Reflections On Trauma & Recovery, P1

Hi.
Every now and again, I feel real brave and I decide to try to use the internet to try to reach out to people I can’t reach, to try to tell them about my situation about what happened to us, to me, and how important that it is to know the difference between what it is and how it seemed, and it is common for me to come to expect that through the online representation of somebody who will invariably comment, usually related to my family, there will be some suggestion about my mental health or what habits I’m into or some other thing that is more harmful than asking me what I was wearing or why I was walking alone at night. Anyways, so I’m not gonna try and tell my story today because that’s been made very clear to me is not a safe or wise thing to do, but I found this really great book (Trauma and Recovery, Judith Herman) that was given to me by somebody that I loved and miss a great deal and have lost to the kind of isolation I’ve been subject to, that I hope we can all get some mutual understanding on someday, because this should never happen to nobody, let alone so many people. The whole books pretty interesting, they talk about how Hysteria and Shell Shock seem to be the same thing, and that when Freud was studying hysteria, he became overwhelmed, because he was practicing through just kind of believing his patients, and when he did that, he came to the overwhelming, irrefutable (with the belief of that information) conclusion that there must be such a grave amount of violence taking place against women that it would be endemic, that it would be happening more often than it wasn’t, and that scared the crap out of him, so he recanted his statements, probably under some pressure, and turned back on everything he said, changed his mode of treatment, as this author states is a going theme when it comes to trauma research; They make some headway and then double back on to some really opressive standards that keep the abused marginalized. It’s very interesting that she mentions that because this text is from 1992 and it has a more advanced scope on the effects of trauma and PTSD than we what we seem to have now. It is presenting the CPTSD needs to exist in the DSM in 92. Sounds like we’re not even close. It would be preferred to be reframed as other diagnosis, such as Masochistic Personality disorder which could blame the victim suffering an injury from repeated attacks, for the manifestations of that abuse. 

Convenient… but not, though. Like, really inconvenient. No place for sarcasm. I am learning to work through some communication habits I have been forced to develop to survive, that now kinda seem to stand in my way, cuz I’m gonna say all this, i’m gonna read this i’m gonna tell you that this relates directly to my life, but you’re really still not gonna understand or believe because, yeah something about the words I’m using, and the truth to them, is overridden by some psychological process that is talked about in this book, a fair bit. I think everybody should get a copy while you can.

So, where were we? So, yeah, they talk about hysteria being shell shock and that some of the greatest relief that was given in difference to the survivors of war, was at least some semblance of an ability to tell some of the story, some recognition, some of them, instrumental in their ability to heal their PTSD. This has been systemically, and for a very long time, and very very much now, almost worse because we think it’s better, of a pattern silencing women (people), denying them justice, denying them a lot of things, the safety to even tell the story, which is what I’m experiencing now. 

Dialectic of trauma. Here we go. We get into the captivity, it starts getting relevant way before this, but, this is where I was really like, “gosh, I am overwhelmed by the understanding and belief that there is no way that God loving people, human loving people, decent  people with a sense of empathy and goodwill towards man would bear the attitudes that I’ve been recipient to, if it was understood. Anyway,

“A single traumatic event can occur almost anywhere. For long repeated trauma by contrast occurs only in circumstances of captivity. When the victim is free to escape, she will not be abused a second time. Repeated trauma only occurs when the victim is a prisoner, unable to flee, under the control of the perpetrator. Such conditions obviously exist in prisons, concentration camps and slave labour camps. These conditions may also exist in religious cults, in brothels, and other institutions of organized sexual exploitation and families. Political captivity is generally recognized when the domestic captivity of women and children is often unseen. A man’s home is his castle, rarely is it understood that the same home may be prison for women and children. In domestic captivity, physical barriers to escape are rare. In most homes, even the most oppressive, there are no bars on the windows, no barbed wire fences. Women and children are not ordinarily chained, though even this occurs more often than one might think. The barriers are to escape are generally invisible, they are nonetheless extremely powerful.”

