Does Shallan have a shattered soul?

[Lesser spren Son of Honor]

 

I've been thinking about this quite a bit and I think there is some evidence for it.

We know that when a Oath is broken between Spren and Human, the spren "Dies" and becomes a deadeye. This is because when a Nahel bond is formed, the two parties investitures (their "Souls") become one, and the sudden breaking of the bond is effectively a crude butchering of that soul. That's why Deadeyes' minds are broken, their memories and cognitive functions are entirely contained in their investiture.

So, if all that is true, would it be entirely unreasonable to assume that the human or other physical sapient is not unaffected by this event as well?

In ROW Odium was able was to send Kaladin visions because of a "crack" in his soul. We know from HOA and SH that these cracks can occur from only two things, a breaking of the soul from investiture, or insanity. I do believe Kaladin’s depressive spirals are a far cry from the even the most mild example of insanity we have seen Shards exploit. That leaves us with the question, how did Kaladin’ soul crack.

Please refer to the former paragraph. In WOR Kaladin breaks his oath and loses Syl, he then is able to reforge his oath, but it is clear that some cracks can never be resealed.

 

So, if a second ideal Radiant temporarily breaks his oath it opens a crack wide enough for a Shard to use, so what happens if a radiant of a higher ideal breaks their oaths PERMANENTLY.

 

Enter Shallan. Shallan has had her mind fractured since childhood, since the “Event”, causing the creation of what would eventually become her “Identities”, (Veil stated she was there after Shallan broke her oath, protecting her from her own memories, even before Veil was a distinct identity, before Veil was “Veil”). 

 

My supposition is this: If a Radiant’s permanently breaks their oath, their soul would not just crack, but SHATTER, each piece holding certain non distinct parts of the subject’s psyche, such as memories, skills and even interests. The subject does not lose the shattered as they are all still attached to the body, carried around like a vestigial organ. The Self conscious part of the shattered bits would have very little connection to the others, only able to restore by forming a kind of “Nahel bond” with it’s own bits, explaining why Shallan does repress her memories again, even when she backslides. Obviously the process of reattaching the soul, is much easier said than done, and significantly large shattered bits could be ignored for a very long period of time.

These large bits, if the subject is much more invested than the average person, could very well have as much, if not, more, investiture than the average sapient, and if we remember that any significant amount of investiture left together for long enough, will become sapient, then we can suppose that more than one sapience could occur in a single organism, another self, another Identity.

 

[Nameless* Steel Inquisitor]

Kaladin couldn't have been sent visions by Odium except through Moash. And I don't think Shallan's D.I.D. needs a magical explanation.

[CryoZenith High Prelan]

1 hour ago, Nameless said:

Kaladin couldn't have been sent visions by Odium except through Moash. And I don't think Shallan's D.I.D. needs a magical explanation.

Yeah, didn't Brandon specifically address this and say that Shallan's DID was actual clinical DID, and nonmagical in nature? I'll have to go search for the WoB again to make sure.

[cometaryorbit Stone Shaman]

I believe he originally said it was partly magical (not so much the underlying issue but that its manifestation was shaped by Shallan's magical ability to do illusions), but post ROW said he decided it was better to write it as real life DID.

[Elegy Stone Shaman]

Two relevant WOBs:

Quote

Vivasher Club Emo Teen (@skywardflights)

I know people who relate a lot to Shallan's arc due to how similar her personalities are to Dissociative Identity Disorder. Did you intentionally write her to be recognizable DID?

Brandon Sanderson

I did, but I shied away from it in the earlier books, because I knew I was going to be doing fantastical things, and I didn't want to be offering too much commentary on DID. That was kind of my worry. With Kaladin, I knew depression well enough from family members and things that I felt like I could be a very strong contributor to the conversation. But, I started with Shallan saying, "I don't know if I'm gonna go this route." But then, the further I went, the more I felt it would be irresponsible to not do this. And so, in the last books, I just bit the bullet, dug really far into the DSM-5 and into reading firsthand, primary accounts from people. We got a very helpful person with DID to be one of our beta readers for this last book. And I just did my best to present it accurately and to present the non-Hollywood version of it. And so, basically, Oathbringer and Rhythm of War lean into it a little more than the first two books do, though that was where I was going. And I do have a working knowledge of Dissociative Identity Disorder, and did even back then. I don't think I did a terrible job, but I think it would have been irresponsible for me to go forward without digging in a little further.

