We're the Only Ones Virtually Trippy Enough

Being crazy is hard, but it's worth the effort. Especially if you're a cop, paramedic, or social worker who may someday need to deal with a person having a psychotic episode. At those times, empathy can be crucial.

That's where Virtual Hallucinations comes in. The training device, created by Janssen L.P., is a rig with earphones and goggles that plunges the wearer into the mind of a serious schizophrenic. The system offers two interactive scenarios. In one, you're riding a bus in which other riders appear and disappear, birds of prey claw at the windows, and voices hiss, "He's taking you back to the FBI!"

Well this certainly looks like another ingenious way to blow taxpayer plunder--I could have done this training for them at a fraction of the cost with a couple hits of windowpane and some latex demon masks.

For some reason, making "The Only Ones" feel at one with schizophrenics strikes me as an idea that could somehow backfire. I wonder if they're going to make sure no one is wearing their gun belt during these induced psychosis sessions, and if they have credible data proving no lasting effects--plus a reliable methodology for ensuring their scenario subjects aren't already on the edge.

Truth is, if someone is having a psychotic episode where they are endangering themselves and others, there's very little you can do at that moment beyond restraining or otherwise stopping him. I'm all for more humane ways to do that. But that seems more a matter of appropriate use of force training than staggering a mile in a virtual lunatic's shoes.

Still, if they're going to have this danged contraption, why not employ it in a way that could benefit a much larger section of society? Why not devise a scenario to develop empathy for citizens having their rights violated?

[Via 45superman]