"I’ve been going back over my notes and re-reading some things," she continues. "There’s so much we don’t know about the mind, largely because all the time and effort is put into studying the same types of things. The Ministry’s idea of Severance is novel, but the idea of separating the mind isn’t exactly new. There are several variations of spells that close off a part of the mind to heal it, and even some that deaden certain neural pathways to help with mental disorders."