Do you care about Psychology?

[BronzeOracle]

What shocked me more than some of the accounts I've read is the statistics. Europe and America are considered as civilized and modern countries, there are issues but everything is largely ok. That's the image I have, it is then particularly confronting to read that a third or more of the women in our society are submitted to rape or assault at least once throughout their lifetime. And a vast majority of them never talks about it.

I remember reading 1 in 4. As a guy its pretty confronting, something we just don't need to think about in our daily lives. It's not on our radar that our date/partner could harm us or others.

I wouldn't assume that our civilised/modern societies are all OK - I spent 2 years working in India and when I came back I was amazed at how sad and stressed out people were in Australia, who by comparison to Indians were incredibly wealthy. This is not at all to say that things were rosy in India (forget the 'noble savage' or 'poor but happy' stereotype), there was a lot of stress and sadness there too. I remember coming back to Australia and feeling the materialism like an almost tangible presence, it was amazing, then after 2 weeks I got used to it and didn't notice it anymore. While things are much better in Australia materially and education wise (we have free healthcare), we have a long long way to go. Its only recently in Australia that mental illness and sexual assault have been brought into the limelight.

 

[Guy]

I think in order to create an authentic character you're going to have to use psychology to some degree. I've read a fair amount about serial killers and sexual predators and I end up using that when creating villains. One thing I learned is that they really aren't Hannibal Lecter/evil genius types. In fact, they have a remarkable lack of emotional maturity, resulting in them being some of the most pathetic SOBs in the world. This results in creating villains who might appear to be implacable bad asses at first, but when you get to see inside them, you see what sorry wastes of humanity they really are. It also usually results in the protagonist emotionally taking them apart at some point, ripping away their intimidating exteriors and leaving them psychologically wrecked.

 

[Lily Maeve La Fey]

I'm a fellow psych student, and I may be biased as well, but I find I care much more about believable character psychology and venturing deep into their minds than any other aspect of the novel. However when believable characters, settings and a fantastic plot comes together I am purring like a kitten!