This was before cell phones and everything being connected to the internet. When it comes to tech networks, our government is just kind of like,
(Dunce voice) “Wull, I dunno how it works”
while refusing to police and expecting us to use,

Seriously, if you’re gonna consider this stuff at all, consider how it could be conducted just on the control of one smart phone, alone. Just one. Then imagine a local network of them, then an international to global One. Just a consideration

Anyway,

“Children are rendered captive by their condition of dependency. Women are rendered captured by economic, social, psychological and legal subordination, as well as by physical force. Captivity, which brings the victim into prolonged contact with the perpetrator, creates a special type of relationship, one of coercive control. This is equally true whether the victim is taken captive entirely by force, as in the case of prisoners and hostages, or by a combination of force, intimidation and enticement, as is in the case of religious cult members battered women and abused children. The psychological impact of subordination coercive control, may commonly feature, whether that subordination occurs within the public sphere of politics, within the sphere of sexual investment relations. In situations of captivity the perpetrator becomes the most powerful person in the life of the victim, and *the psychology of the victim is shaped by the actions and beliefs of the perpetrator*. Little is known about the mind of the perpetrator. Since he is contemptuous of those who seek to understand him, he does not volunteer to be studied since he does not perceive that anything is wrong with him. He does not seek help unless he is in trouble with the law. His most consistent feature in both the testimony of victims and the observations of psychologists, is his apparent normality*. Ordinary concepts of the psychopathology failed to define or comprehend him. This idea is deeply disturbing to most people. How much more comforting it would be if the perpetrator were easily recognizable, obviously deviant and or disturbed, but he is not.”

He is, a little bit, but he’s also working from an empowered position regulating these things away from his own detection. 

“The legal scholar Hannah Ardent created a scandal when she reported that Adolf Eichmann, a man who committed unfathomable crimes against humanity, had been certified by half a dozen psychiatrists as normal. The trouble with Eichmann is precisely that there were so many like him and that many were neither perverted nor sadistic, and they were(, and still are,) terribly and terrifyingly normal. From the viewpoint of our legal  institutions and of the moral standards of judgment, this normality was much more terrifying than the atrocities put together. Authoritarian, secretive, sometimes grandiose and even paranoid, the perpetrator is nevertheless exquisitely sensitive to the realities of power and to social norms. Only rarely does he get into difficulties with the law rather he seeks out situations where his tyrannical behavior will be tolerated, condoned or admired. His demeanor provides an excellent camouflage, for few people believe the extraordinary crimes committed by men of such conventional appearance. The perpetrator’s first goal appears to be the enslavement of his victim, as he accomplishes this goal by exercising despotic control over every aspect of the victim’s life, but simple compliance rarely satisfies as he appears to have a psychological need to justify his crimes and for his needs the victims affirmation. Thus he relentlessly demands from his victims professions of respect, gratitude or even love. His ultimate goal appears to be the creation of a willing victim. Hostages, political prisoners, battered women and slaves have all remarked upon the captors curious psychological dependence on his victim. 

George Orwell gives voice to the totalitarian mind in the novel 1984, 

“We are not all content with negative obedience nor even with the most abject submission. When you finally surrender to us it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic bcause he resists us. So long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him. we capture his inner mind, we reshape him, we burn all evil and all illusion out of him. We bring him over our side, not an appearance but genuinely, heart and soul.”
The desire for total control over another person is the common denominator for all forms of tyranny. Totalitarian governments demand confession and political conversions of their victims. Slaveholders demand gratitude of their slaves. Religious cults demand ritualized sacrifice as a sign of submission to the divine will of the leader. Perpetrators of domestic battery demand that their victims have complete loyalty and by sacrificing all other relationships. Sex offenders demand that their victim find sexual fulfillment in submission. To control over another person is the power dynamic at the heart of pornography. The erotic appeal of this fantasy to millions of terrifyingly normal men fosters an immense industry in which women and children are abused not in fantasy but in reality.”

We’ll do a little psychological domination. It’s interesting, it is breaking open barriers for me.

