It truly is a shame that all team of psychologists didn’t jump aboard the DSP train early on.
Ya know: Yearly IQ tests, reaction time, vocabulary, etc.
It would have been an interesting experiment in what long term exposure to very minimal social interactions do on mental health and mental performance.
Phil is one of relatively few people who aren’t seriously mentally ill, (as in: Your neighborhood schizo who only goes shopping after midnight) who has very minimal social interaction with other people.
I’d expect his vocabulary, IQ, etc. just drop year over year.
In the video about Phil I'm working on, I go over his anima possession and ego, but I don't touch upon his social inability because I didn't really find that important to the subject revolved around his Keemstar Conundrum. However, after seeing this comment, I might add that in a part 2, since I find the degrading of social abilities fascinating.
An important part of socializing is actually seeing unfamiliar faces and facial expressions, as well as getting opposing view points. Removing these causes people to act as if they are talking to themselves all day, and naturally people get entangled in their own web of nonsense.
This also reminds me of a situation on a radio show called Opie and Anthony where they had an intern named Lady Di, who had some condition I forgot the name of that was caused by a failing liver, because she was a raging alcoholic.
I don't think Phil is at her level, but it was interesting to see how she could talk, react fast, hold a conversation, but the second she wasn't the center of focus, she would ramble on about nothing to nobody. She would just talk to herself or to the people around her about nothing, so that the attention comes back to her.
Again, Phil is not as bad as her condition (she was bloated from fluid building up from her liver leaking or something, and she would spray feces into everything but the toilet), but I know that alcohol abuse can cause damage to the nerves in the brain.
Phil also shows some issues with his mouth, the bell's palsy, which can be either muscular or skeletal. Some might think it's a problem in the jaw hinge because he has back issues and that tends to happen when a spine gets messed up. But, something like a stroke is on the table. I knew a super fat guy who had that problem too, and he was young, but apparently Bell's palsy is related to problems in the immune system and diabetes, so this might be related to all of Phil's constant allergies to practically everything or one too many eating with the king episodes.
I think his vocabulary gets better with time, since he remembers a lot of words, so memory isn't a problem for him in that regard. A lot of mispronouncing is probably accent related or him reading the word instead of listening to it. One big pet peve of mine that happens online all the time is that I'll see someone say "sense" in place of "since" and also write it that way. It's the same issue as when we say "anyways", it's a colloquial contagion. I wouldn't be worried about his vocabulary, honestly, he seems fine in that department.
I think a big problem for him in public is paranoia and agoraphobia, which is common after people get stir crazy and is more common post pandemic. People go from a comfortable "cave" and then out into a dangerous "wilderness" and the body will feel threats all over even though it's a safe open area.
He would just have to go outside more and maybe take a bus without headphones on to get more comfortable being in the open. Something that's not familiar, because the familiarity is what makes people feel comfortable, that's our cave, and we're not ready for the wilderness.
I think this is why he doesn't want to travel. I feel some sympathy with that since people who rarely travel don't enjoy themselves with the journey, maybe just the destination if they find value in it. Also, first time I traveled to a new country on my own, first thing I wanted was food that's familiar. That's like looking back at the cave while stepping into the wilderness, but some people can't get that comfort in a new place even if it's the same country.
This is also why people who stay in the house all day don't usually clean it up. They want the place to look like it's lived in and we enjoy the familiar smell of ourselves on everything. I know this sounds like I'm talking about some random dog sniffing around bungholes, but people are animals when we do things we're not conscious of.
All in all, Phil's mental conditions are a bit closer to stress and bad habits instead of severe mental problems deep in the brain. The ego thing is a story for another day, but for sure it's caused by fear and isolation, which relates to all of these other things.