YouTube Livestream 13 (July 23, 2020)

And an earlier one, to show the change in approach:

Quote

Brandon Sanderson

So, a couple of things here. First off, I'll take any knocks I get--and try to do better. I'm not an expert on mental health, and though I do my best, I'm going to get things wrong. I'm going to risk defending myself here--and hopefully not dig myself deeper--as I at least explain my thought process, and why I built Shallan the way I did.

However, one of the rules of thumb I go by is this: individual experience can defy the standard, if I understand that is what I'm doing. Like how Stephen Leeds is not trying to accurately portray schizophrenia, Shallan is not trying to accurately portray dissociative identity disorder (if a scholarly consensus on such a thing even exists. I haven't glanced through the DSM5 to see what it says.)

In Legion, I have an easy out. I say, point blank, "He doesn't fit the diagnosis--he's not a schizophrenic, or if he is, he's a very weird one." I don't have the benefit of a modern psychology voice in the Stormlight books to hang a lantern on this, but my intention is the same. What Shallan has is related to her individual interaction with the world, her past, and the magic.

Is this Hollywood MPD? I'm not convinced. Hollywood MPD (with DSM4 backing it up, I believe) tends to involve things like a person feeling like they're possessed, and completely out of control. The different identities don't remember what others did. It's a very werewolf type thing. You wake up, and learn that another version of you took over your body and went out and committed crimes or whatever.

Shallan is coping with her pain in (best I've been able to do) a very realistic way, by boxing off and retreating and putting on a mask of humor and false "everything is okay" attitudes. But she has magical abilities that nobody in this world has, including the ability to put on masks that change the way everyone perceives her. She's playing roles as she puts them on, but I make it very clear (with deliberate slip-ups of self-reference in the prose) that it's always Shallan in there, and she's specifically playing this role because it lets her ignore the things she doesn't want to face.

She's losing control of what is real and what isn't--partially because she can't decide who she wants to be, who she should be, and what the world wants her to be. But it's not like other personalities are creeping in from a fractured psyche. She's hiding behind masks, and creates each role for herself to act in an attempt to solve a perceived shortcoming in herself. She literally sketched out Veil and thought, "Yup, I'm going to become that person now." Because Veil would have never been tricked into caring about her father; she would have been too wise for that.

I feel it's as close as I can get to realism, while the same time acknowledging that as a fantasy author, one of my primary goals is to explore the human interaction with the supernatural. The "What ifs" of magic. What if a person who had suffered a great deal of abuse as a child COULD create a mask for themselves, changing themselves into someone stronger (or more street-smart who wouldn't have been betrayed that way. Would they do it, and hide behind that mask? What would that do to them and the world around them?

DID is indeed controversial, but I really like this portrayal. Not of a disease, but of who this character is. And I've had had enough positive responses from people who feel their own psychology is similar that I'm confident a non-insignificant number of people out there identify with what she's doing in the same way people with depression identify with Kaladin.

General Reddit 2018 (Jan. 12, 2018)

 

[Lesser spren Son of Honor]

On 2/18/2022 at 5:07 PM, Nameless said:

Kaladin couldn't have been sent visions by Odium except through Moash. And I don't think Shallan's D.I.D. needs a magical explanation.

I am unable to address the second point, except to say I think my reasoning is sound and it's possible that the shattering could have exacerbated a certain problem. The first I can say the Odium found a crack, but need Moash to have a Connection to Kaladin. Nevertheless even if my theory is wrong (I also wanted to add bits about how Veil is less able to percieve beauty and hues of color than Shallan, phenomenons link almost exclusively to Breaths and Dawnshards), I think the biggest thing to take away is that Radiants may have damage done to them when their Oath is broken as the Spren they bonded.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Lesser spren