beatrice_otter | Meditation, Trauma, and Anakin Skywalker

The other day two pieces of information converged in my head.

Information the first: people who experience dissociation (as many people do who have psychological conditions resulting from trauma or neglect in childhood, or other adverse childhood experiences) should probably not meditate or do other mindfulness exercises because generally, when they try to, they don't go into a meditative trance, they dissociate. Which is not helpful, and sometimes not pleasant. I mean, according to some sources it apparently is possible to learn not to, but you need some specialized instruction.

Information the second: do you think the Jedi "release your emotions to the Force" Order knows this or would have ANY clue what the heck was going on? Given that they don't seem to have any way of identifying or dealing with trauma besides "meditate and release it to the Force"?

This is relevant for just about any Jedi who suffers a lot of trauma, but it is ESPECIALLY relevant for Anakin, who, may I remind you, was a SLAVE for most of his childhood and while I'm sure Shmi tried to protect him as much as she could, I'm also sure that as a slave herself there was NO WAY she could have protected him from all the shit that would have been common in a slave's life. Given that, as far as we can tell from the Jedi Order's traditions and practices he probably didn't receive any actual therapeutic help dealing with all of that, and that a Jedi's life is QUITE likely to send them back into potentially traumatizing situations even from a young age, it is quite likely that he has an undiagnosed psychological disorder of some sort, and there is a very good chance that he dissociates.

Which brings me to a question. Is it canon or fanon that Anakin hates meditating and isn't very good at it? I've only ever seen it with the subtext of "well of course he's emotional and passionate, so of course he wouldn't like meditating." Not that I know many people who meditate regularly, but I can tell you for a fact that at least some emotional and passionate people can and do get quite a lot out of meditation.

Whether Anakin's meditative difficulties are canon or fanon, though, it strikes me that Obi-Wan/Yoda/the Order as a whole might see this as just another instance of someone who is too emotional to be a proper Jedi, and completely and totally miss any dissociation and attendant difficulties.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Huh, that is interesting. Food for thought (not the meditative part about Anakin, the science as such). I can't meditate, myself, but I also don't find it distressing, just boring as hell...and, sometimes, anxiety-inducing. Perhaps it's not just trauma but also brain misconfigurations?

Well, I'm autistic, and I've never found any spiritual practices that actually work for me. I pretty much universally just get bored. But some types of meditation can make depression worse, for example. So it's definitely not just trauma that makes meditation counter-indicated in some cases.

But with Anakin, the complex trauma of his childhood (which he got like NO help for, EVER) would be the place to start looking.

Do I remember correctly that the Jedi take and train the children young - like, infancy? Because that would also (largely) weed out children who'd been traumatised young, and so would have trouble reaching the appropriate meditative state of calm.

Not necessarily always in INFANCY, but 9 was definitely way too old. So, infants/toddlers/pre-school age, pretty much. So, yeah, it would prevent trauma in childhood.

Then when you're a teenager and you and your Master start going out on missions, that's when the trauma starts ...

Interesting. I've never dissociated when I meditate, although I have when not meditating.

Guess it's not universal, then.

re: Anakin and meditating, I think it's fanon but based on a couple of scenes offering food for this interpretation. The very first time the Jedi ask him to examine his state of mind, during his examination by the Council, we get the "I sense much fear in you" Statement from Yoda, and then he's declined as a Jedi, which wouldn't be conductive to regarding the self eximination that goes with meditation as something good. We see him trying to meditate on the balcony in "Attack of the Clones", but between having nightmares of his mother and Padme having told him they can't go there the night before, it's clearly not working. Mind you, this is arguably because he's bombarded with (as it turns out correct) Images of his mother being tortured, which doesn't say necessarily something about whether or not he'd be able to do it, or enjoys doing it, on a normal day. Then there's the way we do see him tinker when he's upset, not trying to meditate (both in Attack of the Clones and in the Clone Wars tv show), which was my own reason to assume that's his way of grounding himself, and that it works for him better than traditional meditation.

As Vader, pointedly, we do see him meditate, in Empire Strikes Back, but by then this is also joined with his physical state (i.e. the meditation capsule or whatever it's called allows him to take parts of the armor off).

Is he meditating then in his little ball? I suppose I never really thought about what he was doing in there, besides getting his helmet off. I guess it is called a meditation chamber. (Me, if I could only take off my helmet and life-support system in a certain environment, I would have a lot of different things to do than just meditating in there, but then again I'm not a Dark Lord of the Sith with no friends, no family, and no hobbies besides terrorizing people.)

Meditation, Trauma, and Anakin Skywalker

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject