Help me understand psychic magic's component limitations

[Ellrin]

I saw the mesmerist class when reintroducing myself to Pathfinder a few months ago in preparation for a new game, and being a big fan of the the beguiler fluff from 3.5, was intrigued by the similar thematic focus. While I went a different direction with the character I ultimately created for the campaign I'm in, I'm in the process of starting to come up with a backup, and turned back to the mesmerist.

I'm a little nervous about how psychic magic compares to arcane and divine, though.

You essentially get a free eschew materials, and thought and emotion components seem like a nice advantage over somatic and verbal components at first—no need to worry about free hands or getting grappled, deafened, or silenced. But the +10 to concentration checks that thought components impose—unless you waste the rest of your turn—, and how easy it is to shut down spells with emotion components... I dunno. Maybe it's just how much more experience I have thinking about ways to avoid things that shut down arcane/divine magic, but it seems like the things that adversely affect psychic magic would be harder to avoid than the traditional caster pitfalls. Considering how close a mesmerist has to be to an enemy to actually use many of its class features—you're basically chained within intimidation range—, these dangers seem even more threatening.

What's people's experience with these limitations and how they affect trying to play an occult caster? Obviously there will be differences between campaigns and DMs, but in general did it feel more or less restrictive than arcane/divine casting? Am I blowing things way out of proportion?

[Florian]

Am I blowing things way out of proportion?

Partly.

First, check the spells. As with regular arcane/divine spells, enough psychic spells lack one component or the other.
Second, Mesmerists are even more resilient than most. Mask Misery (see also Reflexive Trick and Contingent Trick feats) let´s you delay the onset of any condition that would shut down casting, touch treatment is a swift action to use on yourself to remove most harmful conditions.
Last, there´re always Intuitive/Logical mm rods and the very cheap Centering Jewel (center as swift action, 1k gp).

Edit: For first trying that class, avoid archetypes that swap tricks and touch treatment until you get the hang on how to handle shutdown conditions.

[Psyren]

If you're that worried about meany Barbarians yelling "boo" and turning off your spellcasting, remember that any spells that lack somatic components also lack emotion components and can thus still be cast while you're feared. This includes gems like Dimension Door, Teleport, and Suggestion that can help you escape from trouble.

When it comes to going back on the attack - Psychics get Remove Fear which will suppress any fear they throw your way for the rest of the fight. This is a good one to use with your anti-fear metamagic.

[Slithery D]

Placebo Effect can fix more than just Shaken and unlike Remove Fear doesn't have an emotion component so you can use it without metamagic.