FROM VIOLENCE TO
HOPE:
PSYCHODRAMA IN THE
CONTEXT OF
WAR AND POST-WAR EXPERIENCE
‘SILENCE
AND SHAME’
GCMHP’S 5TH
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
GAZA
CITY-PALESTINE
27th –
29th of October 2008
SIEGE AND
MENTAL HEALTH … WALLS VERSUS BRIDGES
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ABSTRACT:
The immediate end of siege in
Gaza is necessary in order to avoid an even bigger catastrophy than it is
already happening, considering Mental Health of the whole of the population.
SILENCE is a protection against
too intense pain experience, and also the feeling of total impotency, which
mostly is accompanied by SHAME and guilt feelings, even though the person was a
victim and not the aggressor. The repression of unbearable memories from violent
exposure might be a strategy for survival from traumatic events. As
psychologists we must be aware how difficult and delicate our therapy work shall
be, and we have to consider the resistencies against the therapy as ‘normal’, as
a defense mechanism in order to protect the subject from too much suffering,
when he or she is remembering the traumatic event. Never ever push a person to
speak, if silence is necessary, and stay beside of the person in a empathic way
of containing the silence, sharing the struggle for words.
Psychoanalyses was called
‘Talking cure’, and we know that the therapy is based on remembering, repeating
and elaborating the life experiences which had to be repressed, isolated from
consciousness. Our work is to listen to the silence, until the stumbling of the
first words might break the silence, maybe together with emotional catharsis,
but maybe also in a ‘cold’, distant way. There is no ‘solution’, no response
possible, except of just to be there, as close as the person can stand it and
wishes to stay. The dialogue between the psychotherapeut and the patient
includes the risk, that the patient feels again put in the situation of impotent
dependency, like in the situation of torture, of violation or any other
situation of humiliation. The shame feelings will act as a blocking, a covering
up of the blessed soul and body. We have to be as patient as possible.
With the method of Psychodrama,
we are focusing a group method, which includes other possibilities of working
through the traumatic events. Using the ‘surplus reality’, we can enact and
dramatize situations of fear and shame, without that the patient him/herself has
to expose directly. With the method of Playback Theater or in mirroring during a
psychodrama, the victim of violent human treatment might look at the scene, that
is repressed. The therapeute together with the whole group gives the containment
and helps the patient to overcome the resistency and to look at the terrified
experience, first like in a surrealistic theater.
This is a long and complicated
process, and mostly first comes the body expression and the movement in the
group, as expression of pain, suffering and shame, before the patient can find
the words and begin to talk. During the 6 years that Maja Hess and myself from
‘medico international Switzerland’ are giving the Training Workshops at the
GCMHP, we can evaluate this method as highly appropriate for the situation in
Gaza. I am using this method also in other contexts of violent and traumatic
situation (El Salvador, Chiapas, Costa Rica, Cuba) with very good results.
Also in this method we never push
a person to be protagonist, only when she or he wants to be protagonist and work
about an issue, and the group is mainly identified with the theme, we start a
psychodrama process. By the end, during ‘sharing’, the individual experience of
the protagonist is transformed to a collective group therapy, because every
participant shall talk and share his/her own experience. During this process,
together with direct therapeutic effect, also the process of collective memory
is important, in order to search for the real truth in individual and social
life history. Shame and guilt feelings cover up the truth and give the way free
for false interpretations of the history. Impunity can only be transformed into
the knowledge about the real facts, if the protagonists of the action talk
about.
To overcome shame feelings and
break the silence is a painful and complicated process, which is only possible
if we can build up a relation of confidence and honesty. If the therapeute comes
from another culture and is from the opposite sex of the protagonist, there are
additional difficulties, conflicts and possibilities to work on. Transference
process is based on an inconscious repetition of infantile feelings and
experiences, with the significant adult persons like Mother, Father,
Grandmother, Grandfather, brother, sister etc. In our case, we are European
women, we are representatives from the old colonialist world, which nowadays is
repeating injust and coward actitudes towards Palestine. What influence does
this historical background mean in the collective inconscious of the
participants of the therapy? If we are able to make it conscious, and give names
to the violent history, we can become real partners in the relationship. But if
this matter isn’t verbalized and recognized, it might lead to a situation of re-traumatization.
