First of all, regarding the suicides of two researchers at our center, there have been rumors that their deaths had to do with them exploring some strange area of research, like something out of a science fiction novel.
I reassure you that that is completely untrue.
This center specializes in the study of communication and mental illness.
Fundamentally, this is not a facility for clinical medicine.
Our staff sometimes visits hospitals at their invitation, but basically, all we do here is research.
I don't know how to apologize to her parents of those researchers.
I am quite overcome.
I've heard that the female researcher who took her life had some patients.
She was unique.
She treated people clinically at this research center.
But this was her own decision.
I've heard rumors that one of the researchers who died was mentally ill. Is that true?
We can't really comment on that right now.
But seeing that she took her own life, she may have had some type of mental illness.
There are many things a person may call it, but there's no doubt that she was suffering deeply.
Suicide is very extreme, but she must have been under a lot of stress.
A psychiatrist is still just a human being.
Did she catch her mental illness from her patients?
Mental illness isn't a contagious disease, So no, she didn't 'catch' anything from her patients.
We wouldn't use that expression.
She may have been influenced by the patients to a degree.
You may call that a sort of contagion if you'd like.
It's a matter of semantics.
But don't let anyone trick you about this sort of thing.
All of this doctor's patients were healthy.
I can't get into specifics because of privacy issues.
Are there other things that might explain her behavior?
Did the researcher who took her life may have had devious intentions?
We're in the middle of an investigation, and I can't comment too much on that out of respect for her friends and family.
However, I've been informed that that has absolutely nothing to do with it.
I would rather...
You would rather?
Anyway, I've heard that that has nothing to do with it.
I'll say this for our researchers that they are very fine human beings that are very seriously committed about what they do.
What was the likelihood of this kind of thing happening?
Well, it may have been less likely if we had caught it earlier.
On the other hand, we may have not paid enough attention because our researchers really have it together and are professional and hardworking.
We would like to help avoid this is the future by making psychological assessments of our staff.