An Analysis on the Long Term Effects of Desensitization Training Among ARK Agents

An Analysis on the Long Term Effects of Desensitization Training Among ARK Agents is a memoire written by former ARK psychologist Nikolas Beaumont in 2849, which detailed the inner workings of ARK and the events which lead to it's destruction with a primary focus on desensitization training. It was the first book about ARK written by a former ARK employee following the collapse of ARK. The memoire provides insight to the inner workings of the organization.
The memoire was a huge success and became the top selling book in Riza of all time. The book caused public sympathies for certain agents to greatly sway, possibly affecting the results of The Eternity Hearings.

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Desensitization training was conceptualized, developed, and implemented by the first Officer of Defense Halvar Koit following the terrorist attack on the (then new) council building during the Rizan-Nanfeng war. The goal of the training was to reduce fear and hesitation among active ARK agents in order to increase their efficiency during field missions. The desensitization training program was a catastrophic failure for many reasons, not least of which being the fact that not only was Koit not a qualified doctor to design such a regimen, but he also had no military experience to speak of-- let alone experience as an ARK agent. It was an inevitable failure, as it was designed by a fool who had no business involving himself in ARK the way he did.

— Preface

I didn't see convict units often as resources were allocated such that my services heavily favored official agents over them. Generally speaking, my only professional interactions with the convict units was for psychological evaluations to determine whether or not they were fit to continue to work; an unsatisfactory result leading to them being returned to their respective detention centers. Nemite was the only convict unit I saw on a regular basis. He was the only one that the Commander deemed as "high risk" due to the fact that he was brought into ARK at eleven. We had no reason to suspect that he was a danger to himself or others, but I understood it was imperative that I keep an eye on him as we didn't know what exposure to ARK operations from such a young age would do do a person.
Shortly following the dissolution of ARK and the subsequent publication of relevant missions made it's way into various lawyers' and judges' hands, a declassified document from February 2839 revealed that the circumstances surrounding Nemite's arrest were orchestrated by ARK and signed off on by Sibyl. I have no access to any former agents until the hearings conclude, if then, so I'm not sure of Nemite's reaction to this information if he knows it at all.

— Chapter 1 Part 4, "The Internal Operations and Structure of ARK: Convict Units"

All ARK agents are required to undergo a mental evaluation before beginning desensitization training, and I was responsible for Wright's. Though I don't often use these words to describe patients, it became quickly apparent to me that there was something deeply wrong about him. I advised the Commander against allowing him to undergo desensitization, but my professional opinion was rarely taken into consideration when it came to the elite units. Following his "episode", I would have been smug had I the faculties to do so. Unfortunately, I do not. More unfortunately, my advice to dismiss him before he became dangerous was discarded, as most of my advice was.

— Chapter 2, "The Long Term Psychological Effects on Agents with Questionable Mental Health"

I couldn't assume that Wright had it out for Geier in particular (his grudge seemed much more directed at Marcel), Geier did end up with the short end of the stick following his abandonment and presumed death during a mission. At the time I had been the administrator for desensitization for all elite unit agents, but Unit 001 were additionally subjected to an untested, unprotected, makeshift "DIY" desensitization lead by Sibyl himself.

— Chapter 3, "Increased Aggression and Loss of Empathy Among Successful Agents"

In my personal (and later professional) opinion, Marcel wasn't suited to be an agent. Although failure to acclimate to the desensitization regimen wasn't a disqualifying factor for agenthood, it was something that would appear on all of his subsequent performance reviews. Typically desensitization would be attempted again after a certain period of time for an agent who failed the training, but seeing Marcel's responses to both the formal training and more significantly Sibyl's unofficial training, I strongly advised against repeating it. He was Sibyl's personal punching bag and his mental state was in a swift decline while under his leadership. Even after coming out from under Sibyl's direct command he never recovered. I wasn't allowed to diagnose agents with PTSD, but we knew what it was and attempted to deal with it accordingly. Even if we never said the obvious part out loud.

— Chapter 5, "Failure to Acclimate to the Desensitization Regimen"

Despite exemption from mandatory service, Riko seemed to appear out of nowhere with a skill set that just so happened to be exactly what ARK needed when they needed it. Most of the agents didn't think twice about his appearance, least of all the one that insisted on staying by his side at all times. I harbored suspicions that were only matched in secret by the upper ranks of ARK.

— Chapter 7, "The Presence of Double Agents and their Impact on Operations"

After a certain point you could tell who would pass desensitization and who wouldn't, so Jahmec's success was no surprise to me. I found Jahmec to be worrisome. He was serious about his work and dedicated to his teams success. Compared to other agents in comparable positions he didn't come to me for medications to help get through the day as often. It concerned me. When I saw him I saw what Sibyl used to be. Of course his initial evaluation came out much clearer than Sibyl's, who was raising dozens of red flags from the moment he stepped inside my office, and comparing Jahmec and Sibyl was unproductive. But seeing the effect that Sibyl had on people I felt it was imperative that I stayed on my toes around anyone who potentially could end up like him. Funnily enough, Jahmec was Sibyl's predecessor by quite some years but I'd never felt the need to be worried about him before Sibyl's episode.
It would seem that my fear was unfounded as up until the dissolution of ARK Jahmec accomplished very little beyond his rank of captainhood. And with the dissolution of the council government, I find it highly unlikely that he'll ever reach that goal.

— Chapter 12, "The Considerations Taken for Comparable Agents Following Sibyl's Departure."

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