The goal of this paper is to
point out, how difficult is psychotherapy work in the context of violence and
war, and how important is the issue of counter-transference, which means that
the person of the therapeute also is a subjet to include in the process. By that
means it can be possible, that violence turns into hope, that ‘the other’ is not
only experienced as enemy, and that ‘myself’ and ‘we together’ can become more
human.
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SILENCE AND SHAME
-
SUFFERING AND
LIBERATION
After this short introduction I
would like to come to some concrete experiences, most of all in the case of
Palestine and Gaza. There are different sides to consider: Politically the
victims and the aggressors in the time of occupation, and of course the cultural
issues as structural frame in conscious and unconscious behaviour. Beside of the
external reality we have to consider the complicated inner psychological
processes, which includes always love and hate, ambivalent feelings, as well as
the risk to suffer ‘repression’ beyond situations of stress.
I start with the side of the
occupation forces, and I remember a situation at EREZ Checkpoint some years ago,
when a israelian young soldier asked us: Why the hell you go to the devil? Some
minutes later when we were discussing about psychiatrist work, he said: When I
am out of this (the military service), I kill myself. Why don’t you work with
us, we are all crazy! Of course I tried to convince him, that it would be much
better, if he would go out and talk about his ideas and feelings, instead of
committing suicide.
The demonization of the oppressed
people of Gaza, calling them generally ‘terrorists’, gives the way free for some
considerations about psychological defense mecanisms on both side: the aggressor
doesn´t have to feel guilty, if the appointed enemy is only a object and not a
human being, and the silence is the defense mecanisme of the Palestinian victim,
who doesn’t want to be considered as a ‘underdog’. Racism, arrogant thinking of
superiority and the projection of the ‘bad’ towards the outside, the other,
reserving the ‘good’ for myself, are very primitive psychological defense
mecanisms, which make denial of any guilt possible. There is no identification
with the ‘other’, no possible consideration of a human relationship. The
demonization of the ‘other’ is justified among other ideological systems, also
within dogmatic religious thinking, fundamentalist manipulation which has the
aim to kill the enemy in God´s name.
Psychological thinking focuses on
human relationships, as individuals, as collective processes, always within a
specific cultural and social frame, which uses to regulate our behaviour without
that the moral and religious values become conscious. Only through therapy work
or social investigation, these unconscious values might become conscious and by
that mean also questionable, which is the condition for making changes. We need
a critical distance in order to be able to recognize our own unconscious
behavior, the automatic repetition of behaviour and thinking values. We know
about the transference of prejudices from generations to generations, and how
these values may become an iron law, this mostly in patriarchal societies where
the monotheist religion might strengthen authoritarian cultural and social
structure.
The problem of shame and silence
in victims of violent aggression, suffered from another human being, beside of
the individual traumatization, is socially and politically a very important
issue, because it touches the problem of impunity. For this reason we propose
that the traumatic event suffered within a political context shall not be
considered as an isolated psychological problem, or even less as a sickness or a
pathological symptom. We try to understand it in the context of war, of
collective struggle for justice and peace, and for this reason as
psychotherapist we try to help the person/victim to speak about the situation.
The crime has to be denounced and the violated person is the first testimony of
the facts.
Of course we have to be very
cautious and patient, because if we push it means again a violent act, and also
the situation face by face with the therapist might re-traumatize the victim.
The situation of torture or violation was a human experience with another
person, the prisioner was mostly alone with the aggressor. For this reason I
consider the situation of group therapy very useful, because the sharing with
other collegues from the same culture might help a lot to be a protagonist. The
patient might feel safer, but also the shame will be stronger, because the group
symbolizes a ‘public space’, and the painful experience such as the violation
might turn around in a way, that the violated woman becomes the guilty person
and is looked at by the other participants in the group as a ‘bad woman’.
