I AM REAL AND YOU, FIEND, ARE BUT A TRICK OF THE LIGHT

I had to wait quite a while for the doctor to see me, but fortunately the nurse who was helping me had an excellent bedside manner and went out of her way to distract me. She expertly did this by getting me talking about books I'd read recently.

I went all in on criticizing the last book I'd read. I don't remember what it was, but I really hadn't liked it, and I denigrated it as "Misery Porn". And she was like "Hmm, that sounds interesting, tell me more". So I gave a general plot synopsis. As I was telling her that most of the characters were immigrant miners, she interrupted me to say "That's interesting, I didn't realize that there were mines in Missouri".

And at that moment time stopped for me and I realized that the entire time I'd been talking about the book, she'd been assuming I was talking about porn set in Missouri. I had just assumed that she had understood from context that when I said "Misery Porn", I meant "A story that is gratuitously depressing so that readers will think it's deeper than it really is".

Nerds (affectionate): Actually, Missouri has many lead mines.

Health care professionals: This is just what working with patients is like.

We're all familiar with that line, when the Ghost of Christmas Present throws Scrooge's own words of callous indifference back at him when he shows concern about Tiny Tim. It's a line that appears in nearly every version of A Christmas Carol...but I want to talk about probably my favorite use of it in any adaptation, and it comes from what is arguably the best adaptation: A Muppets' Christmas Carol.

Because here's the thing about that movie's version of the Ghost of Christmas Present -- he's genuinely friendly to Scrooge throughout their entire interaction. In many adaptations -- and in Dickens' original book -- the ghost is more harsh with Scrooge. It's in a well-intentioned way, but it's clear that the ghost dislikes Scrooge's attitude toward his fellow man and has no problem letting him know that. Some movie versions have him being more sassy with Scrooge than Dickens did, but there's definitely tension between them.

Then the Muppets have this guy

He sings and dances and is genuinely happy to meet Scrooge. I defy you to show me a version where "Come in and know me better, man!" is said with more genuine good will and spirit of friendship than how this guy says it. He doesn't speak harshly to Scrooge or criticizes him -- they even share a genuine laugh when Scrooge makes a joke about him having more than 1800 brothers, and he also jokes about being "a *large* absent-minded spirit." Before they leave Scrooge's house, he promises that "before the day is over, you *will* understand" what Christmas is truly about, and you know he means it. Hell, he almost sounds excited about the prospect of it.

And when they get to Bob Cratchit's house, the story plays out as it does in nearly every version (with the occasional added Muppet-related shenanigan), and more light-hearted humor is exchanged between Scrooge and The Ghost ("This is Bob Cratchit's house?" "How did you know that?" "You just told me" "Hmm. Well, I'm usually trustworthy"). They enter the house after Bob and Tiny Tim return home and we get another song, this one from Tiny Tim and the Cratchits before Scrooge asks whether Tiny Tim will live (and Michael Caine fucking nails the delivery, because of course he fucking does)

And then, The Ghost, who again has been nothing but genuinely nice to Scrooge up to this point, pulls out the haymaker

"If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, I believe the child will die. But what then? If he's going to die, he'd better do it and decrease the surplus population."

And it fucking lands. Because it's the first time that The Ghost has actively been critical of Scrooge and his actions prior to the night of their visit. Hell, it's the first time he's ever directly addressed anything from Scrooge's life before all of this started. And to me, it hits harder because of The Ghost's almost exclusively jovial and genial nature up to that point.

It's not said in an exceptionally harsh way, either. There's a bit of an edge to his tone, but other versions have definitely been more pointed about how they deliver it (the 2009 Jim Carrey version, for example, has the Ghost's face and voice morph into Scrooge's own for that line and lets the line linger for a moment before shifting back which is an incredible way to do it, imo), and almost immediately after, when he tells Scrooge it's time to leave, he is calmer and seems almost remorseful that they don't have more time together. Even their final exchange, when he tells Scrooge he will be leaving and begins to fade away, is full of what seems to be a genuine care for Scrooge's well-being -- as well as a call back that genuinely chokes me up a little

Actually as shitty as the existence of AI psychosis is, the implications of it are FUCKING MIND-BOGGLING in actually a really revolutionary way.

("WTF are you talking about?" / "What do we currently know about AI psychosis?": x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x)

Paywall free, via Futurism, June 28, 2025

Like, as someone who works professionally editing mental health books, the existence of AI psychosis almost certainly completely upends our understandings of how mental health disorders work. And their causes.

There's a non-zero chance the discovery/existence of AI psychosis is like. going to be/lead to more or less the mental health equivalent of inventing germ theory.

Like, we went from only sort of beginning to suspect to having actual, literal, indisputable proof that you can go from not having a psychotic disorder to having a psychotic disorder literally just from talking too much to a very aggrandizing source and/or echo chamber

THAT SEVERELY UPENDS OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE DEVELOPMENT AND ORIGINS OF MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS

**Note: I am using "psychotic" and "psychotic disorders" in their technical definition here, which is simply "involves experiencing breaks from reality." Because, contrary to all the stigma and misinformation, that's the literal/actual definition (x, x, x)

And like, obviously, in at least many cases, there would be/often are genetic, environmental, or trauma factors that are putting their thumbs on the scale there. But we know for a fact that a number of people who have developed AI psychosis do not have a previous record of mental health issues.

But the tipping factor for at least dozens of people, we now know for a fact, was talking to an AI chatbot. And we have a complete record of what was said for almost every single one of those cases, because, among other things, OpenAI / ChatGPT is now LEGALLY REQUIRED to preserve ALL CHAT TRANSCRIPTS, even if users delete them, until the court says otherwise (x, x, x).

(Which will be, by the way, years, at a minimum - that may have started with a copyright lawsuit, but there will be so many other AI lawsuits and investigations, including about AI psychosis, in the EU if not the US - this will go on for a while)

Anyway, yeah, good news in the long term for the understanding and treatment of mental health disorders

In the short term, seriously, please don't use chatbots for at least another couple of years, as a safety precaution

At least until they've sorted this shit out and (HOPEFULLY) figured out how to make this shit stop happening (and then, hopefully, actually implemented those changes).