What is key about both of these quotations is the loss of identity that is endemic to both of them. The cadets who have survived the fourth-class system and who inflict ritualistic violence in the form of hazing on others have lost something of their true "selves," something that was stripped away to lead them to believe that they could rightfully engage in this sort of behavior to inflict pain upon others. Therefore, the cadets who are guilty of said violence are perpetuating it because they have lost their own identities through disassociation -- in much the same way that Seth lost most of the moments of his life to this same phenomenon. In conclusion, several of Stout's ideas about disassociation both apply to and help explain the tradition of obedience in the violent, misogynistic rituals that take place at the Citadel. The similarities between the effects of disassociation and the behavior that takes place at this college institution (the negative feelings of confusion and bitterness experienced by Seth and an unnamed student) help to reinforce the notion that students involved in the fourth-class system, both those on the giving and receiving end of violence, are enduring these repercussions. The loss of...

The ramifications of trauma largely incite disassociation, which is an alternate state of mind that the brain adopts to manage trauma. It causes people to lose portions of their memories and hence their identities.
2. Faludi is making fun of the processes at the Citadel, or at the very least being highly ironic about the fact that the misogyny that fuels most of the school and its students is based in feminine practices. Making boys act like girls is another form of adopting a foreign mind set, which is disassociation at its best.

3. Abuse affects a person's identity by forcing them to lose it in attempts to forget about the pain of the abuse. This concept can be used to discuss the two readings because the effects of this phenomenon are for a group in Faludi's readings and is for individuals in Stout's. The knobs know who they are because the group tells them; it's harder for Stout's patients to know they are.