So far, we have not succeeded in preventing the escalation of the cycle of terrorism and retaliation.
With increasing access to weapons of mass destruction, the stakes are higher than ever. Even the viability
of life on Earth is threatened.
As I complete this chapter in March of 2002, I can’t help but wonder what will have happened in the
world by the time that you are reading this. that Will we have learned to act wisely to reduce terrorism,
or will we have continued on a simplistic, shortsighted, one-sided common sense path? In our commitment
to fight terrorism, will we have provoked more, unwittingly fueling the cycle of retaliation and other
unintended consequences? Will weapons of mass destruction be used? How many more lives, or even cities
might be destroyed? How much farther will we expand this war? How will US actions be regarded in the world
community?
A deep understanding of the extremes of human experience can be useful in designing practical
strategies that can make us all safer in the near and distant future. Whatever happens will have
everything to do with whether we act consciously with forethought, insight, and intuition, or whether
we react instinctively, impulsively, and righteously. If we use a paradigm that splits the world into
right and wrong, good and evil, us against them, and wining or losing in a zero sum game everyone will
eventually lose.
We may be right, we may be good and we may be gripped by our need to take justified action, but
there will be no way out. Acting in this right-wrong paradigm will magnify these same attitudes
and feelings in our enemies who will continue to find new ways of using our power against us, deepening
the cycle of retaliation.
When we are outraged by a sense of injury, injustice, and moral violation, retaliation and the desire
for revenge are completely natural and understandable. Acting naturally and instinctively, however, can be
quite dangerous. It is inside the box. Eliminating terrorism is a tremendous psychological challenge, an
uphill struggle that requires consciousness. Carl Jung, the founder of Analytical Psychology, described
consciousness as a work against nature, an opus contra naturum. It is negative entropy -- a deliberate
effort towards development and organization. We have the possibility, though not the probability of rising
above our instinctual impulses. It requires going outside the box.
The course of history will depend on whether we focus only on superficial eradication of terrorists,
or deep eradication of terrorism -- the psychological, political, economic, social and spiritual conditions
that clearly foster terror.
WHAT TERRORISM TEACHES US ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN
Einstein said, The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.
We can say that the most incomprehensible thing about terrorism is that it is comprehensible.
As long as we say terrorism defies comprehension and reduce it to pure evil, we will not even
try to understand and we will falsely believe that it is impossible to resolve.
People refer to terrorists as subhuman monsters who are not members of the human race.
This attitude forecloses deeper thinking and wiser actions. In The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry,
(1953), psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Harry Stack Sullivan said, ... everyone is much more simply
human than otherwise.” (p. 32). What does terrorism teach us about what it means to be human? For those
who abhor attempts to understand terrorists because they are evil, subhuman and don’t deserve it, refusing
to consider causes of suffering and just grievances, I contend we must do this as a matter of our own safety
.
The following theses, including definitions of concepts, will be explored in this chapter:
· In order to reduce, eliminate or transcend terrorism we must first penetrate its true nature.
We can even discern a formula of the ingredients that combine to produce terrorism A multilayered
approach, using insights from depth psychology, trauma theory, and systems theory help us understand
coexisting inner, outer, and intersubjective worlds of terror, and design effective treatments.
· Terrorism teaches us something about the extremes of human experience and what happens when humans
are pushed beyond the limits of what we are designed to tolerate. This kind of analysis offers promising
guidance that can provide a way out of cycles of violence
· The first stage in the development of terrorism begins when intolerable life conditions cause
suffering that produces internal psychological changes in people that can be understood as a
psychological mutation, a malignant alteration in the personality caused by the repeated
failure to respond to overwhelming trauma. Intolerable affects that are not treated cannot be endured.
Failure to respond to repeated trauma, humiliation, and suffering produces utter hopelessness.
When cries for help are not heeded, people are plunged into the depths of despair -- an abyss that
creates a change in personality. When appropriate methods of trying to get help do not work, people
resort to deviant, destructive measures to receive attention, relief of suffering, and justice.
· The next step occurs when the intrapsychic (internal) psychological transformation moves out into
the interpersonal, social, and political spheres. With trauma, intolerable affects are evacuated from
the self and deposited into another through an unconscious mechanism called projective identification
. This transforms the subjective experience of the recipient. Terrorism can be considered as an act of
projective identification. It can be a primitive form of communication about early forms of mother-infant
communication. (Bion 1962a), fantasied coercive incursions into and occupation of the personality of
another person and healthy empathic sharing (Pick 1985, p.45) a discreet form of intersubjective
experience. (Ogden, 1994, pp.98 - 99) Projective identification can be healthy or pathological. and can
be a way of unconsciously influencing and controlling another.
· This projective identification constitutes a traumatic reenactment, a form
of communication that draws the recipients into the drama, altering their subjective experience,
drawing them into an intersubjective relationship with the terrorists. In the reenactment,
the terrorists reverse their roles as victims to become masters of their fate. Traumatic reenactment
, as used in psychoanalysis, is the phenomenon of recreating the dynamics of early experience in
later life, and inducing old patterns in current relationships. Freud referred to this as the
repetition compulsion. From birth we develop a personality organization to survive and adapt to
our families and circumstances. We reenact early patterns in psychoanalysis, in work relationships,
and in marriage, by provoking others to participate in our drama. This can either be an opportunity
for unhealthy repetition or for a healing transformation if others can receive it as communication
and not play into the reenactment.
· The victims of terror are traumatized and are drawn into the process whereby they are provoked
to expel their intolerable affects through acts of retaliation. The process escalates if
recipients of terrorism act automatically, unconsciously, and self-righteously (which is natural)
through retaliation, thus deepening the cycle of violence. Inner and outer worlds interplay, forming
a dynamic system. According to systems theory, this escalation can be considered a positive
feedback spiral, as actions provoke greater reactions. A positive feedback spiral describes a
process of change in living systems where feedback reinforces change, for better or worse, as in
escalation of violence.
· Dehumanization of the Other Trauma alters the quality of human relatedness,
resulting in an archetypal emotionally charged image of members of the Other ethnic group,
race, country, experienced as not being in the same category of humanity. The Other is feared,
dreaded, dehumanized, experienced as more powerful and less human, and therefore can be killed
without guilt.
· Terrorism is a form asymmetrical warfare. A power imbalance, characterized by
feelings of domination and humiliation, is part of the system. We can imagine a terror system
as a volatile field generated by inequality between a dominant power and a weak power, compounded
by great suffering with no hope of relief. This creates an unstable, intense dynamic that sets the
stage for the emergence of leaders, recruits, sympathizers, supporters, and targets.