Later on I
shall point out some special issues about the method of Psychodrama.
In El Salvador
where I am working with traumatized women who were active social fighters
during the long enduring war, the main theme was the feelings of guilt,
being a mother. Many of these women had to leave their children or even
babies with parents of friends, while they had to flee to the mountains.
Years later they came back to civil life, but the revolutionary goals
could not be fulfilled. At least there was an ‘agreement of peace´,
and instead of the criminal and brutal dictatorship was installed a
civil government. But impunity goes on, and the crimes also….
When the women
faced their families and the children, many tragedies happened, because
they were strangers, and some of the social voices made feel them guilty.
Even the own children reproached them, that they had abandoned them.
Why they went to fight for a better society? They say: We fought for
you, for our children and your future! But the children only felt the
pain of being left behind like orphans. Many families didn´t find the
way to come together again, loneliness and bitterness fills their hearts,
instead of solidarian understanding.
Therapy means
also to facilitate the encounters in such a situation, which suffered
thousands of families during the dictatorships in Argentine, Uruguay,
Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras. The ´peace
agreements´ can be a very important step forward for justice, if the
impunity is broken, and if the victims are able to speak and denounce
the crimes. Our work is to help them to overcome the silence, which
is a protection from feeling judged, misunderstood, laughed about. And
of course, speaking about the traumatic event means to re-experience
the pain, the suffering, the loneliness, the fear, the anger and the
impotency. Every patient I know was asking: Shall I be understood? Will
my family expulse me for what happened? Is it not better to keep silence?
For this reason
it is not enough to make an individual therapy wit the victim of violent
crimes, but it is necessary to work with the families and the social
group. And of course it is important to participate in movements for
political change, to take part as intellectuals, as it is the case here
and now with this conference in Gaza.
This leads
us to the other part: The complicity of shame and silence. Many times
as psychotherapists we might feel a secondary traumatization, because
we are listening to very violent events, which our patients are telling
us, and we need supervision in order to get over it and to control our
counter-transference. The risk is that we over-identify with our patient,
or in the contrary, that we build a wall around our own feelings, in
order to protect ourselves. That means we are experiencing something
similar like the patient: How to talk about the unspeakable horrible
events? How to stand the feelings of shame, guilt and impotency, facing
our patient? We need support in this work, for two reasons: for our
own mental health, and for the need to process the information in a
way, that we don’t fall in the role of complicity with silence. The
professional secret, the necessity of absolute discretion and respect,
the understanding of the shame feelings of the patient can become a
conflict, mostly if the therapeute also is part of the same cultural
and political situation, as it is the case in Palestine. Our training
in Psychodrama faces the very important supervison work with the therapeutic
staff, to enable them to listen to their patient, especially if the
patient talks about a similar situation they suffer themselves. One
of our woman collegue was in her mourning process considering the recent
murdering of her eldest son, who’s crime was to be young and to be
blamed with the suspicion to be a terrorist! He was killed by the israelian
army, together with other two twenty year old friends, on the way to
their work. His mother, our collegue, who is a brilliant psychologist
and already trained as psychodramatist, suffered severe depression,
felt emotionally blocked and without any energy for working. Fortunately
our group work together could help her to overcome the worst moments
of her traumatic experience! How possibly could she listen to another
mother, who’s son was killed, without having had the opportunity to
get her own therapy?
In Gaza, nobody
can avoid to be part of the collective traumatic situation and the consecuences
of the siege.
What about
Europe? Shame and silence is also to find in the solidarian people with
Palestine, who feel impotent and worthless considering the crime. They
can overcome it by organizing solidarian actions and spreading out the
information, which is the case of ourselves in Switzerland and the countries
we live and work. But there is the big group of silent people who don’t
want to see, to listen, to speak. Maybe there is also shame beyond the
seemingly indifference, or is it just the denial of thinking? Are they
all denigrated to objects of consuming the goods, which are produced
in the third world, in order to become cheaper? Are they Robots - and
the results of globalization and capitalistic functioning of western
world, thinking only about money, power, and individual comfort?
