Contest! Got any ideas for vampire neuroses? Undead dysfunctions? Bloodsucking diagnoses?
Thanks so much to everyone who participated in this contest! The suggestions are awesome! I wrote everyones' names on pieces of paper, put them in one of my manifestation boxes, and selected two winners. Here they are:
D. Renee Bagby wins the tote bag
Amberkatze wins the download of UNDEAD IN THE CITY
You're the best for helping me!!
Lynda
I'm working on my third book in the Kismet Knight, Vampire Psychologist series and I'm brainstorming ideas for various psychological afflictions Kismet's nocturnal clients can exhibit in that book. I'd love your input! And, as incentive, I'm giving away a Vampire Shrink tote bag. Hey, everybody needs one, right? So, what would you like to see a vampire visit Kismet's therapy office for (professionally)? I've already used fear of blood in book one and a couple others in book two (I'll let you read the book and find out which ones!!), but I'm open to all suggestions. Be creative! Post your suggestions here and I'll select one comment on April 1 and the poster will win the tote bag. As of March 27, I'm also going to give away a pdf download of "Undead in the City" as an additional prize.
Thanks!!
posted by Lynda Hilburn at 8:54 PM
47 Comments:
Hi Lynda,
I think a vampire would go to a psycologist for many reasons-- maybe the guilt of killing people, maybe the guilt of making someone a vampire-- maybe their depressed because they have that thirst and cannot stop themselves, they want to but can't.
Chow Babe-- love the bag, very cool! Good luck on your newest book, can't wait!
A vampire might have a problem if they can't get over their fear of blood they had as a human haha :D
Hmmm. What if the vampire was afraid of the dark? Or what if the Vampire was an in the closet gay vampire?
How about a vampire with social anxiety? Cannot approach large crowds...hmmm...
I know that if I were a vampire, I'd need therapy to get over my human addiction to potato chips and Mt Dew. Is life (or undeadnees) worth living without chips and Dew?
How about claustophobia - kind of hard to hang out in your coffin during the day if you can't stand close spaces
I would say a big problem would be agoraphobia. If they can't go out to get blood, they'd have to rely on people to deliver. Maybe your psychiatrist would have to make a house call for this one.
Hmm if this isn't what you're looking for that's okay but what about if he/she couldn't stand the thought of immortality. And because of it they're constantly searching for a way to regain their mortality?
I think that a vampire who has a split personality would need to visit a therapist. Or if they were having very odd yet realistic dreams that turned out to be that it wasn't a dream but their other personality. Or maybe they would go cause they needed a drink hehehe
What about a fear of humans that makes it very hard to feed. Or how about the fear of open space, Agoraphobia, that could make life a little difficult for a vampire. But then it again it would make it hard to go to a shrink...lol. Good luck. If I come up with any more I will let you know.
the first reason 90% ppl go to a shrink..... MOMMY issuses how about a vamp that has a mother that is one too, and god forbid i became a vamp and so did my mom, i rather walk into the sun :) spending 100-1000;s yrs listening to her guilt trips and whine about how much i weighed, like, get real, that wsa MY fault?
and my mother is agoraphobia but still has phone and internet , so life is nottttttttttt easy to get away from her, i mean hypowhatever im not talking about myself, nope, not me, im strictly talking book mother not 4'8 mother who threaten to whoop you and you are 5'3 and pushing 40 with my uh her own grankids too
ok my sister and I brainstormed on this one and came up with a couple (and someone stole my agorophobia already darn it).
1. Hemophobia .. fear of blood. Talk about hard to eat.
2. Germophobia .. he wears gloves and carries around sterile wipes to wipe the necks before he bites them.
3. He has a garlic fetish or addiction.
4. He could have a fear of virgins or young girls.
5. He has OCD and must bite them 3 times before eating.
And the creme de la creme .. he's got an eating disorder .. he'll only eat off hemopheliacs or anemics. ROFL. (some variations on this, he has bulemia and feels the need to donate blood as soon as he's done eating, he's a drug addict and only feeds off junkies)
Hope this helps :)
Fear of intimacy and commitment.
With such issues, it may be difficult for a vampire to "enjoy" the act itself and would also make it quite difficult to commit to turning another - because there is an intimate and PERMANENT connection between them.
How about a recurring dream where every time he/she bites someone their canines get stuck and are yanked out, thus causing them to starve to death.
Or an oldie but goody, he has past life issues and thinks he's Dracula reincarnated or some other such famous person/vampire.
Or, how about a vamp who thinks he might be a closet pedophile because he likes human women (age difference and all that) and he wants the doc to lock him away before he starts preying on actual children.
I say stick to the basics also -- a vamp with delusions of bedroom grandeur. He thinks every woman (and some men) wants him but they're in denial. Their anger when he tells them about their want is simply brought on because they realize they can't have him. But he's willing to bite them to make them feel better. He went to the shrink to brainstorm ways of letting down his adoring public gently so they won't be so hostile.
You could also go the other route and have a vamp with an inferiority complex that inhibits his ability to feed since he thinks his prey is too good for him, which means he would have a tendency of feeding off animals.