“The methods that enable one human being to enslave another are remarkably consistent. The accounts of hostages, political prisoners and survivors of concentration camps from every corner of the globe have an uncanny sameness. Drawing upon the testimony of political prisoners from widely different cultures Amnesty International in 1973 published a Chart of Coercion (https://www.amnesty.org/fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/act400011973eng.pdf)** describing these methods in detail. In tyrannical political systems it is sometimes possible to trace the actual transmission of coercive methods from one clandestine political force or terrorist group to another. These same techniques are used to subjugate women in prostitution and pornography and in the home. In organized criminal activities, pimps and pornographers sometimes instruct one another in the use of coercive methods,”

Which is important, again, to think of how much easier it is for people to share information with each other these days… whether it’s theirs or not… whether it’s real or not…

“The systematic use of coercive techniques to break women into prostitution is known as “seasoning”. Even in domestic situations where the batterer is not part of any larger organization and has had no formal instruction in these techniques, he seems time and again to reinvent*** them. The psychologist Lenore Walker and her study of battered women observed the abusers coercive techniques, although unique for each individual were still remarkably similar. Methods of establishing control over another person are based upon the systematic, repetitive infliction of psychological trauma. They are organized techniques of disempowerment and disconnection. Methods of psychological control are designed to instill terror and helplessness and to destroy the victims sense of self in relation to others. Although violence is a universal method of terror, the perpetrator may use violence infrequently as a last resort. It is not necessary to use violence to keep the victim in a constant state of fear. The threat of death or serious harm is much more frequent than the actual resort to violence. Threats against others are often as effective as direct threats against the victim. Battered women, for example frequently report that their abuser has threatened to kill their children, their parents or any friends who harbor them should they attempt to escape. Fear is also increased by inconsistent and unpredictable outbusts of violence. By capricious enforcement of petty rules, the ultimate effect of these techniques is to convince the victim that the perpetrator is omnipotent, that resistance is futile and her life depends on getting his indulgence through absolute compliance. The goal of the perpetrator is to instill in his victim not only the fear of death but also gratitude for being allowed to live. Survivors of domestic or political captivity often describe occasions in which they were convinced that they would be killed only to be spared at the last moment. After several cycles of reprieve from certain death the victim may come to view the perpetrator paradoxically as her savior. 

In addition to inducing fear, the perpetrator seeks to destroy the victim sense of autonomy. This is achieved by scrutiny and control of the victims body and bodily functions. The perpetrator supervises what the victim eats, when she sleeps, when she goes to the toilet, what she wears. When the victim is deprived of food, sleep or excercise, this control results in physical debilitation, but even when the victims physical basic physical needs are adequately met, this assault on bodily autonomy shames and demoralizes her.”

um, yeah, dunno how familiar that sounds to others, but it fits my experience with horrifying accuracy. Anyway, running a low on time, but I really want to get to the an important part in understanding this video,

“Robotization”

Victims of this stuff end up developing some similarly unique skills, that are hard-wired coping mechanisms. They work for us but they also are difficult to live with. Robotization means I’m not safe to cry or weep or say “God, please help me.” because someone might make a call to have me punished for that. So, I’ve got to say it all in a calm tone of voice and pretend like I’m not talking about my life and death right now, to a bunch of people who probably aren’t gonna hear me, just on a hope, because I know that you can. It’s gotta be possible, I’m a text based model – Hear the words, Do a little critical thinking and logic on it, Break away from the fallacies for a minute to consider what kinds of violence are happening in North America today – Of people against their own people because these things are allowed to go unfettered and encouraged and reinforced by people who are abjectly against it because they don’t understand what this is.

Love you”

*stats may be contaminated by innumerable fall guys, who actually are normal, obscuring clear indication of a predator profile as they make their victims out to be like them, a cruel, clever shroud.

**Canada is not included, not because torture does not take place here, but because the totalitarian hold is so absolute and unobstructed. Unfortunately, victims would have to be heard for these atrocities to be know, and we are endangered if we try.

*** other potential explanations for repetition of tactics ought to be explored.