Rogue one Jyn Erso Psychoanalysis

Ryeleigh Nix

Rogue One - L

Professor Luke Leonard

HUM-2390-15T

July 20, 2017

Rogue One Analysis Exam - Question L

        Jyn Erso had a rough childhood. Not only did she watch her own mother die, but she had to grow up without her parents’ presence for a majority of her life. Until Jyn saw her father’s message, she had hopes that he was dead for the years she had not heard from him. Jyn’s guardian Saw Gerrera was not much of a “guardian,” either. Saw was an extremist who raised Jyn in the middle of the war, abandoning her when she was only sixteen years old, leaving her with just a knife and a loaded blaster because he knew she would be safe.  What did this abandonment do for her character? How did it affect her psychologically? By the time the audience meets Jyn as an adult after barely seeing her as a child, she has learned how to fight, how to hate, and how to protect herself.

To put it plainly, Jyn has trust issues. Though she is only twenty-one years old, she has already witnessed “love bringing danger, instability, and pain into her life and the lives of everyone she ever cared about” (Abrams). Due to her experiences with love, she refuses to allow anyone into her heart – including those she is fighting with. Though Jyn and Cassian develop a trust and bond by the end of the film, it takes Cassian going to war with Jyn for her to trust him, which is something that causes problems between the two of them. By the end of the film, they have gone from near enemies, to allies, to comrades in arms; then they die together. Though it is possible to read into their relationship and draw the conclusion the two had feelings for each other, it is not very likely; they barely flirt, yet their union moves an angry band of rebels to join together to fight on Scarif.

Jyn has a strong defiance toward the Rebellion even before learning her father is alive and his work with the Empire could save the Rebellion; during her conversation with Saw Gerrera on Jedha she shows how little she cares about “the cause,” and when he asks if she could stand to see the Imperial flag reigning across the galaxy, she responds, “it’s not a problem if you don’t look up”. Jyn is already a veteran of the war because of her upbringing with Saw, and she wants no part of it again.

Not only does Jyn have trust issues, but she is volatile, impulsive, and displays explosive anger issues. After Saw abandons her, Jyn has to lie, steal, cheat, and deceive on a daily basis just to survive. She forges Imperial documents, pretends to work in Imperial facilities just to use the mess halls and showers, she steals property off of people, and she resists arrest. She is so used to living like this, she even takes a blaster she “finds” on the Rebel base before her trip to Jedha with Cassian and K2-S0. Though she seems pretty sound during the beginning of the film, her anger issues suddenly arise quickly after losing her father on Eadu. Jyn’s attitude toward Cassian is hate-fueled, because she believes her father’s death is completely his fault, and Chirrut has to stop her from physically attacking Cassian, and instead turns to verbal attacks.

Her trust issues, volatility, impulsivity, and explosive anger issues can all be linked back to her past; she shows signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. From having to hide from the Empire on Lah’mu with her parents, to witnessing her mother’s death and being abandoned by Saw Gerrera during a war at only sixteen, she has a lot of trauma. This trauma is what caused her trust and anger issues and causes her volatility and impulsivity.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as “the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to one or more traumatic events” (DSM-5). Witnessing actual or threatened death is part of Criterion A for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in the DSM-5. Watching her mother’s death was Jyn’s first real traumatic experience; she was very loved and adored by her family when they were living as part of the Empire, and she was still doted on by her parents when they were on Lah’mu.

Jyn has flashbacks throughout the film of her family and hiding in the cave waiting for Saw Gerrera to pick her up; having these recurring flashbacks can cause her trauma to worsen, because remembering traumatic events over and over again brings back the feelings of the time in which they occurred. Criterion B for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in the DSM-5 includes recurrent, distressing memories, recurrent dreams of traumatic events, and dissociative reactions such as flashbacks.

Criterion C includes persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with traumatic events. Jyn displays this avoidance with her reluctance and careless attitude toward joining the Rebellion; she only wants freedom, and when her father is mentioned she says “I like to think he’s dead, makes things easier”. Jyn wants to avoid thinking about her father and joining the Rebellion as much as she can, because this would bring back traumatic feelings involving her father and Saw Gerrera’s extremism with the Rebellion.