Katawa Shoujo Forums

Pyramid Head wrote:Hanako clearly has mental problems

Trauma isn't generally considered a mental disability.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say people with manageable mental disabilities would probably be accepted, as long as they had some type of physical disability as well.

Xanatos wrote:

Pyramid Head wrote:Hanako clearly has mental problems

Trauma isn't generally considered a mental disability.

Okay true enough, but it can cause serious problems. Then again, PTSD better fits Emi. Hanako on the other hand is seeing a psychiatrist, it's implied that she's had panic attacks in the past before, and the school caters to her anxiety disorder by letting her leave class and refuse to participate in group work. ravenlord is implying that people with any mental disorder is turned away but my counter is that Hanako is proof that that that cannot be the case. Also i'm kind of suspicious of ravenlord's guiding quote, but until he's more specific i can't go fishing for the actual quote to see if he's taking something out of context or if Lilly or one of the writers was mistaken. Still, as it is now ravenlord's claim is literally impossible, Yamaku caters to people with near crippling anxiety disorders, people with PTSD, narcoleptic students, epileptic students, and it's damn near impossible to deny that Kenji and Rin aren't all there in the head. Surely you see where i'm coming from here.

Trauma isn't generally considered a mental disability.

No, but Hanako's social problems go far beyond the typical PTSD symptoms...they're pretty much a disorder on their own.

One person here mentioned epilepsy...I'm not sure if that could be classified as a mental disorder in a typical sense, since the implications are very much physical (seizures) and they don't really affect Naomi's behavior much.

About the "no mental disorders allowed"-thing...I'd say you shouldn't take that line too literally. Yamaku's policy is that they're not a mental health institution, so they have limited facilities to accomodate students with psychiatric problems. They do have psychiatric staff, but most likely those are mostly specialized in PTSD which I bet a lot of students who received their condition through an accident picked up to some degree. They don't have the expertise to help, say, students with dissociative personality disorder or down syndrome. The guideline Yamaku most likely uses is: "CAN WE HELP THIS STUDENT?"

Some examples:

Kenji: Is near-blind. Yamaku has facilities for people with impaired vision, so he fits the criterium. They might not be able to treat his schizophrenia (they not even be aware of it), but they can help with his legal blindness, so he can attend.

Rin: Lacks arms. Yamaku is geared towards tending to people with missing limbs, so she fits the criterium. They might not be able to offer a lot of help with Rin's (quite likely) high-functioning autism/asperger syndrome, which they might not even know about, but she still makes the cut since she's missing limbs.

Random student with no physical disability and autism: Won't make it in since Yamaku doesn't have the expertise to deal with that properly, so he receives no benefit in attending there.

Hanako: Here's where it gets tricky. While Hanako's burns probably impede her physically to some small degree, that impairment alone wouldn't be enough to get her admitted. However, Hanako's psychological problems include PTSD (which Yamaku does have experience treating) and impaired functioning due to social abuse/isolation which, the school could reason, would be less likely to occur at Yamaku since every student has issues of some kind. So for Hanako, despite her main handicap not being physical, the answer to the question if she'd benefit from attending Yamaku is still a resounding YES.

I think it's best to use this line of reasoning over Ravenlord's more rigid way of classifying students.

Narcoleptics? Epileptics? Schizophrenics?

...What the hell game are you people playing? It's a deaf chick, some blind folk, a couple amputees, and a burn victim.


Rin and Kenji are perfectly fine in the head. Being abstract and spacey or a conspiracy nut aren't disabilities. And Emi's there because she's got no legs which is an entirely physical reason.

Hanako is damaged to a point she likely wouldn't function in a regular school. She's likely an exception, not the rule.

The rule is mentally disabled people aren't accepted. That actually is canon whether or not you recall the quote. But it's irrelevant because Rin's physical disability would subvert the rule anyway so any mental issues she has remain up for speculation.

For my part, I choose to believe she's a cloud made flesh as an explanation for everything.

