Jasnah childhood illness

[stonewarden1]

So, I recently thought of this and can't find anyone else who has (so not sure if it holds water or not)

Facts that support my theory: In WoR, Jasnah's shadow pointed the wrong way when she was at the treaty signing.  Sja-anat can appear as a shadow that points the wrong way.  Sja-anat "enlightens" spren by injecting voidlight that interferes with their Honor and Cultivation bits to make them free thinkers.  Jasnah was raised in a strictly Vorin household but rejected the religion.

Theory:  Sja-anat tried to enlighten Jasnah as a child after becoming her friend that caused her psychotic episode.  This caused Jasnah to become a free thinker that led to her rejecting Vorinism.  

I dont believe that she is still "enlightened", because she fought off the voidlight, possibly with the help of Ivory.

[PanLin they/he]

An interesting theory, and I love anything involving Sja-anat.

8 minutes ago, stonewarden1 said:

In WoR, Jasnah's shadow pointed the wrong way when she was at the treaty signing. Sja-anat can appear as a shadow that points the wrong way.

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the first sentence was just the influence of Ivory and a hint that she's an Elsecaller, arguably the order most closely tied to the cognitive realm (where all shadows fall the wrong way, explaining the second sentence).

9 minutes ago, stonewarden1 said:

Sja-anat "enlightens" spren by injecting voidlight that interferes with their Honor and Cultivation bits to make them free thinkers.  Jasnah was raised in a strictly Vorin household but rejected the religion.

These are both true, but:

• I don't think we have any evidence to imply that Sja-anat can enlighten people directly
• Ivory doesn't look like an enlightened inkspren
• Sja-anat has only recently been enlightening true spren (so likely couldn't have enlightened either Jasnah or Ivory while Jasnah was a child)

Sorry to directly poopoo everything—that evidence certainly could point to something like that if we didn't already have better explanations for it all (hello, Occam).

All that said, it's true that we don't know exactly what happened to Jasnah when she was young. Maybe Sja-anat, as someone with access to the spiritual realm and futuresight, did attempt to interact with either Jasnah or Ivory while Jasnah was young. I don't really think there's much to posit that as a probable theory when it goes against what we actually do know about Sja-anat and, again, her childhood can more easily be explained by simple parental abuse or cognitive realm shenanigans (although it would be very on-brand for Sanderson to reveal some super realmatically important explanation for Jasnah's childhood when she gets her own POV book).

[Vatsug]

I don't know the answer, but I think I would prefer it if her illness was natural. 

[earthexile]

I have suspected for awhile that Jasnah's illness will turn out to not even have been an illness. It'll be one of those insane cultural things, like how in America rich people have had their 'troublesome' daughters hospitalized and even lobotomized. Twelve-year-old Jasnah probably made some comment about religion, or gender roles, or her utter disinterest in kissing boys and picking husbands, and freaked everyone out. And it's just been "her madness" ever since, and we don't talk about it.