[OB] Cryptic bond and mental status

[GeminiZari]

The basic ideal of the lightweavers (Nahal bond with a cryptic) seems to encourage insanity, even from before the bond. Elhokar and Shallan began by seeing shadowy figures everywhere, surrounding them (the cryptics). Then they have to tell a deep truth to advance in the ideals. This truth (if Shallan is an example) is something the the lightweaver hasn't dealt with. During the third part of OB, when Shallan stabbed herself to see the pain spren, Pattern became increasingly upset.

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"Mmmm," Patten said. "Destruction. This... this is not normal you, Shallan. Too far."

Was self harm a common problem with lightweavers? Shallan already has a borderline split personality, is it common for lightweavers to have other "problems"?

Just general curiosity here.

[Walin he/him]

I think that since they have to admit things to themselves that they are hiding, then it might encourage insanity. Memory suppression is a way to cope, and without that, you could very well go insane. Also, if you have a dependency, it's very hard to break. So if you're dependent on coping, and you lose one form of it (like memory suppression) I think that you would develop a new coping mechanism real quickly. I think this is why Shallan develops her multiple personalities so quickly.

So yeah, it's really probable that most Lightweavers have some unhealthy coping mechanism, which could include self harm. However, keep in mind that when Shallan stabbed herself, it was to observe the corrupted painspren, not to cope. And since Pattern is a younger Cryptic who hasn't bonded anyone yet, he probably doesn't recognize self harm as a possibly habitual thing. He just got worried because it was out of character for Shallan, according to him, because he didn't know why Shallan was doing it.

[aemetha he/him]

Mmm, repression is a coping mechanism. It's an avoidance coping mechanism, but just being a coping mechanism doesn't make it good. Coping mechanisms are assessed on a case by case basis as either adaptive or maladaptive depending on whether they contribute to improved or worsened health. In many cases, dealing with maladaptive repression is a part of a therapeutic process. Repression is adaptive generally for acute traumatic stress, and maladaptive for long term responses to that stress. From what I've seen of how pattern approaches the issue with Shallan, it's not unlike a therapy process, where he is trying to get her to incrementally accept and move on from past trauma's. That could actually do the reverse of encouraging insanity. In Shallan's case, it's not facing the trauma that is the problem, it's replacing one maladaptive coping technique with another maladaptive coping technique.

[Llarimar he/him]

I've been trying to pay attention to the types of people that the different Orders recruit.  There have been three Truthwatchers we've seen - Renarin, Ym and the Stump - and all of them have been compassionate, emotionally perceptive and physically weak.  Windrunners like Kaladin, by comparison, seem determined and idealistic, and not particularly intellectual.  I think that the Lightweavers we have seen - Shallan, Elhokar and apparently Hoid - are complex, frenetic and misunderstood by everyone but themselves (although I'm more speculating about Elhokar and Hoid, since we haven't seen a lot of viewpoint material from them).  I also think it's possible that many Lightweavers were also mentally ill, or had experienced serious trauma, since those "trials" seem to define Shallan, and give her the identity complex that drew the Cryptics to her in the first place.  

The Lightweavers are a fascinating Order for me for the fact that they are attracted to lies.  I didn't understand it at first - how lies could be a positive thing, like honor or justice - and clearly characters in the book also do not understand, like when Ivory speaks concernedly with Jasnah about the behavior of Cryptics - "tell one lie and they all come buzzing" (or something like that).  However, it becomes slowly clear as you read Shallan's chapters that in a very intricate, reverse-psychology sort of way, lying and manipulating your perception of reality actually makes you much more self-aware and introspective, allows you to understand the intricate workings of other people's minds and increases your ability to distinguish truth from error.  It also becomes clear that is not lies that the Cryptics are attracted to, but the fact that those lies implicitly point to the existence of truth.  

Jasnah says at some point that she isn't sure she would be a good tutor for Shallan because all of the Orders had very different methods.  I think that while Shallan may seem scattered, impulsive and childish from the perspective of an Elsecaller, she is exactly what you would expect from a Lightweaver.  I find this very exciting - that Shallan is growing and maturing as a Lightweaver, doing things that would seem surprising and unorthodox to other Orders but that are very endemic to the habits of her own.  Shallan's dealings with the Ghostbloods, her covert expeditions as a spy and her multiple personalities may seem shady and disconcerting to Jasnah, but they are exactly the types of antics and methods that Lightweavers would employ.  I can see Shallan re-founding the Lightweavers with confidence, teaching them stealth and subterfuge, and accepting that her methods are very different from Jasnah's.

As a sidenote, I have wondered how a Lightweaver could possible start breaking their Oaths.  With Kaladin, it's clear that he is breaking his Oaths in Words of Radiance when he begins acting less honorable.  But how would Shallan do the same?  Would she start telling the truth more often rather than lying?  Would she lie even more?  Neither of these answers seem probable, as both of them support the ideals of the Cryptics - that by embracing lies, you are in essence also being truthful, because lies and truths cannot exist without each other.  The closest thing I can think of for Shallan to weaken her bond would be if she were to stop recognizing the difference between lies and truths, and began to claim they were one in the same - although it actually seems like she is moving towards this direction by the end of Oathbringer instead of progressing away from it, as her alternate personalities become more and more real to her.  You would think that the most basic quality of Lightweavers would be their ability to distinguish between truths and lies, but it often seems like Shallan has a hard time separating them.  

[aemetha he/him]

I agree, I think Cryptics are much closer to truthspren than liespren. They are fascinated by lies because lies give truth meaning. A thing can only be understood properly by examining its context. They encourage Shallan to explore lies as a method to understanding her truth, not to muddy the waters.

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Zas: There is a debate on what to call Shallan’s Symbols, so we don’t have such an ambiguous term for it .

Brandon: The Symbolhead?

Zas: Yeah, the Symbolhead, Shallanspren,

Brandon: (laughter)

Zas: We don’t really know what to call them.

Brandon: Do I want to canonize this yet?

Zas: You don’t have to canonize it yet.

Brandon: I don’t know if I want to canonize it yet. But I willsay this. They are spren, that should be pretty obvious. They are the sprenconnected to what Shallan is capable of doing. But I don’t know if I want tocanonize it yet. Truthspren is as good a name as any, and I would suggest you use that until further notice.

I also agree that Shallans path to regression lies in not recognising and accepting her truths when she should, or perhaps backtracking on those truths. Her current behaviour, replacing repression with compartmentalised personalities is backtracking I believe, which is why it alarmed pattern.