· Direct, superficial, common sense strategies, are not effective in increasing global security,
and can actually make things worse by provoking unintended consequences (blowback). First order
change focuses concretely on the content, problems, and trying to get rid of symptoms, according
to systems and family theory, and does not address the sources of the problem and is generally
ineffective in the long term. (Watzlawick, Weakland, & Fish, 1974) Unidimensional focus on military
strategies and counter-terrorism are insufficient and eclipse thinking about other kinds of approaches
that can be more powerful
· Second order change addresses the level of process and deep structure of the system.
Psychologically informed strategies that address root causes and powerful underlying emotional
forces that fuel terrorism have far greater promise in increasing global security. These valuable
resources are not being tapped. Working on this level, outside the box, allows the system to be
transformed. (Bandler, Grinder, & Satir, 1976 (p. 138), Watzlawick, Weakland, & Fish, 1974)
· A severe global imbalance between investment in life affirming and protecting resources and
those directed towards death, destruction, domination, and punishment provides a larger context
for allowing human suffering and the breeding of terrorism.
THE FORMULA
A simple formula has been deciphered for the emergence of terrorism and its transcendence
(Perlman, 1997. The key fact that terrorism simultaneously stems from and causes human suffering is
ironically obvious and ignored.
The steps in the formula are Suffering ----> Desire for Compassion and Help -->
Reaching for Help ---> Help Fails ---> Dejection, Humiliation, Despair, and Rage --->
Transformation from Victim to Master of Fate --->Compensation for Helplessness by Identification
with Powerful Leader Who Stands up to the enemy ---> Evacuation of Suffering into Other through acts
of Terrorism ---> Retaliation ---> More Suffering ---> repeat cycle
If we understand this pattern, we can intervene to break it to reach a different outcome.
FORMULA TO TRANSCEND TERRORISM AND REVERSE CYCLE
The steps in the formula: Suffering ----> Desire for Compassion and Help -->
Reaching for Help ---> Help Responds ---> People are calmed, non-negotiable human needs are met
---> Conflict is contained--->Repair and Healing --->Progress ---> Cycle Reversed
The critical component is intervening to help suffering as early as possible. Even when it seems too late,
everything must be done to address and contain trauma. What is needed is visionary, effective leadership
with a strong moral imagination that emphasizes adequate responsiveness to human suffering.
HUMAN SUFFERING, TRAUMA AND HEALING
The most salient feature of terrorism concerns the gross and repeated failure to respond to human
suffering in its early stages, and the systematic compounding of consequences.
We are designed with the provision to recover from “normal” trauma such as the loss of a parent
or a natural catastrophe when the community responds in a healing manner with recognition, compassion,
empathy, rituals, memorials, etc. Failure to provide these results in complicated mourning and
exacerbation of the trauma.
Religious rituals as well as spontaneous outpourings contain elements of healing. Consider
the response to 9/11 with the emergence of memorials, rituals, concerts, prayer services,
and the gatherings at Union Square which became a public space for healing filled with candles,
flowers, activities, etc. All of these phenomena demonstrate the archetypal need for healing experiences.
Malicious, repetitive or continuous inescapable trauma, such as abuse or war, are complicated
by psychological factors including humiliation, domination, fear, terror, hate, rage, despair,
and grief and inadequate responses to these. Recognition, protection, support, love, truth, and
justice help wounded people heal, find meaning, recover and even emerge stronger in the best case
scenarios. Repeated trauma without a healing response can push people with fragile egos beyond the
breaking point. Those with positive early life experiences, which form a solid core, can draw upon
reserves, which can enable them to better endure trauma.2
It is especially crushing when hope is elevated and then dashed. Palestinians, who were hopeful and
jubilant at the signing of the Oslo accords, saw a serious decline in their economy and the rapid
expansion of settlements. The Mujaheddin who were elated after defeating the Soviets were abandoned
to live in harsh misery.
Dashed hope produces a keen sense of rage, futurelessness and deep despair. Having nothing left to
live for can inspire fundamentalism and suicidality. It transforms victimhood to martyrdom, with
compensatory mastery, pride, and justification.
Living under slavery, occupation, oppression and other collective trauma can render traumatized
adults incapable of responding adequately to their children. Collective trauma affects the whole
society and is transmitted from generation to generation. Worsening conditions over time magnifies
frustration and despair. The loss of a glorious past and feeling the acute yearnings of one’s parents’
with no hope in sight pervades the experience of growing up in misery while feeling envy and humiliation
associated with those with privilege and power.
A healing process needs to be physical, psychological, social, political, economic, and spiritual.
3 Failure to receive soothing is intolerable and experienced as a retraumatization.
Bystanders who fail to stop the pain are also targets of anger, terror, and hostage taking.
Trauma renders people susceptible to manipulation by powerful leaders who use symbols and language
in ways that provide hope and dignity as we see with Hitler, Milosovic, bin Laden,
and others. Punishment also makes people hypnotically susceptible and obedient to authority.
Oppressive, authoritarian, patriarchal, gender-split cultures in war torn countries are fertile
breeding grounds for terrorism, with internal and external sources of oppression. Massive collective
trauma generates fear, which intensifies oppression within a society. Individual trauma converges with
mass psychology, as people get swept up in the group mind.
These cultures demand fierce group loyalty and idealization. Suppression of criticism of one’s own
group makes outside scapegoats appealing targets for blame, outlets for discharge of tension generated
in one’s group. There may be legitimate grievances, but the intensity and direction of the rage are
overdetermined.
Continuous unresolved suffering in the context of a power imbalance creates an unstable psychological
and political condition in which intolerable affects are unconsciously evacuated from the self or the
group, and projected into the Other through “projective identification. This expands the cycle of terror.
A sign of collective wisdom is the emergence of new political rituals, such as truth and reconciliation
processes, war crimes tribunals, and reintegration of child soldiers into communities, akin to many
ancient religious practices. These processes acknowledge suffering, prevent transmission of trauma,
end cycles of violence and assist the society in healing.
PSYCHE AND SYSTEM
Psychoanalytic treatment of trauma sheds light on the dynamics of terrorism. It is based on people
who have suffered abuse and entered into psychoanalytic treatment, primarily educated people
who can afford psychoanalysis. Sophisticated techniques developed over decades demonstrate how
the effects of trauma can be contained, healed, and transcended. We can apply a therapeutic posture
to politics.
Even people without trauma can be swept up by powerful social forces. Social psychology
experiments have demonstrated that even well-educated, privileged American youth can behave
cruelly as revealed in the work of Dr. Philip Zimbardo (2002), social psychologist and president
of the American Psychological Association. In his famous Stanford prison experiment, students
assigned to roles of either prisoners or guards in a simulation, became so intensely absorbed
in playing their roles destructively, that the two-week experiment had to be terminated after
six days. If experimental conditions can drive college students to be abusive in a few days,
we can imagine the effects of real, prolonged physical and psychological suffering.