Or the vamp thinks he's really an alien experiment set on earth to make as many humans into vamps as possible so the aliens can get good data.
I can do this all day, but I think those are good. ;P Loving the book so far.
I think it would be funny if he/she were going to a shrink because he/she were worried about his/her biting fetish. He/She is worried about Biting for just the pleasure of biting not just for food.
A vampire would need a psycologist if they were afraid of closed in spaces, where would he sleep!!
Great question!!
Hmmm...say the vampire was a human with seasonal affective disorder (depression during winter due to lack of sunlight) that used to drive them to comfort eating. When turned into a vampire he/she cannot shake sensation that the lack of sunlight is causing them depression (even if case no longer applies). Since this vampire has a conscience, the comfort eating concept disturbs them greatly and they try to refrain from binges. Perhaps the depression in truth is due to fear of facing eternity without a partner to share their undead existence.
I loved reading all of the suggestions so far - They're great! What if the vampire needed to see a psycologist because they had insomnia? Or the vampire was allergic to blood?
I can't wait to check this book out!
How about your client might be deathly afraid of the dentist and thus has a severe crippling phobia about their fangs!
Another idea is they suffer from SAD. They need those positive UV rays in order to feel good and now they are a vamp and are stuck in eternal darkness with no sunshine!
--Lady Ozma
(I saw your post on MySpace)
HEY!!!!!!
I do believe that a vampire with, aichmophobia(sharp or pointed objects) would be hilarious considering their fangs. Also erotophobia(fear of sex)would be amazing, with how sexual vampires are known to be. heliophobia would be an obvious one(fear of the sun).haha necrophobia. The possibilites are endless. Like, scoptophobia(fear of being looked at) that would be once of the best, with the fact that vampires are beautiful.
Im going to stop now to give others some room to come up with more ;)
-Kjirstan
ps,
I read you bulletin on myspace :)
Sense a vampire can exist for centuries they could have neuroses on top of neuroses. Like that Monk character or Howard Hughes.
Let's say he wouldn't clip his nails because he thinks it might lead to an infection or he might bleed to death. Also he wont cut his hair, and bathes too much and so on.
He would also need some one to clean constantly and it leads his scion or human servant to a nervous break down. And they the one who brought him in, in the first place.
And this undead thing just isn't working for him anymore. And he'd walk into the sun but for the fact that all the vampires that he had made along the long years of his undead-hood would go puff too.
Got another for you. ;P
It's playing the opposite side of one of the ones I mentioned before. Instead of thinking he/she was Dracula, how about they think they were Van Helsing (or any vampire hunter) in a past life and now they have deep self-loathing/suicidal issues.
Psychologists call someone when people are a danger to themselves, right? Who would you call when a vamp is a danger to themselves?
How's that? ;D
This comment has been removed by the author.
What if the vampire really hated the taste of blood..like to the point doing things to it to mask the taste..like adding sugar to make it sweet or mixing liquor with it to make it less copper tasting. or if blood made them gag.
I LOVE these suggestions! What an abundance of creativity! Thanks so much, everyone, for posting your great ideas! Into the "tote bag" drawing you all go!!
Hugs, Lynda
First one that came to mind is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
In my universe my vampires tend to get into conflict with others, supernatural and mundane. These conflicts rarely end without somebody dying. Or a lot of people. And in the lot case most of the people were innocent.
That's bound to leave a few scars on the psyche. And after several hundred years those wounds are bound to fester.
Also dealing with the loss of humanity, the distance and ennui that immortality bring would be something very hard to handle.
My first thought was that he had to wear braces as a child and the other vampire kids made fun of him because he had to drink his blood with a straw.
Or maybe he has chiroptophobia -- fear of bats.
Or maybe he's fed up with working at Bat in the Box and living in his parents' basement. Vamps can be losers, too.
What if he had a fear of touching people. To me it would seem almost impossible to get his blood that he needed.
Paula A
what if he didn't want to mix blood with sex 99% of the time.
mutipersonaltys,,
he is vmapire, but one of his persoanlty is vampire slayer
multi persoanlty, vamp, but his other personsaltys is, werewolf, fairy, and life guard
he has denture, and has to take them out to let his fangs extened, and it so embarrssing
he was as sunworhsipper from the maya ppl, but now cant practice
blood gives him nightmare/daymares?
panic attacks
he carry flashlights in every pocket
he gets teases cause he DONT like playing with his food
hyperconraitc , ( think he is catching whatever diaese there is)
What if the vampire had a fetish for being hunted by vampire hunters? He likes the almost near death expierances, the closeness of the wooden stake to his heart? The burn of the holy water on his skin. etc. I would think that would call for a visit or two, lol. Good Luck!!
Wouldn't it be amusing if a vampire had clinical lycanthropy? He would be so convinced that he was a werewolf that he would have trouble being a vmapire. Cue trying to eat meat instead of drink blood!
Wow, alot of great answers so far.
What if he's a clean freak and is strugging about not being able to get over the blood stains on teeth and clothing.