The collective
silence and shame to talk about Palestine is a sign of cowardness and
denial of looking at the world’s history. The phenomenon of
alienation became a ‘normality’, and most people doesn’t want
to break the silence and to ask: What can I do? Maybe because he/she
also feels guilt and shame about the impotency and insecurity in a society
which reduces the international relationships to economic interests
and marketing issues. The human beings disappear, and if they are of
another culture, color, poor and full of psychological problems, most
people turn away and don’t want to be involved. This is the big SHAME
of the rich countries, most of it Europe, who is so much involved in
the historical crime against the Palestinian people.
The dominant
press gives a false picture about the real facts, and for this it is
so important that the protagonists themselves speak, break the silence,
act collectively against the indifference.
Our method
of psychodrama goes further than the verbal language, even though the
aim always is, that the patient finally finds words for the experiences,
as terrible as they were. Then it is possible to listen, to give support,
to share the traumatic event and to give feedbacks from similar experiences,
so that the collective history becomes alive. Not only from the negative
side, also the experience of the strength to resist, of the intelligence
to understand, of the solidarity within the pain means a very important
therapeutic experience. Not only the psychotherapeute him/herself is
important for containing the strong emotions and feelings, but also
the group acts in a therapeutic manner. The body expressions, artistic
ways of ‘talking’ through painting, singing, dancing, warming-up
exercises help to feel the own body and to recognize the trauma within
it. Where is my physical and psychological pain as a symptom in the
body? How can I express it, afterwards step by step dramatize it’s
history, and tell the truth?
The group participants
act as Auxiliar-ego’s, and through the functioning of the ‘Tele’,
they experience in the role which is given to them by the protagonist,
not only the feelings in the role, but their own emotions….many times
a role of auxiliary ego, like to be a mother, allows the person to remember
and elaborate his/her own history with the mother.
Our aim in
therapy work is: to remember, repeat and elaborate the individual and
the collective history, and at the same time investigate more about
the own culture, especially regarding the relationship between genders.
Women feel much more shame to talk about their feelings and traumatic
experiences, because they are more easily blamed by the family and social
order for a crime, that they didn’t commit. In the contrary, mostly
the woman is the victim of conspiration and social oppression. This
is more the case, where patriarchal systems are ruling, and where monotheistic
religion is coming together with the patriarchal clan system. Silence
is often the only way to survive socially and psychologically for a
woman, but this means a problem in mental health, because she is left
alone with her shame and guilt feelings.
On the other
hand the men also are victims of silence and shame feelings, because
in patriarchal culture they must be strong, repress their tears, deny
the need to cry and to search for help. Many times, an aggressive acting-out
replaces the need for support, and narcissistic behaviour isolates the
man. With the psychodrama we could experience how this problem can be
resolved in the way, that the man-protagonist elects a woman as his
´double´, and she can cry for him, express all the repressed feelings.
During the following sharing the protagonist himself shall speak about
his feeling.
Also the experience,
to change role with the aggressor, is very important. There is a unconscious
psychological defense mechanism called ‘identification with the aggressor’,
which is very dangerous, because the person doesn’t recognize this
reality. He/she thinks about ‘normality’ in the meaning that it
is bearable, the painful part is isolated and expulsed, projected against
the outside. At the same time, the powerful ‘other’ becomes fascinating,
and the identification with him fulfills the wish to overcome the own
feeling of helplessness or shameful situation. In this case, the oppressed
becomes an instrument for the enemy, because his admiration and the
need to get away of the own humiliating dependency makes him become
a ‘traitor’. This is the aspect of the psychological problem, but
of course money and other favors are most powerful too in corruption
and seduction.
In psychodrama,
we go into the role of the oppressor and discover our own need for power,
maybe even sadistic impulses, without the need to act it out in reality.
But if we focus on the harm that impunity is doing for individual and
collective mental health, we must also talk about the own aggression.