REPEATED TRAUMA AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MUTATION
According to self-psychologist Robert Stolerow (1991), trauma generates pathology by a two-stage
process. The experience of trauma itself need not cause pathology. After trauma, people naturally
reach out for care, comfort, validation, and support. When this reaching out is met with silence,
disbelief, rebuff, or collusion, a pathogenic process ensues. Rejection deepens the trauma,
literally adding insult to injury.
When attempts to secure help are met, recovery and healing take place, preventing pathology and/or
later violence. Thus bystanders bear a significant responsibility in responding.
If the pattern of trauma and rebuff is repeated, people can be radically plunged into an
intolerable abyss, causing a psychological mutation. Harry Stack Sullivan arrived at his
conceptualization of “malevolent transformation”, “calculated to get around the idea that man
is essentially evil.” (p. 213) In The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry, (1953), Sullivan observed
that children who had certain kinds of early experiences became malevolent. People were denied
tenderness and were met with reactions that lead, “... frequently to his being disadvantaged,
made anxious, being made fun of.... Under these circumstances, the developmental course changes
to the point that the perceived need for tenderness brings a foresight of anxiety or pain.”
Instead of showing a need for tenderness, “the child shows something else, and that something
else is the basic, malevolent attitude, the attitude that one lives among enemies...” (p.214)
In people fortunate enough to be raised by loving adults, vulnerable feelings carry the expectation
of comfort, while in these children, mere feelings of vulnerability signal the expectation of
harshness. Tender feelings in themselves become terrifying.
In The Primitive Edge of Experience, (1989) psychoanalyst Thomas Ogden describes
autistic-contiguous position,” a primitive, raw, sensation-dominated dimension of human
experience In a nurturing environment we are provided with “a feeling of softness that
we later associate with ideas like security, safety, relaxation, warmth, and affection.”
When there is instead the presence of harshness, it leads to “autistic-contiguous anxiety,”
characterized by “feelings of disconnectedness, fragmentation, 'impending disintegration of
one’s surface' and “terrifying feelings.” (pp. 67-68) To defend against these intolerable feelings,
one forms a hard protective shell. Relationships are characterized by superficial imitation. “
Imitation serves not only as a form of perception, a defense, and a way of ‘holding onto’
(being shaped by) the other, it serves as…” (pp. 74 –75) a way of relating to people.
The harsh early experience of the young recruits described in The Taliban, (2000), by Ahmed
Rashid are consistent with the forms of psychological damage described above. Trauma is
evident in the later actions of these youth, 14 - 24, who joined Mullah Omar.
These boys were a world apart from the Mujaheddin whom I had got to known in the 1980s ...
These boys were from a generation who had never seen their country at peace…. They had
no memories of their tribes, their elders, their neighbors, nor the complex mix of ethnic
peoples that make up their villages and their homeland. These boys were what the war had
thrown up like the sea’s surrender on the beach of history.
They had no memories from the past, no plans for the future, while the present was everything.
They were literally the orphans of the war, the rootless and the restless, the jobless and the
economically deprived with little self-knowledge. They admired war because it was the only
occupation they could possibly adapt to. Their simple belief in a messianic, puritan Islam
which had been drummed into them by simple village mullahs was the only prop they could hold
onto and which gave their lives some meaning.
Many in fact were orphans who had grown up without women - mothers, sisters or cousins.
Others were madrassa students who had grown up in strict confines of segregated refugee camp
life where the comings and goings of female relatives were curtailed. ... these boys had lived
rough, tough lives. They had simply never known the company of women (pp. 32 – 33).
Inner trauma, unresolved grief, the absence of softness and holding, the severing from females
and qualities referred to as “the feminine”, the loss of childhood experiences of joy, play,
tenderness, freedom, and love is played out locally and globally. The suppression of women, the
suppression of manifestations of Eros, the life force—females, music, and kite flying, is a
projection of an inner drama. Those qualities that have been killed off on the inside are now
killed off on the outside through representatives who embody those killed off qualities.
This bereft generation is also vulnerable to “trauma bonding”, described in Bearing Witness,
Bloom & Reichert, (1998) Even more ominous for repeatedly traumatized people is their pronounced
tendency to use highly abnormal and dangerous relationships as their normal idea of what
relationships are supposed to be. (Herman, 1992; James, 1994; Van der Kolk, 1989.) Trauma-bonding
is a relationship based on terror and twisting of normal attachment behavior into something perverse
and cruel (p. 139).
So these traumatized war-orphaned refugee boys formed a powerful, pathological attachment
with their authoritarian substitute parental figures who exploited their vulnerability.
THE DYNAMICS OF LEADERS AND RECRUITS
Across cultures, young adult males tend to join in groups—military, athletic or religious
groups in which they are intensely trained by powerful authority figures—officers, coaches,
or clergy. An archetypal energy attracts young males to such experiences, which provide identity,
community, security, and perhaps a sense of superiority.
Terrorist cultures contain an aberrant, traumatized, exaggerated, pathological variation of
these elements. The damaged boys described in Taliban, (2000) were vulnerable to enchantment by
powerful leaders, who provided a sense of coherence. Trauma rendered them vulnerable to manipulative
leaders who used fundamentalist beliefs to extend their power and offer appeal of the afterlife when
this life is intolerable.
Terrorist leaders have been described as malignant narcissists in Bloodlines,
Volkan, (1997), or paranoid in Political Paranoia, Robins & Post, (1997) with
delusions of persecution and grandeur, “intended to overcome the sense of inferiority,
unworthiness, and unlovability.” (p.16).
According to Volkan (1997), “Terrorist leaders, however, are rarely mentally ill. Many are
highly intelligent with the ability for strategic planning, even if personal identity problems
are common among them ... terrorist leaders tend to shore up their internal sense of self by seeking
the power to hurt and by expressing their sense of entitlement to power.” (p. 161)
Interviews reveal that terrorist leaders, in childhood, experienced beatings, incest, violations
of boundaries, victimization, rejection, abandonment and severe humiliation, often by their enemies.
Terrorist leaders recreate an oppressive environment within their own communities in a traumatic
reenactment.
So strong is the terrorist cell’s perceived need to silence opposition and establish unassailable
authority within its own ethnic group, that a campaign of internally directed terror—toward people
of its own ethnicity—is often considered essential to an effective campaign against the other dominant
large group…. Fear is generated both to crush internal opposition and to disrupt the enemy. (p. 159)
Inducing fear is a technique used by terrorist leaders to intensify identification with the leader and
a sense of security with his power. When the dominant group retaliates the fear and anxiety of young
people in the terrorist’s ethnic group increase. This escalation of violence, combined with the rage
toward the enemy group, propels members of the terrorist’s ethnic group to rally around the terrorist
leader…. Retaliation by the dominant group may only intensify the terrorist followers’ identification
with their own leaders. (Volkan, 1997, p. 164)
We can clearly see the ripple effects of terror and trauma, where individual trauma is played
out within the group and then projected onto external targets, who may behave in ways that make
them good hooks for these projections, thus unwittingly playing into the dance of terror. Recruits
cannot challenge their own leaders, and may not even be aware of being dominated and oppressed by them.
