The 'Socially Acceptable Violence' Project [Part of 'Psychological Violence In Society'] ©2003 John Latter (jorolat@msn.com)

[All drafts will be expanded upon once the basic framework has been established]

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Full list of Contents:

1) Introduction [1st Draft: 20th July '03]

2) Characteristics of Psychological Trauma [1st Draft: 30th July '03]

3) Trauma: A Simple Internal Model [1st Draft: 9th August '03]

  3a) Preamble
  3b) The Model
  3c) A Basic 'Communication Problem' Between Child and Adult
  3d) The Model Revisited [1st Draft: 15th August '03]

     3d.1) Further notes on Pre-trauma
     3d.2) Further notes on Trauma [1st Draft: 15th August '03]

          3d.2a) Resolution of Trauma: Flowchart [1st Draft: 25th August '03]

              3d.2a.1) Notes on the Flowchart

                     3d.2b.1a) Preparation phase (Part 1) [1st Draft: 27th August '03]
                     3d.2b.2b) Contact phase
                     3d.2b.3c) Contact unsuccessful
                     3d.2b.4d) Contact successful

              3d.2a.2) Reaching the Primal Anger: "The Soldier's Story"

     3d.3) Further notes on Compounding a Trauma
     3d.4) Further notes on Erosion [1st Draft: 9th September '03]

          3d.4a) "Hardly Worth Mentioning" [1st Draft: 9th September '03]
          3d.4b) Basic Interaction between Abuser and Victim
          3d.4c) To be decided

     3d.5) Further notes on The Professional Abuser
     3d.6) Further notes on 'Mental Illness'

4)

5)

6)

7)

8) Index of all Real-Life examples

1) Introduction [1st Draft: 20th July '03] [Back to Top]

   Traumatized children will often use toys in instinctive attempts to undo the harm they have incurred and can be found doing so in any social environment where playing is an acceptable activity.

   Unrecognized 'psychological pressures' can be encountered within these environments that not only immediately interrupt and generally inhibit the re-integration process, but because of relentless application, also have an accumulative effect. To the extent that a seemingly trivial incident suddenly becomes "the straw that breaks the camel's back" whereupon the hurt child gives up on reclamation, and as a result, accepts a lesser natural experience of life than otherwise would have been the case.

   One objective of these pages is to demonstrate how the continued presence of the pressures, once this therapeutic internal relationship with the wound has been abandoned (and which may only ever be re-attained while in therapy), causes their 'absorption' by a hurt child to such a degree that some are left little choice but to become practitioners of those pressures long before reaching maturity. Conceptually this is a basic, and pseudo-Lamarckian, mechanism which facilitates transmission of the pressures from generation to generation.

   The primary focus, however, is on the pressures themselves and how their 'intensity' increases in any social environment, or institution, in which those who belong to the organizational structure have formed themselves, or have been formed, into a "Psychological Hierarchy". The following looks below the (usually) benign facade of such establishments and examines three of the general classes of psychological pressure that affect hurt children. In increasing order of the impact they have (but not in any order of frequency encountered) these are:

1) Those pressures which are applied (generally in an impersonal way and beginning at the toddler stage) because the object is recognized to be 'a child'.

2) Those pressures that are the result of witnessing the planning and execution of psychological assaults upon adults.

3) Being directly targetted solely because of the vulnerability the wound gives.

   Investigation of how such hierarchies come into being, the 'group dynamics' involved, and the level and type of psychological abuse ("socially acceptable violence") each hierarchy considers acceptable, reveals the existence of a personality-type who is here termed the "Professional Abuser". If at, or near, the apex of a psychological hierarchy then this is someone whose personality and acquired psychological history can be described as having become permanently fused into an attitude of "People Have To Be Psychologically Controlled" and who necessarily has the potential, and required internal orientation with that potential, to inflict whatever degree of harm or distress is needed in order to achieve that control.

   The modus operandi of psychological hierarchies is such, that as a rule of thumb, the higher the Professional Abuser is within it then the less their potential has to be realized in any gross way on a day-to-day basis. At this level the indulgence in psychological violence is largely ritualistic, insofar as proxies are usually 'encouraged' to carry out the actual attacks upon those deemed to be 'legitimate targets'. But as will be seen, all Professional Abusers are opportunists.

   Comments are made on the probable origin of psychological hierarchies and attention is also given to a common technique, very effective but involving a very simple mechanism, which is often used in attempts to "cover-up" acts of psychological violence that draw too much attention. The characteristic 'signature' of this technique can sometimes be seen in the press coverage accorded scandals within large institutions.

