Star Wars Meta: Jedi & First Order Recruitment and the Effects of Child Separation

[redrikki]

Thanks to Trump’s horrific and unconscionable policies of separating immigrant children from their parents, the public is learning a lot about the long-term effects of such practices on children. As it turns out, it’s really damaging both physically and psychologically. Within the world of Star Wars, there are two organizations, the Jedi Order and the First Order, which permanently separate children from their parents before the age of five. Let's talk about the implications of that, shall we?


If there's one thing scientists have learned from studying kids evacuated during the Blitz, Australian Aboriginal children sent to government schools, Romanian orphans, and others it is this: separating young children from their parents is bad. From the moment of their birth, children bond with their caregivers. These bonds are crucial for helping the child develop intellectually, organize perceptions, think logically, develop a conscience, become self-reliant, develop coping mechanisms (for stress, frustration, fear, and worry), and form healthy and intimate relationships (source). Caregivers help mediate the child's relationship with the big, scary, and confusing world in a way that gives the child a sense of safety. Separating the child from the parent causes the child intense psychological and physiological stress. As stress hormones flood the child's brain, they can start killing off dendrites, the little branches in brain cells that transmit mes­sages, or even neurons. In young children, this can cause long-term damage, both psychologically and to the physical structure of the brain (source). Some documented long-term effects include cognitive impairment, trust issues, anomalous flight-or-flight responses, increased aggression, substance abuse, anxiety, depression, C-PTSD, diabetes, and heart disease.

It's hard to tell just how young the Jedi Order and First Order recruits are. Thanks to TPM, we know that nine is too old for the Jedi. In the Clone Wars cartoons, we learn that potential candidates are identified young, but are allowed to remain with their parents for at least a certain time, possibly until they are weaned or maybe even potty trained. For the sake of argument, let's say Jedi are recruited between the ages of 1 and 5. The First Order likely also takes its kids in this age range. The image of young Finn in TFA is of a toddler, not an infant and, really what army wants to spend time changing diapers. Based on real-world research, what would be the effects of taking kids at that age?

A child between the ages of 1 and 3 will likely have no clear memory of either their parents or the trauma, but will still suffer as a result of the loss. In the short term, they are likely to lose recently acquired skills, including language skills and potty training, and have diminished awareness of both internal and external stimuli (source). Long term, there are serious effects on the brain. Studies of children in Romanian orphanages found that children separated in their first two year had less brain matter, less brain activity, and lower IQs than other children their age. They also had messed up flight or fight responses, showing few physical signs of stress in situations which would terrify most people (source). Other long term effects include control issues, anger issues, subtle language problems, unstable identities, a general lack of self-awareness, and growing into fairly rigid and inflexible adults.

Older children between the ages of 3 and 6 have a different set of issues. They may be old enough to remember both their parents and the trauma of separation. Developmentally, they are at the age where they are likely to see the separation as their fault and may develop self-esteem problems as a result. In the short term, they may indiscriminately attach themselves to adults and display extreme thinking about the 'good' and 'bad' traits in themselves or others (source). Long term, they may suffer from low self-esteem, anxiety, anger issues, trust issues, depression, and even heart disease (source).

It's unlikely that the writers had any clue about the effects of childhood separation when they came up with the Jedi Order or First Order recruitment practices, but we do see signs of this within the narrative. The Jedi seem weirdly desensitized to danger and have trouble forming or maintaining healthy relationships. They are all fairly rigid and exhibit strong black-and-white thinking, especially as it relates to the Force. In TFA, we see Finn suffering from anxiety and panic attacks.

Questions? Comments? Are there any other signs I missed? How do you think it effects the Jedi Order and First Order as institutions?

Comments

[ljwrites]

In the short term, they are likely to lose recently acquired skills, including language skills and potty training, and have diminished awareness of both internal and external stimuli

Even children who were long potty-trained may start wetting the bed and/or losing verbal skills in response to stress. It's deeply sad to think of Anakin, Finn, or Rey regressing this way in the days or months after their separation.

The Jedi seem weirdly desensitized to danger and have trouble forming or maintaining healthy relationships. They are all fairly rigid and exhibit strong black-and-white thinking, especially as it relates to the Force.