They are confused by feelings of loyalty, dependence, and traumatic bonding. It is easy to focus their
rage on an outer enemy, who may or may not have contributed to their suffering, but is nonetheless a
permissible target. Family therapist and theorist, Murray Bowen’s (1978) theory of triangulation states
that when there is tension in a two party system, they will seek out a third focus to reduce the tension
between the two. This is a dynamic in scapegoating.
Volkan states that terrorist leaders with a diagnosis of malignant narcissism are similar to serial
killers. Christopher Bollas’s (1995) study of serial killers in his chapter “
The Structure of Evil” gives us insights into the psyche of the masterminds of terror.
“The Structure of Evil” is exemplified by the story of temptation in the Garden of Eden, ...
the ‘Evil one’ presents himself as good and earns the other’s trust.” The structure contains a
link between the “power of the tempter and the weakness of the subject’s resolve” and the “power
of the charmer was seen as proportionate to the recipient’s need.” (pp. 182 –183)
Bollas’ brilliant description of how serial killers reenact their own experience of annihilation
of the self may shed light on understanding people like bin Laden, Hitler, Sadaam Hussein,
Milosovic and others. The innocence of the victim is part of the dynamic of the structure of evil,
as the killer reenacts the soul murder of his own innocence. As I write this, we have just received
the heartbreaking news of the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The family’s public
statement said that they could not imagine anyone murdering one with such a “gentle soul.” Bollas’
observations tragically explain how the victims’ innocence is part of the dynamic.
The malignant narcissism of these killers can be understood through the story of Satan’s fall.
Bollas refers to Milton’s Paradise Lost, illuminating how loss of love and catastrophic
displacement can foster an envious hatred of life mutating into an identification with the anti-life,
Milton reaches the nature and effect of trauma. The prince of darkness is a traumatized soul who feels
condemned to work his trauma upon the human race, trying to bring others to an equivalent fall. It is
impossible to exclude from our consideration of Milton’s Satan the overwhelming power and structural
malevolence of God’s authority, which seems grotesquely harmonized with the lust for power to which Satan
succumbs. (p. 184)
Bollas’ (1995 found that serial killers had experiences that could be described as soul murder,
or annihilation of the self, in childhood. Like the vampire myth, he is a killed self, condemned
to remain in a state of living death. He reenacts his own psychic death by replaying it with innocent
victims who represent his killed innocent self. Killing is an attempt at transformation from victim
to master. Bollas urges us to consider the complexity of murder rather than reducing it to pure evil.
Evil, considered as a structure, points to a complex reorganization of trauma in which the
subject recollects the loss of love and the birth of hate by putting subsequent others through
the unconscious terms of a malevolent extinction of the self (pp. 219 – 220).
Applying the metaphor of Satan’s fall from the serial killer to the terrorist leader,
we can get a sense of a psychological drama embedded within a political drama. A narcissistic
person with intelligence, charm and talent, having endured malevolent trauma and wrenching
humiliation is driven by the compulsion to restore his esteem, gain mastery, and redress past
injustices. Unlike the serial killer, the terrorist leader is drawn into a larger, mythical story,
flooded with archetypal energies. In this volatile field, one with the right qualities can fill the
leading role, both manipulating and being manipulated by the powerful forces in the system.
THE POLITICS OF ENVY AND HUMILIATION
Envy and humiliation are significant in histories of individuals and groups who become violent.
We became aware of humiliation caused by bullying in the Columbine school shootings.
We also see murders after someone is fired from a job (going “postal”) or fails a grade.
Education about bullying focuses on the interpersonal level, with little application to global
bullying and humiliation.
The power of humiliation cannot be underestimated. Humiliation and envy,
which go together, are exceedingly destructive emotions. Being humiliated is like
being filled with poison that has to be expelled in order to regain composure. Humiliation
carries a narcissistic wound, which contains an implicit demand for rectification, often by
taking down the humiliator.
In a videotaped message by Osama bin Laden that aired in October 2001, he emphasized
the relationship between the attacks and the fact that his people have been humiliated
for 80 years. Regardless of what people think of bin Laden, it behooves us to take the issue
of humiliation seriously for our own security.
Shibley Telhami, (2001) Anwar Sadaat professor Development and Peace at the University of Maryland,
frequently interviewed on television, referring to the Palestinian occupation, said
humiliation is more important than poverty as a cause of violence and terrorism. During
the Cuban missile crisis, John and Bobby Kennedy recognized that they had to find a way
to let Khrushchev save face in order to find a graceful way out of the dilemma that helped
to avert nuclear attack. Intelligent political maneuvers are designed to consider face saving
strategies.
TERRORISM AS A TRAUMATIC REENACTMENT
People often engage in behaviors that bring them unhappiness and pain.
Sigmund Freud called this the “repetition compulsion.” He said that even more powerful than
the drive for pleasure is the drive to repeat, even if what we repeat is painful. Terrorist
leaders and recruits play out their traumas inside and outside of their groups.
From an evolutionary perspective we would imagine that this pervasive pattern must have some
survival value. It seems cosmically unfair that people who have had the great misfortune of
suffering trauma are doomed to reenact it and hurt others. Reenactment is a way the psyche speaks.
Overwhelming experiences “frozen” in the psyche, continue to exert effects by constricting
psychic freedom in ways that are detrimental to quality of life and relationships.
As a matter of adaptation and survival, we would hypothesize that these unassimilated
elements in the psyche could find a way to be recognized and processed so a person could
develop and improve their quality of life.
An example of a healthy expression of this survival mechanism is a baby’s cry to signal pain.
Adults who hear the cry are affected by the emotion. They cannot tolerate the cry and wish to
make it better. They respond with empathy, address the need, and provide satisfaction, security,
and trust. This idea is applied to trauma in Bearing Witness (1998).
Children who have been traumatized cannot heal themselves alone. It is one of the tragedies
of human existence that what begins as life-saving coping skills, ends up delivering us into
the hands of compulsive repetition. We are destined to reenact what we cannot remember. Freud
called it the repetition compulsion and he said, “He produces it not as a memory, but as an action;
he repeats it, without, of course, knowing that he is repeating…. He cannot escape from this compulsion
to repeat; and in the end we understand that this is his way of remembering” (Van der Kolk and Ducey,
1989, p. 271) (p. 141)
It is both a way of remembering and of communicating the memory to others. In an unconscious
process of traumatic reenactment, one provokes people to recreate experiences similar to the
original trauma. In the reenactment, a person may alternate playing both sides of their experience,
becoming a victim again or attempting to master the situation by enacting the part of the perpetrator
with someone more helpless, who represents their traumatized self.