There's more people attending Yamaku than just Hanako, Lilly, Emi, Rin and Shizune. Suzu's a narcoleptic although that might be semi-canon. Naomi (who plays a role despite not having a sprite) has severe epilepsy and is mentioned in the game as such.

Guest Poster wrote:Suzu's a narcoleptic

Suzu also isn't canon at all. Everything but her artwork is fanmade.

Epilepsy granted (forgot Naomi) but considering it's a disorder that often manifests with physical symptoms, it's iffy territory for this discussion. And there are still no canonical schizophrenics.

Xanatos wrote:Narcoleptics? Epileptics? Schizophrenics?

...What the hell game are you people playing? It's a deaf chick, some blind folk, a couple amputees, and a burn victim.


Rin and Kenji are perfectly fine in the head. Being abstract and spacey or a conspiracy nut aren't disabilities. And Emi's there because she's got no legs which is an entirely physical reason.

Hanako is damaged to a point she likely wouldn't function in a regular school. She's likely an exception, not the rule.

The rule is mentally disabled people aren't accepted. That actually is canon whether or not you recall the quote. But it's irrelevant because Rin's physical disability would subvert the rule anyway so any mental issues she has remain up for speculation.

For my part, I choose to believe she's a cloud made flesh as an explanation for everything.

For Rin, being abstract and spacey is obviously a sign of Asperger's. However, I don't usually view Asperger's as a mental disability, as it's more of a social disability. People with it can be, and usually are, extremely smart. (Heck, my own IQ is off the charts at 163) Not sure though on Rin's intelligence, though, but I assume it's at least average, as she never has any problems with studying and schoolwork.

For Kenji, it's pretty clear he has paranoid schizophrenia.

I think, as others said, mental disabilities are ok as long as they are not crippling, and said person could attend a regular school with them. So, someone with Asperger's could get in as long as they had a physical problem, but not someone with severe autism, as the school isn't prepared to treat that.

Xanatos wrote:

Guest Poster wrote:Suzu's a narcoleptic

Suzu also isn't canon at all. Everything but her artwork is fanmade.

Epilepsy granted (forgot Naomi) but considering it's a disorder that often manifests with physical symptoms, it's iffy territory for this discussion. And there are still no canonical schizophrenics.

The devs did gave a chart of all the disabilities the people in Hisao's class had, I'd consider that canon.

I agree with you that Rin has Asperger's. I also have a milder case of it, and I recognize much of what she's doing. Although even I have problems understanding her sometimes.

Regarding the whole admittance discussion: I always assumed that Yamaku's guideline for accepting students with emotional/mental problems (unavoidable to some degree when you're catering to physically disabled people, or even humans in general) Is that both their emotional/mental anguishes come from their disability in some way (Hisao's heart, Emi's accident, Hanako's isolation, etc.) And that the disability is not something way too extreme, or dangerous for the other people at Yamaku (Although with that last part, i could never answer my next question of "Why do they allow Kenji to go on unsupervised?" While playing some of the routes, i was seriously afraid he might end up hurting someone)

And i don't know much about Asperger, but it looks like Rin has it. Well, either that or she's just odd.

This is as old and common as the "Did Hisao Raped Hanako/Did Shizune Raped Hisao" topics.

Rin's just Rin. Perhaps she does have assburgers. Perhaps she has not kinda mental health issues but she doens't know her words are off-puting to some.

.

Discussions like this really should be in fan fiction. There you can be Yamaku's armchair psychiatrist and diagnose Lilly with a chemical dependency disorder and sex addiction, Emi with sexual deviant nymphomaniac syndrome, Misha as a lesbian stalker with an obesity condition, Shizune as a soulless psychopath and rapist, Hanako as a sociopath with PTSD, and Rin as an autistic channeler of grey aliens.

We've seen it all on the main page and it always erupts in a flame war due to being very trollish and highly exploitable. There are subforums for a reason. Please take this crazy stuff there, and speculate to your heart's content.

Snow_Storm wrote:assburgers

I lol'd hard.