Or that the vampire will only drink the blood if it's been blessed.
How about if they had an obsession with tanning before they were turned? it would make for a life or death obsession :) o o or an obsessive eater!
You know how some people are afraid of dying? What if he doesn't want to or is afraid of living forever?
Just a thought! I saw you over on AuthorIsland and now I can't wait for the book!
Have a great day!
Amy
I loved book 1 and am anxiously waiting to read the next release. But until then I thought I'd join you on your blog. Some good answers to your question already but I'll throw a few more ideas into the hat.
1. A vampire who's attentions seem to center on an opposing species outside of human.
2. A vampire who, at the sight of blood, is driven to kill due to a tramatic event in his/her past.
3. A vampire that is obsessed with the idea that he/she is being stalked by Vampire Slayers everywhere they go. Or a reversal where a vampire thinks he/she is in the right by killing off fellow vampires.
He or she could have been pining for the person they were enamored of when they were brought over. Say the vamp is 600 years old and is just an absolute basketcase for that long missing his or her lost love. So much so that they have turned it into a lifelong search for the one he or she can turn to spend eternity with, but when that person turns out not to be Mr. or Mrs. Right, they're killing them, therefore murdering humans and just no regard for them...and on and on with that line of thought.
I haven't taken the time to read all the suggestions...but I will add a few of my own and hope that they aren't repeats ;)
1. Fear of going to the dentist.
2. Sleep problems.
3. Afraid of the dark.
4. Fear of sharp objects eg teeth, spikes....
5. Fear of death or dead people.
6. What a vampire who thinks he is a famous vampire? From a film or another vamp book?
7. A vamp who has turned his mum...then you can have the girlfriend come in...maybe group therapy? That could be interesting...
8. A vegetarian vamp?
9. A vamp who doesn't realise he is a vamp but thinks he is a werewolf or something else?
10. A vampire with a problem that stops him/her from getting his/her kicks...eg constant blushing, sweating etc.
Ok...that was 10 ideas! Hope some of them help! It would be cool to read the book and see one of my ideas being used!
Good luck with the next books! I am looking forward to them. The 1st book was amazing!
How about a Scizophrenic (?sorry?) vampire but not one with multiple personalities but one who does not live in reality. My Mother was someone who lived in a fantasy world but her world was one where she slept all the time and shut herself off from everyone around her.
How about a vampire that cannot tell a lie? Like that movie where Jim Carrey was a lawyer and he couldn't lie?
This would get a vampire into all kinds of trouble if he always went around telling people that he was a vampire, that he drank that person's blood or this person's blood, that he had to be home by dawn or his skin would burn, etc. etc. Of course, humans wouldn't believe him and they would constantly be trying to catch him in the act but he would always give them the slip. It could be very funny. And he could see the shrink to try to overcome the inability to lie. Maybe the shrink could give him truth serum which would have the opposite effect, an anti-truth serum if you will.
A vampire who doesn't like the dark?
he's depressed that he doesn't die or age.
He's worried about getting diseases from the people he is about to blood suck.
He dislikes the color red.
Love the canvas bag.
Great Question!
1. CHOCOLATE withdrawl! LOL
2. Arachnaphobia
3. Intamacy issues
4. Blood version of alcoholism
5. Can't get past the fact that their dog/cat hates them now that they're a vamp.
I hope some of those are useful. Cheers!
I think a vampire would have a serious psychotic problem if he was bipolar with a dissociative personality disorder in his life. If he was a cutter in life then in death he would still be a cutter...but psychotic and try to drink his own blood. I would call that "self mutilating dissociative personality disorder that, when in manic psychosis bc he is also bipolar, becomes delusional in thinking he is having an out of body experience and sucks his own blood because he mistakes himself for someone else." Because he is bipolar he doesn't have to eat that much so when the physical problems manifest himself after a self hunger binge, his vampire friends just think it's food poisoning or something because he doesn't eat all the time....so I guess he would have an eating disorder too.
ok my kids got involved in this contest
afraid of other vmapires,
and the ones who likes to admired themselve all the time in morrirors but cant see,
and i knwo some done said, but
i did promise to post it,
afraid of the dark, afriad of blood, afraid of bats,
doesnt like the color black, doesnt like sharp things (teeth)
so i wrote it, as my kids intrusted LOL i knw some has already said some of those, but i didnt want to hurt my 11, and 15 yrs old feelings *(my 11 yr ol, had a notebook she been thinking and wriing it down lol
i promise to
I wrote earlier about my mother who was scizophrenic? She lived in a fantasy world. The interesting thing was when we would visit or she would come home for visits she was this beautiful ghostly stranger. Really she did not remember who we were and she had four children. I think between the drugs (she was overdosed) and 23 shock treatments that would do it.She finally came home after nearly a year of hospitalization. She never did learn to how to cook or be a real mom. I was her mother for many years until when in the fifth grade and God "Healed her". I really think a different fantasy took place there and she threw all her meds away. Thanks for letting me share my bizzare family.
who won????
Wow!!! I won!!!
Post a Comment
<< Home