REENACTMENT THROUGH PROJECTIVE IDENTIFICATION
Reenactment can either set the stage for retraumatization or it can contain the seeds for healing.
Through an intersubjective experience, unconsciously motivated, psychoanalysts are drawn into the
roles of abuser and abused at different moments. When an individual or group reenacts early trauma,
others are induced to retaliate, and are unconsciously drawn into the repetition. The pull to reenact
is strong. Resisting reenactment is a conscious, deliberate effort, a “work against nature,” required
to contain this process.
“Projective identification” is a term introduced by psychoanalyst Melanie Klein and developed
further by others (Ogden, 1989). It is a common aspect of intersubjective experience, a form
of unconscious communication in which one transmits one’s own internal experience to another,
like a psychic infection. It can be euphoric or it can be frightening or enraging.
With trauma, projective identification is an unconscious mechanism by which one evacuates
intolerable affects and deposits them into the Other. The Other may feel possessed by alien
psychic contents, and may be pulled into the reenactment. This way a person may influence and
control others through this unconscious process.
In therapy, the analyst may be provoked by the client’s toxic, unassimilated affects,
and be pulled to retaliate through rejection or hostile interpretation. Intersubjective
psychoanalysts are trained to resist the pull to reenact and retaliate. The analyst provides a “
container”, a safe “holding environment”, in the words of pediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald
Winnicott (Greenberg & Mitchell, 1983) and can receive this as a communication about preverbal
experience. At the most difficult moment, the analyst can sense what their client must have felt
like as a child. They use this awareness for empathy, which has a healing effect and helps metabolize
the negative affect. It makes the unconscious conscious, remembers the forgotten, and empowers one to
master affects that previously gripped the person. One no longer need reenact the drama, and is freer
to have more satisfying relationships. The goal is consciousness and liberation from the cycle of
suffering.
Knowledge from this “laboratory” for processing trauma has applications to terrorism,
but requires institutional and political support. Retaliation draws us into the reenactment,
plays into the projections, escalates cycles of violence, and prevents consciousness.
INTERSUBJECTIVITY, ROLE REVERSAL AND PERVERSE EMPATHY
Terrorism is an intersubjective experience. The intolerable affects of the terrorists
are projected into the recipients – into the powerful, the envied, the humiliating, the privileged
ones. Terrorism, as a form of projective identification and a form of communication, involuntarily
draws its victims into its drama. They experience a transformation of their subjectivity, as they
are now possessed by terror. They now feel the powerlessness, frustration, grief, and terror
previously carried by the terrorist.
The victims are now engaged in an intense psychic relationship with the terrorists,
and are filled with a new, unfamiliar, alien set of emotions. Roles are reversed.
Terrorism can be thought of as a perversion of the desire for empathy. After September 11,
everyone from bin Laden to our allies said in one form or another, “Now you know how we feel”
with a sense of “grim satisfaction.” It is a universal human experience to want others to know
how we feel when we are suffering. Perhaps the desire for empathy is an unrelenting non-negotiable
requirement. Again, according to needs theory, if empathy is not naturally forthcoming it will be
extracted in a pathological manner.
TERRORISM AS A PERVERSION OF THE DESIRE FOR TRUTH, FREEDOM AND JUSTICE
Like empathy, we also have a universal urge for life, truth, justice, equality,
dignity, and freedom. When empathy, truth and justice are not available, they will
be secured by any means. As Freud said, if sexuality is thwarted, it will seek expression
by devious means. There is an instinctual drive for truth and justice that I have coined as “
Verido”, like the drive for sex, called “libido”. As with libido, if the drive for truth and
justice is blocked, Verido will seek perverse means for realization.
When one is suffering, one wants recognition of truth and redress. When there is inequality,
one yearns for equality. If these are not forthcoming, an act of terrorism, unconsciously designed,
attempts to secure these needs at any cost. Attention is gotten. Perverse empathy is achieved when
the other feels pain and loss too. By making the powerful helpless equality is achieved. It would
have been preferable by far to achieve equality in a healthier way.
PUNIMANIA AND THE URGE TO RETALIATE
Intolerable affects projected into the privileged ones feel alien and unfamiliar.
Many of the recipients, in shock, grief stricken, and enraged may desire to expel
their feelings through revenge, thus deepening the cycle of violence. However, the
privileged ones have more psychic freedom, capacity for reflection, flexibility and
creativity. They may be less driven by an enduring sense of historical grievance.
Like the psychoanalyst, they have the potential to resist the pull to retaliate. In
fact, many family members of people who died in the 9/11 attacks started a group called “
Not in My Name” and advocated against retaliation, as they did not want others to suffer as they did.
Nonetheless, overwhelming urges to retaliate feel justified. Citizens who question
this are considered unpatriotic, Anti-American or naïve. Punishment, or revenge, is intensely
felt to be required because they deserve it. It is uncritically accepted as necessary, even if
it makes things worse for the punisher. Punishment is more important than its consequences, and
often leads to unintended consequences, now popularly known as “blowback.”
I have coined the term “punimania” to describe the overwhelming urge to punish, which may or
may not be justified, when punishment: 1 – does not address or resolve the root causes of the problem,
2 – generates more suffering for innocent people in widening circles over time and space, and 3 - when
it has the probability of making things worse, even for the punisher. There are many, many examples
of this, but an obvious one is the escalation of violence between the Israelis and Palestinians
currently.
What if we paused to imagine that the feelings of the terrorists’ people have been deposited
into us? This by no means condones the terrorist. Is there a way to do global therapy to contain and
transmute the trauma, to use it for knowledge, empathy and consciousness? It is in our interest
because we don’t want to generate more suffering that will surely come back at us. Can we differentiate
the few terrorist leaders from the masses, decent leaders, and governments whose grievances they
express, and regard them in a less polarizing, provocative manner? Can we reduce hatred toward us?
The response would not be to gratify the terrorists, but to consider the suffering of the masses
that led to terrorist acts, and to be careful not to engage in policies that increase suffering
anywhere. This is enlightened self-interest.
FROM VICTIM TO MASTER OF ONE’S FATE
When there seems to be no way out, terrorism is a way of transforming victimhood to mastery.
Being weak and feeling victimized are intolerable psychological states. Object relations theorist
and psychoanalyst W.R.D. Fairbairn observed that people would rather be bad than weak.4 (
Greenberg & Mitchell, 1983). Vamik Volkan, psychoanalyst and former president of the International
Society of Political Psychology, observed that people would rather die physically than psychologically (
personal communication, July 1985), giving the example of the Armenian’s refusal to accept
Azerbaijani blood after the Armenian earthquake. There are many other examples.
