Tale #18: Heuristic Medicine

Tale #18: Heuristic Medicine (Part 6 to 'As Before, Now Again) (Content Tags: Ongoing story, messy diaper, wet diaper, hypnotism, brainwashing, unethical therapy, adult antagonist) Dr. Farren nodded, listening to her current patient go on and on about his inane problems. Tucker was a whiny little thing, something she'd already come to realize in her other sessions with the boy, and she couldn't help but see him as a petulant toddler, rather than a boy on the cusp of hitting the double digits. Lazily, her gaze drifted from her clipboard and to the drawer at her desk, where her pendulum hid away. Ever since this business with Matty had begun, she'd found herself having less patience for her clients than usual, and a growing thought that she should fix some of these other kids in the same way. Troubled boys who acted more like troubled little tots, and who would be much more manageable if they were just knocked down a few pegs and given a chance to restart from square one...It'd been going smoothly enough with Matty, a bully in desperate need of her 'help', so why not with some of these other kids? Why go the long way with talking through these problems, when she could just reach into their head and make the necessary adjustments? With Tucker, she could better befit that crybaby anxiety with some much deserved Pampers for him to piddle in, or with AJ, she could change that compulsive lying to at least be about whether his pants were clean or not. A whole list of clients, and each one of them could benefit from a little return to babyhood, in one way or another. She considered her earlier appointment, where she'd actually seen Matty. She hadn't planned too much for their session, instead wanting to use it as a chance to see how her current adjustments had been affecting his day-to-day life, but things had still snowballed. With Tucker still babbling on about all the things he was afraid of, legs crossed nervously, and his mouth nibbling on his thumb, the doctor checked out to reminisce. It'd been two weeks, and as had become usual, Matty had slunk into her office with a clear rustling coming from his pants, up until he plopped down on the couch with a crinkle. He looked a little less self-conscious about it this time, unsurprisingly so, since he'd been diapered for nearly every session up to this point. Except for the first session, he'd also soiled himself during each one too, so it wasn't even as if he had room to complain about the safeguard for her furniture. She'd given him a warm greeting, malice hidden behind the professional exterior she'd taken so long to perfect over her career. Taking a good look at the boy, she could notice that he seemed a bit disheveled; he slouched and avoided much eye contact, the burning light of his confidence having been gradually snuffed out into a small ember. The process was working as intended. She'd kept it light to start, only asking some basic questions about how he'd been since their last session. The boy was aloof and reluctant to answer, but his prior programming kept his mouth running like a leaky faucet. Halfway through his recounting of how his days had been, the topic got sidetracked, with Matty finally becoming more inquisitive. He'd spent all the other sessions simply reacting and going through the motions, but now, it seemed like he'd gone through enough to make him start asking questions about himself...To become introspective in at least some small way. He mentioned that he felt like the accidents happened whenever he got too angry or aggressive and asked why she thought it was happening to him. Doctor Farren should have been happy at this kind of development. After all, the first step to recovery was acceptance and looking inward. She wasn't happy though. If anything, his line of questioning only served to make her more irritable. He had the mindfulness to be concerned about this humiliating state of affairs, but not the empathy to consider those that he'd hurt? It took all her restraint to not immediately fling him into a state of malleability. "Well, Mathew...What happens is contingent upon you. The real question is, why do you use your anger against other people? Why do you like to hurt people?" He got quiet again, instead just fidgeting uncomfortably in his seat, his diaper rustling in the silence of the room. "Do you know what heuristics are? They're like little shortcuts that our brains use to make quick decisions. There are four main types: Affect, anchoring, representativeness, and availability." She looked at him to see if he was following along, and while he was nodding his head, it was obvious that he already somewhat confused. She pressed on, as if she was saying it for herself just as much as she was saying it for him. "In simple terms...An affect heuristic is when we make decisions based on our emotions, or our gut. Anchoring heuristics are when we set assumptions by an arbitrary 'anchor' point." She tapped her pen against her notepad, noticing that Mathew looked like he was spacing out; the sudden noise jolted him back to attention and she tersely continued. "Representativeness is when we take things at face value, because we connect it to an archetype. Finally, availability heuristics are when we make our judgments based simply on whatever information is most easily available. Are you with me, Matty?" "U-uhh, yeah, I think so...What's that have to do with anything though?" "Because it has to do with your 'problem solving'. Your first instinct, your gut reaction, is to let your emotions run wild...an affect heuristic. As for your accidents, well, you told me that you used to have accidents a lot when you were younger? Perhaps your body is reacting in a familiar way as a way to cope with your emotional outbursts." Matty didn't look so sure, though he did look embarrassed by the woman bringing up his past. "Uhhh...I dunno, maybe...That just doesn't sound right. It happens mostly when I, umm, when I try to hurt someone, not just when I get angry.." "Well, you weren't always a bully, right? Maybe your body and mind are trying to tell you something about your behavior. You mentioned a bad accident that happened last week, why don't you tell me more about that." His cheeks got red as he thought back to the accident that'd gotten him put in 'thicker protection' than the pull-up diapers every day. Compelled to do as she asked, the boy began to retread the sordid scenario in every awful detail. He even stood up off the couch to act the way he'd been acting to that one little kid at the park. He talked about how angry he was that his own little brother had been blabbing about his potty problems, and how he couldn't stand being mocked by a smaller kid. The doctor nodded along throughout his story, writing down the details on her notepad. Eventually, predictably, he began to reenact the part where he pooped himself. She couldn't help but smile in amusement at the lack of awareness he had toward it; the little brat was peppering his diaper with big toots, and she could start to hear the wet plopping of hefty solids being obliviously dropped inside his seat. Matty was dropping a baker's dozen of Hershey bars in his Pampers and he couldn't even recognize it. Fortunately, the diaper he wore to therapy was thicker than the Pull-Up he'd been wearing to the park, so he didn't suffer the same major blowout that he'd had at the park, but he did fill his babypants to their maximum capacity. Much more, and he'd be ruining another pair of pants. By the time he'd finished recounting the story, there was a pungent smell emanating from his massively bulging shorts. "Oh, Matty...I think you got a little too worked up there. You didn't notice that you were *soiling* yourself? I think your mother probably made the right choice in moving you to real diapers full-time, at least until you can get your emotions under control." Dr. Farren hadn't even needed to put him under a trance for that session. Though that lack of direct mental manipulation had left her trigger finger feeling the itch for some hands-on work. Which left her with... Tucker. The neurotic, anxiety-filled crybaby that'd probably wet his pants at the sight of a bully like Matty. She'd grown inpatient with his endless worries and with the difficulty she had in trying to assuage those fears. Perhaps Tucker needed to be realigned into something a little more befitting of his outlook...Perhaps many of her little patients would do good with some time back in Pampers. She began to reach into her desk drawer to grab the pendulum. "Tucker, let me tell you about something called heuristics." She was unable to see the irony, that she herself was falling to the fallacy of representativeness heuristics; all these troubled boys, though in reality were dissimilar in their needs and issues, but her hypnosis was a hammer, and they were all nails of the same 'archetype'. Her waiting room was going to be getting a lot more smelly in the coming months.