It's fascinating (in a horrific way) to think of the Jedis' tenets as a result of early trauma as well as a result of their indoctrination--and the two would have had the effect of reinforcing each other, too. Tfw your theology is a coping mechanism for childhood trauma...

In TFA, we see Finn suffering from anxiety and panic attacks.

Also in BTA, we see him desperately seeking an elusive sense of belonging and connection which was likely also fallout from his early sense of alienation. I think the Jedi were wilier in this regard, providing the younglings with replacement parental figures to bond with, but in the FO it was very easy for a young Stormtrooper to be psychologically adrift. Finn's desire for belonging was vested in Slip, someone who turned out to be undeserving even though helping a vulnerable comrade was still the moral thing to do. Watching Slip die may well have been the event that cut Finn's last tenuous emotional tie to the FO.

[redrikki]

Jedi philosophy as a coping mechanism for childhood trauma is not something that I had thought of, but makes a whole lot of sense. You have trouble with healthy relationships? That's okay because they're bad. You have anger issues because of the trauma of separation? Meditate and repress that shit.

It's strange just how many Star Wars heroes were separated from their parents. Anakin, Ezra, Jyn, Finn, Rey, literally any Jedi. I think Luke and Leia had the least messed up childhood of the entire series.

[ljwrites]

The real theology of the Jedi turns out to be sour grapes!

Leia probably had the happiest childhood of any major SW character only to lose her entire planet smh. Luke at least had dependable guardians, except they also were murdered. Because I was recently reading an interview with David Brin about SW my mind takes this consistent disruption of parent-child relationships to the destruction/denigration of civilization, which is one of Brin's major complaints with SW. The parent-child relationship is the most primal human relationship and one of the main vectors by which civilization is transmitted and perpetuated. When Brin talks about civilization as someone skilled and caring being there to help you when you need it, the first template for that kind of helping relationship is the aid and care parents and guardians give children.

By being severed from their parents and parental figures, SW heroes are constantly cut off from the first and unconditional source of care and help in their lives. It's true they are not entirely cut off from civilization itself: some characters like Jyn, Ezra, and Rey come close, while others like Anakin, Ahsoka, and Finn are inducted into another facet of civilization. But in all cases they are cut off from the kind of civilization that nurtures and protects unconditionally. The Jedi come close to simulating that kind of warmth but at a high price, as you have dissected over multiple posts.

This forcible individuation sets the stage for characters to strike out on their own because there is no longer a comfortable cocoon of parenthood/civilization protecting them. It's a common beginning for hero myths, as Brin touches on in his interview. SW is a very ruggedly individualistic kind of mythology at heart where enmeshing ties that one is born or brought into, such as birth families and even the Jedi, are destroyed or left behind so the hero is forced to rely on themselves and their freely chosen friends and allegiances. Luke, Jyn, and Rey do reunite with or at least learn about their parents, only to watch them die or have the idea of them destroyed, so the pattern still holds.

[redrikki]

Interesting. I'll have to check out that interview.

Child separation trauma

[cari_pr]

Well actually, the point at which children start bonding with their parents is at conception. For 6 to 9 months before birth, babies bond with their mothers and whatever siblings in the womb, and can recognize their scent, touch and heartbeat. As proven by statistical and anecdotal evidence from adoptees, separation from their mothers and/or siblings, even at the time of birth, can be very traumatic for these babies and can cause serious life-long mental health issues. So I would say that Luke and Leia were traumatized by their separation from their mother and from each other and I wouldn't be surprised to find that they did have mental health issues growing up, which probably exacerbated their psychological issues from their adulthood trauma.

Re: Child separation trauma

[redrikki]

Well, that's sad and kind of awful. I did some research after reading this and now I'm kind of upset. My older sister was adopted at birth and yeah. Upsetting.

Re: Child separation trauma

[ljwrites]

Thanks for that reply! I had read about post-birth separation trauma in an adoptee's account, too, but didn't know there were studies done on the phenomenon. Leia even had memories of her birth mother, perhaps aided by the Force (even though, from a Doylian perspective, this was probably a result of retconning).