In “Searching for Answers to Gaza’s Suicide Bombings” (1997), Andoni observed that “
The intifada seemed to turn Palestinians from victims to masters of their fate.” Likewise,
Oliver and Steinberg, in a study of suicide bombers describe suicide bombing as “a preemptive strike.”
Rather than let the enemy kill them, they kill themselves to deprive enemy of the experience, “
attaining some kind of mastery over the inevitable”, over the destruction of the self.”
In a CNN interview in March 2002, a potential suicide bomber said, “They kill me if I go here,
they kill me if I go there. I might as well kill myself and take some of them with me.”
Ironically, it is psychologically similar to the Massada phenomenon of “Kiddush HaShem”,
the sanctification of God’s name, whereby it is a holy act to take one’s life rather than
allow the enemy to do so.
This helps us understand martyrdom, which in 2002 is elevated to the level of cultural heroism,
with more willing volunteers, than when the above statements were made.
SYSTEMS THEORY AND TERRORISM AS ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE
We refer to terrorism as the warfare of the weak, although certain actions of powerful
states fit the original definitions of terror. Thus, a primary aspect in the drama of
terrorism is the desire of the powerless to bring down the powerful. This is a universal
mythological motif that we see in stories like David and Goliath and Jack and the Beanstalk.
Terrorism is a form of asymmetrical warfare. It is a recourse for people who are oppressed,
occupied, or dominated. According to needs theory, (Fogg, R.W. personal communication, “
Deal with Moslem grievances”, October, 2001) people prefer to get their needs met by decent
means, and attempt to do so at first. If reasonable attempts fail, they will resort to more
devious, extreme methods. If needs could be met decently, then cruel, manipulative, dangerous
leaders would lose public support.
No one is satisfied to remain in a position of inequality and deprivation of basic
physical and psychological needs. Power imbalances are inherently unstable in the long
term, as we have seen with the civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, and other movements.
In a world with increasing access to weapons of mass destruction, this fact is very worrisome.
As long as people feel weak, inferior, dominated, and deprived, they will be naturally driven
to even the score, just as water seeks its own level. This is a law of nature. When a team of
healthy, secure, privileged youth loses a basketball game, they are in a psychological state
of being intensely preoccupied with winning the next time to restore their position. All the
more intense is this desire with true and prolonged humiliation and suffering.
Processes of asymmetrical warfare and cycles of retaliation follow patterns that can be
understood in terms of systems theories. In Uncommon Sense: The Life and Thought of
Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Father of General Systems Theory (1983), Mark Davidson says, “...
because life is governed by the natural laws of systems, a successful participant must learn
the rules.” (p. 95)
Family systems therapists apply concepts from general systems theory to family dynamics.
When progress in individual therapy was undermined in the family, they discovered that family
systems attempt to maintain homeostatic balance through negative feedback loops, self-correcting
processes, like thermostats. Lynn Hoffman refers to these as the “the first cybernetics” in her
chapter “Deviation Amplifying Processes in Natural Groups” in Changing Families, (1971).
Hoffman quotes Magoroh Maruyama who emphasizes the greater importance of “the second cybernetics”, “
which he sees as an essential agency for change in living forms.” (p. 285) These processes are
called positive feedback loops, deviation amplifying mutual causal processes, positive feedback
spirals, (Napier & Whitaker, 1978) (p.82), and schizmogenesis (Bateson, 1972) (p.324), which can
have the effect of changing systems, for better or worse. Such systems are ubiquitous:
accumulation of capital in industry, evolution of living organisms, the rise of cultures
of various types, interpersonal processes which produce mental illness, international conflicts,
and the processes which are loosely termed as “vicious circles” and “compound interests”;
in short, all processes of mutual causal relationships that amplify an insignificant or accidental
kick, build up deviation, and diverge form the initial condition. (Maruyama in Hoffman, p. 285)
Deviation amplifying mutual causal processes reinforce change in either direction, as “
when a child’s behavior steadily improves with praise or deteriorates with blame.” (p.203)
Davidson also describes how a viable system can be destroyed by feeding back inaccurate and
misinformation, as in biased journalism The nuclear arms race, and the escalation of terrorism
are examples of destructive positive feedback spirals.
It is easy to see the tragic escalation of retaliation between the Israelis and the Palestinians,
which shifted from a negative feedback loop to a positive feedback spiral in the fall of 2000.
The spiral continues, even while knowing that each “justified” action will provoke another, worse “
justified” reaction. If we applied this knowledge of feedback loops consciously we could avoid
escalation, and design strategies and policies that would reduce violence.
An example of a conscious, creative positive feedback spiral is the described by
Charles Osgood of “Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction”,
known as GRIT in “Disarmament Demands GRIT.” It is “aimed to reduce and control
international tension levels and to create an atmosphere of mutual trust within which
negotiations on critical military and political issues can have a better chance of succeeding.”
There have been some historical cases where this has been applied successfully as part of a
complex strategy in tension reduction and violence prevention.
Let’s return to the quote from Bollas (1995) in light of positive feedback loops. “It is
impossible to exclude from our consideration of Milton’s Satan the overwhelming power and
structural malevolence of God’s authority, which seems grotesquely harmonized with the lust
for power to which Satan succumbs.” (p.184) This quote eloquently describes the profound
tension between the positions of God whose overwhelming authority fuels Satan’s lust for power.
They are bound to each other in this dynamic tension. The position of God sounds like the position
of the US as having “overwhelming power” and what is sometimes perceived as “malevolent authority”
by our enemies. Our enemy’s “lust for power” is provoked by our monopolistic possession of that
power. It is ironic that they call the US “the Great Satan.” The greater our exercise of power,
the greater their reaction to us, thus illustrating the myth we find ourselves drawn into in
this dance of terror.
There is no amount of power we can exercise that won’t eventually evoke an asymmetrical
response. Domination and control might have worked for millennia, but in a world with weapons
of mass destruction, there is no endgame to the dance of domination. Leaders, recruits,
sympathizers and supporters will arise to seek justice and dignity. They may believe the
only way they can be uplifted is to take us down. Let us avoid playing into this.
The only endgame to the dance of power imbalance is the restoration of balance and equality.
This is as much a matter of survival it is of justice. According to the law of opposites,
as the maxim goes, “you create what you resist.” We have yet to discover the paradox that
offers a way out of the dance of terror, that we can gain power (and security) by giving power.
PARADOX AND THE LIMITATIONS OF COUNTER-TERRORISM
Since September 11, the US coalition is committed to an all out “War on Terrorism.”
While preparing to attack, members of the Bush administration stated that the likelihood of
retaliation was 100%, expecting more casualties at home than among our military abroad.
There was a widespread acceptance of the idea that we had no choice but to bomb, even though
it would provoke reprisals. There was virtually no challenge to the inevitability of escalation
and the risk of innocent lives, and little imagination for outside the box strategies that might
reduce terrorism. It was implicitly assumed that no other options existed.
