Would You Like a Treatment?

Did I fall asleep?

So I'll admit the first thing I think of when I hear 'treatment' is Joss Whedon's short lived Dollhouse television show in which treatment was a euphemism for mind wiping.

Treatment in general, with or without the sci-fi personality implant is a word that for me is steeped in social justice. 'Treat' also seems to be something of an 'elementary school' word in the sense of learning how to treat others is one of those basic moral things you learn in grade school.

Treatment, being a noun, however, is somewhat difficult to measure. The way that one person treats another will be valued and catagorized differently by the treater, the treatee and the observes of said treatment. Context and relationship also play a huge role. For instance good nature teasing and one-up-man-ship between buddies (especially of the adolescent male variety) can easily be mis-interpreted as cruel teasing and social torture (and visa versa).

Respect is another thing that factors heavily into the complexities of 'treatment', especially historically as there were (and are) proper ways to treat people and animals based on your own status and the level of respect you are trying to convey.

Treatment is about reciprocity, and the type of world you want to create, and our behavior and the way we treat others is an integral aspect in creating a community and series of expectations for society.

In that light, we have in some ways come back around to the behavioral modification of the Dollhouse reference. Our treatments define the world we live in, and the role which we play in that world, and how others see us and behave toward us, regardless of our intent with that treatment.