For this on the surrealistic scene in psychodrama, playing the role
of the enemy, gives us much possibility of understanding better how
the dynamics of violence are functioning, and also we can have some
catharses and relief ourselves from anger and hate, which can lead to
psychosomatic sicknesses.
To facilitate
catharsis of anger and hate I use the ‘batter’ (a stick), that allows
to express anger with the body and bio-energetic movements, using also
the voice to shout, to get out repressed aggression on the stage. The
group helps as ‘doubles’, and very often the psychodrama gives way
to become a sociodrama, and the whole group is acting on the scene.
The relief to experience that the others have similar feelings, helps
to overcome shame, and of course the collective working through of traumatic
events strengthen the relationships and the confidence among the participants.
This is especially important and productive in training groups as we
are realizing it in the GCMHP, also in El Salvador, in Cuba and Mexico,
within an institutional frame. The respect and understanding for each
other grows, and also the relationships between men and women collegues
can become more ‘natural’. During the psychodrama process the protagonist
changes role with other persons, and by that means experiences the identification
with the other gender, the feminine or the masculine part in a new way.
First this is a strange experience in cultures like the Palestinian,
where the social roles for men and women are strictly separated. But
soon the resistencies can be overcome and the humor and creative acting
allows the individuals and the group, to expand their self and to strengthen
their identity.
This happened
with a collegue in our group who was chosen in the role of an eight
year old girl. Himself a man, he felt ashamed and said, that it is impossible
for him to play this role. But in order to help the protagonist he overcame
his shyness and shame, and after a while, he felt very good in the role,
discovering new creativity within himself.
In the ‘Sharing’
part, when every participant talks about his/her personal experience
during the psychodrama, we work out cultural issues as well as individual
history. This gives much material for social and cultural research,
beside of the therapeutic and training aspects.
Body expression
in the group work also is very important, focusing self esteem problems,
especially in women who have been traumatized by violation. To repair
the traumatic event is impossible, violence and the war experiences
leave terrible wounds
in the self-image
and in narcissistic feelings. But we can reach with our psychotherapeutic
work, that the patient is enabled again to experience her/his body in
a positive way, and also might regain desire of sexual pleasure. This
is a victory over shame and silence, and means that the energy of life
can win over the culture of death and impunity.
‘WE ALSO
HAVE A DREAM IN GAZA’, is written on a poster from the Human Rights
Office. In fact, we put very much importance on the dream work, which
is fascinating and at the same time most effective for therapeutic goals.
Within every dream is hidden the desire to live, to have pleasure, to
overcome terrible life situation. Dreams are a source of energy, and
densified cultural and individual symbols give us the keys for creative
working on it, which is most fascinating with the method of psychodrama.
Dream interpretation is like surrealistic theater, we have to find the
hidden meanings and to understand the disguised messages, which the
dreamer him/herself gives. It is the synthesis of art and science, and
within the violent situation of being hold in a big prison, which Palestinian
people are suffering in Gaza, imagination and fantasy as well as other
artistic expression are most important, because they allow to go on
living with free minds, which is the first condition for what we call
‘mental health’.
The enemy might
use any force and violence in order to control the people, but meanwhile
dreams are possible to dream and to share, and children can draw and
write their story, there is the possibility of resistence and dignity.
Dreams want
to become reality, and people want to be free! For this in our therapy
work the patients express their wish to be a bird or a fish, to fly
and to swim, to cross borders and to ignore the walls. This is a triumph
over shame and a fight for dignity and freedom, and a very important
instrument in our psychological work, in order to break the disaster
of the criminal siege, and to reach with the fight for justice also
the possibility for mental health and happiness. Let’s go on
building bridges for our dreams, so that they become reality, to build
bridges for people to reach other people, from person to person, from
men to women. Personally we do it from Gaza to Switzerland, Spain,
to Costa Rica, to Mexico, to Cuba, to El Salvador, to Bolivia, and we’d
like to build bridges of peace and friendship with the whole WORLD !
Thank you!
======================================
Costa Rica,
in August 2008