It is curious that Ishy claims that he is NOT skilled at healing. I wonder if maybe the damage caused by the taint can be more easily sensed and reversed through the use of the True Power, since it basically comes from the same source as the taint itself.

Nynaeve only saw the darkness after she became really experienced at delving. I wonder if the taint was basically some form of TP compulsion. I seem to recall that Graendal mentioned that TP weaves could be sensed by another TP user. That might explain how even the unskilled at healing Ishamael could heal LTT. He did not need to delve for the taint, as a TP channeler he could just see it outright.



There is also the question of whether or not the taint can truly be said to be a real kind of mental illness. As Nynaeve herself thinks, the taint seems to be more like the Dark Ones compulsion, than it is an actual mental illness such as Alzheimer's disease or the like. And since Nynaeve does not explain to Rand how the taint works, he would have no way of knowing that its basically closer to removing compulsion and that he arguably helped Nynaeve do it by explaining to her how compulsion is removed. Odds are that ironically, healing ordinary and natural forms of madness would be much harder.



It does seem likely that this is the explanation. Not discounting Nynaeves accomplishments, but what she did was basically pretty simple in the end. All that was required was sufficient experience in delving to sense the darkness(likely very common amongst the more skilled restorers), dexterity to remove the thorns and heal them(seemed pretty easy), and knowledge on how to remove compulsion with a counterweave (which was commonly known since even LTT/Rand who is poor at healing knew it to teach it to Nynaeve in tGS). It is simply impossible to accept that with all the Aes Sedai around, and everyone looking for a solution or cure for the taint, not a single restorer could do all those simple things that Nynaeve did.

It has to be a case where there is maybe some residual damage even after healing which causes the taint to drive you into insanity extremely rapidly as you say. Or, maybe the taint in someones mind would be connected somehow to the taint in saidin, and if saidin had not been cleansed the taint in peoples heads could not have been so easily removed. The bottom line is that either Nynaeves feat is only possibly thanks to the cleansing, or this is a massive plothole.

This might be a good question to ask BS actually.

Hmm. Then again, there is another more disturbing possibility. Where did the taint go? We know that during the cleansing, the taint in saidin was destroyed only since it was consumed by its opposite, the evil of Shadar Logoth. Did the taint in Naeff's mind really disappear into nothingness? Or did it perhaps go somewhere else. The whole reason saidin was tainted was because LTT touched the DO with saidin. What power did Nynaeve touch the taint with again? If Nynaeve goes insane from the taint in the last book, I called it!