We imagine terrorism as a permanent presence, hovering “out there” independent of our actions,
just waiting to get us no matter what we do. All we can possibly do is to wipe it out ourselves,
not admitting that we know that it is impossible. We have committed to “counter-terrorist” experts
and activities. While police action and surveillance are important components of a sound complex
strategy for eliminating terrorism, the singular emphasis on “counter-terrorism” is limited.
Moreover, unilateral bombing and refusal of international justice are likely to provoke more
hatred and resentment leading to unintended consequences which ultimately make the US more
vulnerable. Cooperation with international justice would make US citizens less of a target,
alter the global meaning of justice and more widely distribute the resentment.
No amount of counter-terrorism can make us secure, and may ultimately make us less secure.
Efforts to suppress a symptom without addressing the cause will paradoxically create more problems.
Using common sense, being right, righteous, and reasonable usually makes things worse. If we succeeded
in eliminating 99% of terrorism, we would still not be secure, for the remaining 1% could take us down.
Counter-terrorism approaches alone do not contain the seeds for ending terrorism and can never succeed
completely because they do not penetrate the deeper nature of terrorism, only its superficial
manifestation.
TRAUMA, GENDER, AND THE SPLITTING OF OPPPOSITES
In optimal development, we achieve a healthy balance between the opposites –
between self and other, male and female, us and them, life and death. With a traumatic
upbringing, the opposites are split apart and out of balance.
Globally we have a severe imbalance in values, activities , and investments associated with
life preservation and with destructive power. Life sustaining qualities are falsely associated
with “the feminine” -- the Earth, health, education, food, shelter, and so on. They are underfunded
compared to military expenditures. We pay more to kill than to heal and protect. We pay more to punish
than to prevent. We pay more to bomb than to build. In the US we spend more n building prisons than
schools. We get what we pay for.
Eros is defined here as the life force. It is sometimes mistakenly defined as “
the feminine principle.” In violent cultures, Eros activities are falsely assigned to
the feminine, and denied to males, so both live a one-sided unhealthy existence (Perlman, 1995).
Gender-split cultures tend to be more violent, the Taliban being a premier example. Collective
trauma causes a gender splitting which deprives males of life affirming activities. They are required
to deny essential elements of their personalities, which is a form of trauma. This generates the
opposites of Eros, according to Jung, they are hate, fear (Phobos), and the will to power. “
Where love reigns, there is no will to power; and where the will to power is paramount, love
is lacking. The one is but the shadow of the other.” (Jung, 1953, para. 78)
We have a global imbalance between life and death, us and them, the so-called “masculine” and “feminine.”
While analyzing the dynamics of terrorism, we cannot ignore these imbalances which gives rise to so much
suffering. The chart below, by OS Earth, Inc. (www.osearth.com,), an
updated version from Buckminster Fuller’s World Game Institute, is a snapshot of the global imbalance
between life and death between love and fear. It is somehow easier to come up with money for destruction t
han for creation, as consciousness is a work against nature. This is an image of our collective psyche.
Out of fear, we act in ways that increase our fear, generating self-fulfilling prophecies and positive
feedback spirals. This is a context that produces suffering, despair, fear, misery, humiliation, envy,
and asymmetry -- a context in which terrorism can arise. For a fraction of what the world spends on weapons,
we could solve many of the root causes of violence5.
A WORK AGAINST NATURE
Einstein said “We have made quantum leaps in technology in our age, but unless we have
another quantum leap in human relations, there will be a catastrophe.” In
Uncommon Sense (1983), Mark Davidson uses the image of the Rubik’s Cube.
If we focus on solving one facet of the problem, trying to get one side of the cube
al red, for example, we actually set back the solution of the problem as a whole. Our
intene approach to counter-terrorism is like working on one facet of the Rubik’s cube.
We know that it can’t end terrorism, but we do not know what else to do. Uncommon sense
is indicated here. This involves paradoxical thinking and psychological insight.
CONSCIOUS POLITICS AND POLITICAL EVOLUTION
“The problems that we have created as a result of the level of thinking that we have done
thus far cannot be solved at the same level of thinking at which we created them. “...
Albert Einstein
Living under the sword of Damocles, we need to be exquisitely careful about our how we conduct
ourselves in the world. The way we conduct ourselves can increase or decrease hatred and
resentment against us. In pondering the questions of why they hate us, we cannot afford to reduce
self-examination to assertions of how good we really are. Accusations about being unpatriotic are
inside the box and prevent us from acting in ways that make us safer. These “ego responses “ are
understandable, but not helpful.
The messages we send do make a difference. Saying that we are right and strong (even if this is true)
and that we will dominate and defeat, will increase tension, fear, and resentment around the world.
It can inspire and motivate desires to attack us. If we are highly conscious of the asymmetrical
nature of warfare we will use language and actions that do not emphasize the asymmetry, which is
humiliating and dangerous. We might imagine ways of elevating others for our own safety. People
are most dangerous when they are afraid, so we may want to be reassuring and be extra careful
about provoking fear. We can be aware that we, too, are more dangerous when we are afraid.
We need a new approach, which I call “Conscious Politics.” It comprises many concepts such as “
political wisdom” or “political maturity.” Like Daniel Goleman’s groundbreaking concept,
and bestseller, Emotional Intelligence (1995), we can envision a “Political Intelligence”
that can be applied to reducing terrorism and transforming our posture in global politics. I use
the term “Transcendent Politics” in which policies transcend particular interests, dualistic thinking,
and consider optimal, win-win strategies with long-term benefit.
Einstein’s quote about a new level of thinking suggests a “Political Evolution.”
Each century is bloodier than the last. A Chinese proverb states that “If we keep going in
the same direction, we will end up where we are headed.” Darwin’s theory of natural selection,
of “survival of the fittest” won’t have the opportunity to play itself out if the politically
maladaptive members of the species possess weapons of mass destruction. (including the US, who
possess the most are perceived as threatening by other countries. We must evolve new political forms.
This approach is not “political.” It is not about right or left, liberal or conservative,
Republican or Democrat, or right and wrong. Dualistic, polarizing positions are inside the
box and are part of the problem. This attitude deepens the conflict, makes it intractable,
causes more trauma, and sets back progress. A therapeutic approach to politics is preoccupied
with understanding all sides, the alleviation of suffering, healing from trauma, protection,
problem solving, reversing positive feedback spirals, and ending the generational transmission of trauma.
Conscious Politics is also “egoless politics,” concerned with the welfare of the whole.
It requires humility and giving up our dominating posture. Volkan’s observation that “we
would rather die physically than psychologically” applies to us in the US as well, as humility
would be a kind of psychological death to the arrogant American ego. Jung said that the death of
the ego is a victory for the greater Self, for wholeness and consciousness.
METAFORCE
The peace, anti-war, and disarmament movements have less credibility now than eve.