   
2) Characteristics of Psychological Trauma [1st Draft: 30th July '03] [Back to Top]

   "Trauma In Infants" (not yet linked to) describes why it shouldn't be assumed that a traumatized child is an abused one. Irrespective of the cause, however, responding to events will bring internal contact with the wound in such a way that a child has  initial inarticulate awareness of those whose psychological behaviour in social environments demonstrates a potential to further compound, or invoke, their hurt. The various means whereby this awareness becomes increasingly 'intermittent', and correspondingly gradually eroded, will be covered throughout the later sections. First, an examination of the 'type' of trauma under discussion:

[Insert Maclean's "Triune Brain"?]

   Human Beings are naturally integrated organisms, and in a single sentence, a trauma can be described as the disruption to that integrity which occurs when instinctive anger reaches a peak that cannot be sustained.

   From the real-life example given below, reflecting a recovered internal state and not 'a memory', certain characteristics of trauma are immediately apparent while others, although present, only become clear when subsequent events are taken into account:

[Insert "Jimmy's Trauma"]

a) Immediately apparent characteristics:

"Seeing red": Instinctive anger reaches a peak in response to the application of physical force. Note that Jimmy sees red but doesn't feel it (see "normal state of affairs" below)

"Something happened": Momentarily loss of awareness at overload as the break occurs.

"Felt very small within myself":  Basically a reduction as self-awareness becomes centered in the ego. Once the trauma occurs it immediately becomes the "normal state of affairs" for the child concerned and who can have no 'recollection' of the prior natural state owing to it having been an integrated one.

"Looking down": In the direction of the older (in evolutionary terms) parts of the brain at the area from which the disruption originates.

b) Secondary Characteristics:

"Suddenly paralyzed": Internal contact with the surface of the wound proper (Jimmy's "a wall of fear" - the redness he saw now lies on the other side of this 'wall')

"Surprise at being able to let go"

   Two subsequent events (from a few months and two years later) indicated that the onset of paralysis was in response to the step-mother beginning to use a particular tone of voice as she carried out the second part of the assault (and which involved no further physical contact with the child). Similarly, the child was only able to disengage from the "wall of fear" once she had stopped talking. Jimmy was able to 'tune-in' to the echo of this tone while in therapy and make the first tentative inroads into the wall itself.

   The following incident (edited from an earlier work) shows the effect a tone of voice can have on a hurt child of 5 when in a social environment:

   The actual accounts of Jimmy's 'two subsequent events' will eventually appear in (or perhaps be borrowed from) "Psychology and the Roman Catholic Church" where they will be used to partially illustrate why a hurt child is susceptible to religious indoctrination. Briefly, this vulnerability exists because:

a) The creation of the trauma, and ongoing existence of the wound, gives a child the internal experience of something greater than the self (and which it necessarily has to take heed of). As the child develops, and is introducted to the concept of "God" (so to speak), then any tone of voice which contains a psychological nuance is likely to invoke an echo of the wound and cause the child to make an understandable but erroneous connection.

b) A strong enough stimulus can cause a momentarily violent internal reaction with the surface of the wound and result in a "tantrum". On the other hand, less severe interactions may lead to more calculated demonstrations of bad behaviour. Owing to the initial differentiation that exists between self and trauma, however, a hurt child can easily come to believe, when suitably 'instructed', that the trauma is a source of "Original Sin" and/or a "Capacity for Evil" and that they are "Bad" (and must seek forgiveness because of it, etc.). In addition, the necessarily egocentric perception of a child regarding interaction with a trauma prevents the flaw in the logic of "Psychological Guilt" from being readily apparent.

c) A real-life example from therapy will show how the surface fear can be 'leeched' from the surface of a compounded trauma which then becomes the most 'pleasant' and stable internal state (with respect to the wound) an individual has ever experienced. Outside of therapy the relativity of such experiences will probably be unrecognized, and depending on the context, may lead to their being described as "Attaining a State of Grace" or "Finding my Love of Jesus".

d) Etc., etc..

[A more general case of such psychological love can be found in those instances where it 'goes wrong' and the internal adjustment is fractured.]

   Traumatized children who unknowingly believe in a psychological God are, of course, those who are most at risk of being targetted by a pedophile priest.

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Next Section: Trauma: A Simple Internal Model

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