mamuzzy | [HARD CONTACT] Chapter 5: Darman and his Black & White Cognitive Distortion

|| Republic Commando: Hard Contact || 2004 || Book series || Military, Sci-Fi || 18+ for violence and harrowing themes ||

Finally I arrived to a section of this book that actually made me excited about this project to begin with: MENTAL ILLNESSES IN REPUBLIC COMMANDO.

For me Darman is always that kind of character who needs to be put into a glass jar, just to examine what he is doing when left alone especially due to the behaviour he produces that is similiar to a specific mental condition I can most definitely relate; on the other hand, it's a sign that the brainwashing Darman received from the training was so successful, it created this worldview what we call Black and White Cognitive Distortion. It's a thought-pattern that makes you think in absolutes.

To explain what mental condition I mentioned: it is also a symptom of Cluster B type personality disoders, like Borderline Personality Disorder or Antisocial Personality Disorder. Cluster B, and the Black and White thinking will be very important regarding the Null ARCs later, and even Kal Skirata too.

It's a bit hard to talk about this topic, given that the fandom usually tends to assign morality to mental illnesses too. Good guys gets autism and adhd, and bad guys gets the serial killer-sicknesses. And the stygma is very real and actually relevant to military topics too!

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅THE UNPREDICTABLE ONE⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

You have to know about the personality disorders that when people are put into these categories (Cluster A, B, C), they are measured how they are able to fit into society, how they behavior or emotional reactions differ from the norm. Cluster B is the group that you call DRAMATIC, and BPD is the one with impulsive behavior patterns, rash decisions, intense emotional reactions (or the lack of it), and general unpredictability.

If you remember these scenes from the chapter 3, Niner analyzed his own brothers and he concluded that he would have the most problem with Atin, given, he trained under a different trainer, and then it turned out that Darman was the most unpredictable of them all and the one who refused to follow order.

I always wondered that you can describe Atin, Niner and Fi with a few words, that defines their personality, maybe even giving them character tropes, but not Darman. And then I found my answer: Darman is unpredictable.

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

Every squad developed its own dynamics, as well. It was part of their hardwired human biology. Put four men in a group, and soon you’d have a pecking order defined by the roles and foibles that accompanied them. Niner knew his, and he thought he knew Fi’s, and he was pretty sure he knew where Darman was heading.

But Atin wasn’t sliding into place just yet.
•───────•°•❀•°•───────•
Darman wasn’t a rash man. None of them were. They took calculated risks, though, and he calculated that Niner wouldn’t leave him. His sergeant was standing at the open hatch, arm held out imperiously, a clear sign to get on with it and jump. No, Darman had made up his mind. He lunged forward and shoulder-charged Niner out of the hatch, grabbing the door frame just in time to stop from plunging after him. It was clear from the stream of expletives that Niner was not expecting this, nor was he happy about it. The extra pack jerked out after him on its tether. Darman heard one last profanity and then Niner was out of range.

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅STYGMA IN THE IRL MILITARY⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

Borderline Personality Disorder is a ground of exclusion in the military in the US, meaning, if you have a diagnosis, you can't enlist. But the thing is, that you can't get a diagnosis of BPD until you are 17-18 (depending on where you live), but this is the same minimum age you can enlist into the military with parental permission. Therefor lots of young people ends up in the military with undiagnosed BPD. Makes you question why these people are ending up being a soldiers in the first place: They seek a sense of security, safety, stability, and structure ~~(four S, Kal would be proud of me :D)~~. Lots of veterans are showing with these symptoms too.

The stygma in the military around BPD is the formentioned unpredictable behavior, and that your comrades cannot be sure that they can trust their lives into your hand, or superiors cannot be sure that you will follow their orders. Not to mention that suicidial rates are also higher among them.

While Darman - in his mind -, did the right and logical thing to save the equipment, he caused lots of trouble to Niner.

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

“I saw the blast. He was last off.”

“You saw him jump, then.”

“No. He was grabbing as much gear and ordnance as he could salvage.” Niner felt he needed to explain. “He shoved me out the hatch first. I shouldn’t have let that happen. But I didn’t abandon him.”

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

Of course the clones don't have choice whether they want to be a soldier or not, also the Kaminoans are pretty much able to sort out the "faulty genes" during the gestation phase, but the thing with Borderline Personality Disorder, that while it can be genetic, it's mostly due to impact of the environment, traumas and general feeling of unsafety during childhood. It's not something you can sort out by pre-programming or sorting out.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅SPLITTING⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

The reason I started to write this particular entry is more relevant to the forementioned Black and White Cognitive Distortion and that is the emotional reaction of splitting, or at least something resembling to splitting which I encountered in the first section of chapter 5.

Splitting a psychiatrical term used to describe the inability to accept nuances and multitudes in situation or people. It's a mindset of All-or-nothing. Things can be either THIS or THAT. It's a detachment. A defence mechanism.

It's easier to explain with this exact example from the books itself:

In this section Darman saved the civilians from Hokan's men, but the civilians weren't grateful for the help. They were terrified of him and blamed him that this happened to them in the first place:

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

Darman was totally unprepared for the reaction. He’d been taught many things, but none of his accelerated learning had mentioned anything about ungrateful civilians, rescues thereof. He backed away and checked outside the barn door before darting from barn to bush to fence and up the slope to where he’d left his gear. It was time to move on. He was leaving a trail behind him now, a trail of engagements and bodies. He wondered if he’d see civvies, as Skirata called them, in quite the same benign way in the future.

(…)

Maybe he shouldn’t have expended so many rounds. Maybe he should have just left the farmers to their fate. He’d never know.

•───────•°•❀•°•───────•

Darman ended up in this situation killing Hokan's men because he figured that he was responsible the farmers got harassed, and it read to me that he felt it was his duty to make it right. And possibly with this good deed, he would have gained potential allies not just to him, but for the Republic too later.

But he didn't gain allies. He gained nothing. Not even a thank you.

Darman emotionally detaches himself from the situation. And he starts to rationalize that why saving the civilians was a bad idea, like it was something he already regrets. Like it was a bad decision to begin with, something it wasn't worth to shoot his ammo for. He may even reconsider to help civilians in the future just because he experienced THIS ONE BAD thing with someone.

Darman put these people into a box in his head. He categorize them.

Civilians = ALL CIVILIANS ARE LIKE THIS. ALL CIVILIANS WILL BEHAVE LIKE THIS.

It's a defence mechanism, so in the future, he won't get hurt, or he won't endanger his own life for things that didn't worth it.

Why is he doing this? BECAUSE HE IS HURT.

But it's so subtle, maybe he doesn't even recognize it either.

I remember one another scene later in the books where Darman is splitting, but I want to keep my eyes peeled in case I encounter another more.