They have not articulated a plausible alternative strategy to military attack (Perlman, 2001).
We have two main categories in our awareness -- either attack or do nothing.
Since doing nothing is untenable, we feel compelled to take military action. As a
poor third alternatives, negotiations and conflict resolution seem ineffective in
dealing with brutal regimes.
Richard Wendell Fogg (2000) says that we don’t need to abolish war, as peaceniks claim.
We need to replace war. Fogg says that we must use force – political force, economic force,
social force, psychological, educational, physical, moral, intellectual, spiritual, emotional,
and aesthetic forms of force – in combinations forming complex strategies (p.179). He suggests
systematic strategies, including reducing the opponent’s fear, avoiding cornering the opponent,
avoiding retaliating, satisfying just grievances, understanding the meaning of their attack,
removing pressures, using mediators, designing win-win solutions, etc, etc, including some
harsher nonviolent approaches when the more positive ones don’t work. Fogg’s ideas are
consistent with some of the observations made by Martha Crenshaw (1999), Wesleyan professor
and terrorism expert at a special meeting at the United States Institute for Peace, in April,
1999, on “How Terrorism Ends.” When there is success or partial success, similar to satisfying
just grievances, organizational breakdown, drawing recruits away from leaders , economic loss,
and providing new options and alternatives for political change all serve to reduce terrorism.
Since we don’t have a concept to describe bloodless forms of force, I have coined the term “Metaforce”
which is not passive, and similar to the Indian terms ahimsa and satyagraha. Metaforce can be very
effective in the long run. A PBS series, “A Force More Powerful” and book (2000), describe effective,
powerful, nonviolent social movements.
There is a proposal now for a Global Nonviolent Peace Force, (David Hartsough,
personal communication) which can be used to reduce tension and prevent violence
so other strategies can be used to solve problems. There is a body of knowledge on
violence prevention, conflict transformation that is virtually absent in the media and
politics, so people are not aware of potentially successful strategies, and lack imagination.
TRANSCENDING TERRORISM, A QUANTUM LEAP
“There’s been a quantum leap technologically in our age, but unless there’s another quantum
leap in human relations, unless we learn to live in a new way towards one another, there will
be a catastrophe.” Albert Einstein
Maybe instead of the biggest superpower, we could be the biggest super-empowerer.
Our awareness of the suffering in Afghanistan, and our realization of our complicity
in abandonment of the Afghan people after the war against the Soviet Union, and our
commitment to help rebuild the country, is a good beginning shift in our consciousness.
According to Ervin Staub (1989), past president of the International Society of Political
Psychology. emphasizes, changing from passive bystanders to active ones, or rescuers, can
turn the tide in preventing war and genocide.
Those in positions of greatest power and privilege bear responsibility for those in
weaker positions. The difference between traumatic processes that lead to terrorism,
and those that lead to recovery is in the power of the active bystander, revealed in the
formula for terrorism. The key to transcending terrorism is intervening to alleviate suffering,
as early as possible, wherever and whenever possible, even when it is late. This is a matter of
our national security , which is an oxymoron, as there is either universal security, or no security
in our global village.
There is no such thing as neutrality. Those of us who are neither perpetrators nor victims
are bystanders, witnesses. President Kennedy liked to quote Dante, ‘The hottest places in
Hell are reserved for those who, in a time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.’”
Profiles in Courage, John F. Kennedy, Foreword, by Robert F. Kennedy. In his acceptance speech
for the Nobel Peace Prize, 1986, Elie Wiesel said, “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor,
never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentors, not the tormented.
LIBERATION FROM RETALIATION
“Men and nations behave wisely only after exhausting all other alternatives.” Abba Eban
History, despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived, but if faced with Courage, need not be
lived again. Maya Angelou, Inaugural poem 9/11 was a golden opportunity for us to transcend
old patterns. Jung described neurosis as a one-sided conscious attitude. In elaborating the law
of opposites, Jung used the term “enantiodromia” (Samuels, et.al. 1986. P.53) , meaning when things
go too far to one extreme, they turn into their opposite. In the US we have been considered extremely
arrogant, dominating, invulnerable, unilateral, and culturally immature. According to Jungian theory,
if we are too one-sided, life events may confront us with our underdeveloped opposite aspects. Our
hope lies in integrating our undeveloped opposite qualities – humility, a healthy awareness of our
vulnerability, cooperation, maturity, and complexity. In the words of Benjamin Barber, author of
Jihad vs. MacWorld, on C-Span Book TV, the US needs to join the rest of the world.
Just as there is a two-part process in psychological mutation into violence (trauma followed by rejection)
, there may also be a two-part process in liberation from the cycle of violence. First we must
liberate ourselves from the psychological effects of 50 years of intense engagement in the Cold
War, followed by being the only superpower. Becoming free oneself is the first step. To complete
the process of liberation, we must act as liberators of others from suffering.
We must face our history, “despite its wrenching pain” with courage -- both the good we
have done and the mistakes we have made out of fear, ignorance, and greed. We are not all
good or all bad. A sign of psychological health is the capacity to live in the tension
between the opposites. While appreciating the good we have done, we need an accurate review
of our history, our support of brutal dictatorships, and our collusion with acts of oppression.
We now recognize our role in the problems of Afghanistan -- a good beginning.
The concept of “redemption” is not given its due in its potential for political evolution.
It would help if we could be accountable for parts of our past, to reflect and atone for our
mistakes, acknowledge our responsibility. There are ways in which could redeem ourselves, even
in the eyes of those who now resent us.
We are becoming more compassionate towards the suffering of others. The movement from
victim to bystander to protector is a transformative process. People who live in comfort,
freedom, and dignity with justice, tend not to be violent. Those who have suffered are
soothed by acknowledgment of truth, address of injustice, and improvements in living conditions.
Liberating others will increase our security and freedom.
As I am putting final touches on this chapter, my country is abrogating the Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty (the cornerstone of stability for 30 years), threatening to develop a new
class of mininukes (a more credible threat than our mulitmegaton bombs), targeting non-nuclear
states, still refusing to sign the No First Use treaty, posturing to attack Iraq, angering our
enemies and allies alike. I am terrified by our actions in the name of “security,” by the psychologically
flawed justifications for them, by the global responses to us, and above all – to our dismissal of
them. I am not optimistic that we are about to transcend the cycle of retaliation and escalation of
violence. If we do, we will have undergone a profound transformation informed by knowledge of the
inner and outer workings of the human psyche. It will require us to use our intersubjective experience
of terrorism and all forms of violence, and to apply political wisdom, maturity, intelligence,
consciousness, and metaforce in ways that will make us all safer. As a possiblist, (a term coined
by author Max Lerner when asked whether he was an optimist or a pessimist) I have described my best
guess as to what might be required of us if we are to break destructive cycles.
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