"Getting Buffy to agree to an evaluation was extremely difficult." Jean said to Emma, Dr. Strange and Giles. "But eventually I was able to convince her to let me do one."
"And what have you found?" Giles asked.
"She's severely depressed. She's numbed herself to emotions. She had some risk factors for it. A sensitivity to personal criticism, feeling like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders. Feeling isolated and lonely, prolonged stress and emotionally abusive relationships."
"She has the weight of the world on her shoulders because she's a Slayer." Giles said. "The world does rest on her shoulders, she faces evil everyday to keep the world from being destroyed."
"She's only faced it alone twice. Once when you told her she was going to die and once when she had to destroy the thing wearing her lover's face. Neither of those situations were necessary. You had no business discussing that prophecy with Angel and an open door where any one could hear you and Angelus would never have been a threat if you'd done your job and researched the curse or had protections on her." Dr. Strange told him. "You're aware of what Alexander saw in Angel's mind about stalking her for a year, about knowingly leaving her in an asylum and standing by doing nothing to help with any of the evils she had to deal with. He told that Whistler fellow that he wanted to help her, but he never did. How do you know he didn't thrall her? He was capable of it. You left her vulnerable and then you allowed her to have a relationship with a cursed vampire."
"It made her happy, allowed her some balance in her life. I did not see it as abusive, certainly not the way her relationship with Spike was abusive."
"Her relationship with Spike was a coping mechanism." Jean told him. "And it's her relationship with you, that's abusive."
Giles looked astonished and then angry. "I have never laid a hand her! How can you accuse me of that?!"
"You isolated her on purpose, you made her dependant on you, you didn't protect her when she needed protection." Jean answered. "You put the weight of the world on her and you allowed unhealthy relationships to develop. Namely Angel and Willow Rosenberg. Both were and are manipulative and controlling and you refused to see it. You never encouraged healthy relationships, in fact if you had your way, she would have been an emotionless robot as I understand Kendra Young was. No wonder Spike thought Slayers develop death wishes. You Watchers create the perfect environment for them to develop one. You told Stephan the Council thought the sacrifices were worth it. You were sacrificing children for power. Was it worth it? Did you achieve enough power to be satisfied?"
"That wasn't our intention!"
"Your actions and results say otherwise." Emma told him.
"Dawn feels ignored and neglected by Buffy and she is. But that's because Buffy is questioning her own existence. It's telling that her belief that she was in Heaven includes the description, 'I thought it was finished, there was no fear, pain or doubt.'"
"She was fine there until Willow, Tara, Anya and Xander pulled her out! And as I understand it, she actually reincarnated."
"Alexander didn't want to, he argued against it, but backed down eventually, likely due to Willow Rosenberg's own manipulations on him. I do not believe Tara McClay actually went along with it willing. Magic was a faith for her and we know Willow mind raped her. Anya's morality is flexible and she tends to just go along with what comes along. Like Dawn, she needs to figure out who she is separate from everyone and everything else. But again, they would not have been in that situation if you, as the adult, had taken responsibility for Willow's interest in Magic and assured that she was properly taught." Jean told Giles.
"I thought she could handle it, she's certainly intelligent enough!"
"But she has no wisdom and very much believes herself superior to everyone and that includes you, by the way. The only person she considered better then her was Buffy and that's because Buffy chose her to be her best friend. As far as Willow Rosenberg was concerned, it showed superior judgement on Buffy's part to chose her and besides Buffy could be her bodyguard against all those big scary nasties out there." Emma informed him.
"Buffy has a further problem, though." Jean said. "She doesn't react normally to the deaths of human beings, especially when those humans die because of her actions. That's because she considers them less then her and not important enough to warrant any thought from her. They're part of the world, the world is her responsibility, not what's in the world. You taught her that. Couple that with everything else, the depression and the death wish and then you put her in charge of an army. Sooner or later, she was going to get them all killed. And again, it would have been on you."
"I thought her successes meant she could handle it! And I didn't know about any of the mental issues."
"You didn't want to know and all but one of her successes happened without the others involvement. Not even her very first battle, against the vampire Lothos was fought alone. And as has been said, the two times she fought alone it was unnecessary for her to be alone." Jean reminded him.