Random Eruptions of Violence and Destruction or Reenactments of an "unremembered" past?

The response to any extreme impactful occurrence, disruption, violence or any kind of trauma is as important as the trauma itself. In fact, it can be traumatizing to be un-responded to. Groups (communities and societies) are impacted in similar ways, as individuals, when their traumatic experiences are un-responded. In a previous reflection, I wrote about how groups manage trauma through the defence of splitting . In this one, I am writing about how intermittent group eruptions could be unrecognizable repetitions of unresolved trauma.

Group suffering is often dismissed and disregarded to represent individual opinions and experiences that are in turn seen as unimportant. The singled out individuals are often positioned as instigating and pushing certain kinds of agendas through the use of group power. It is often the case that the suffering of a group of people may be minimized in an effort to silence and allay the anxieties of others who are not ready to deal with the reality of the other’s experiences. This often means that the suffering group’s expression of their dissatisfaction through certain kinds of behaviours is relegated to delinquency, lack of gratitude, criminal behaviour, lack of foresight and generalized attention-seeking behaviour. The spectators often exercise their power by using certain methods that are aimed at fragmenting the group’s united identity into individual parts. In this way, the group gets immobilized and silenced. However, understandings from child development describe a point in the life of a child where language has not developed yet and the child depends on idiosyncratic ways of communicating their needs and distress. At times the language has developed but the child is not being heard and resorts to escalating the idiosyncratic ways of expressing themselves to reflect the intensity and urgency of the need to be responded to. These particular ways of communicating are often behavioural in nature and to the utter dismay and helplessness of their caregivers. However, usually, not all is lost as the apparatus for communication begins to surface and all of a sudden they can verbally express their needs and distress. The presence of a voice and the emergence of the ability to verbalize, as well as the encouragement to do so, culminate into a confidence that makes things easier for the developing child/caregiver relationship. What happens then when one’s voice is denied expression, unheard or/and not responded to by the self or others? How does one communicate their need, pain and suffering? What happens when this pain and suffering is minimized, avoided and/or unacknowledged? What happens to "forgotten" parts of the past? Do they disappear into oblivion with no chance of resurfacing or do they now and then rear their ugly, dirty heads and wreak havoc in one’s life (or society) only to disappear to whatever purgatory they came from? How do we banish them to spend eternity in that purgatory? I want to talk about how significant events in the country might be understood not only from a political, economical or social perspective, which are all valid and important, but also from a human experience view. Let's situate this reflection to a now "forgotten" event of military deployment that happened earlier in the year 2020 to enforce lockdown rules.

On the 5th of March 2020 Minister of Health in South Africa, Dr Zweli Mkhize announced that the NICD has “confirmed that a suspected case of covid 19 has tested positive”. A man who was travelling with his family and a part of a group that had just arrived from Italy was diagnosed with the coronavirus (National Institute for Communicable Diseases, 2020). The announcement of this first recorded case was followed by a cascade of events in the face of the increasing number of infections. This exponential increase in infections led to the declaration, by the president on the 21st of March 2020, of the first national lockdown which began on the 26th of March 2020. These efforts were made in order to reduce the rate of virus transmission and to mitigate its impact on society and the health system. In order to ensure that there was compliance with the national lockdown requirements, the president deployed the military to help in the enforcement of the regulations. Despite the positive intentions and goodwill that foregrounded this decision, it was not long before reports of bullying, humiliation, abuse and brutality by the military on civilians, began to surface in the majority of provinces around the country. The majority of these incidences were reported in the Gauteng province. These violent incidences happened mainly within the Townships which are ‘coincidentally’ parts of the country that have an extremely difficult and painful history with the military. Now, the enforcement of the lockdown regulations and rules by the military seemed to be a superimposition of the past over the present. For example, the restriction of the freedom of movement, as well as the need for special permits, plunged the country into the depths of the history it desperately was trying to forget. How did the enforcing of regulations aimed at preventing the spread of the virus, thus protecting the citizens, turned into bullying, humiliation, abuse and control? How it is that protecting turned into perpetrating. Would it be accurate for us to suspect that a kind of reenactment was at play? A pattern of behaviour from an unresolved painful past resurfacing and claiming its space on the frightened, helpless and confused civilians and military soldiers alike.

It seemed like a familiar ghost from the past has risen from the ashes, interrupting its slumber, to reignite old pain, misery and suffering. Is this not the same way that unresolved trauma work? The word trauma originates from Greek, meaning “wound” or “injury” (Nir, 2018). What wound might the patterns of interaction between the militia and civilians be begging us “not” to forget? The projected screen was up and media reports of this and other incidences covered all news platforms. I am going to name just a few of these collective screen memories and their related psychological dynamic.

1. The xenophobic attacks of 2008 (relative deprivation).

2. The imposition of the past in the present -military exertion of power and control over civilians- early 2020 (reenactment of perpetrator-victim dynamic)

3. The unrest protest characterized by destruction and looting mid-2021 (explosive destructive impulses)

The important thing to note about these extremely eruptive events is that they are immediately followed by acts of reconnection, thoughts of rebuilding, which seem almost unrealistic and superficial. It is curious to note that each time after these noteworthy events the dust ‘settles’ and things get back to ‘normal’ oftentimes with no active intervention. It is as if to talk of the devastating nature of the experience is to acknowledge its presence and that is threatening. It is also interesting to note that there seem to be a replayed pattern of a "build-up", which is followed by an "eruption" and an immediate "reconnection", then “calm” and “forgetting”. How are we to make sense of a pattern that seems to repeat itself over and over again? How can we understand this compulsion to repeat this pattern? Freud speaks of a compulsion to repeat an unremembered past (Shull, 2003). It seems like a risk for me to postulate that this psychological dynamic is at play here particularly given the fact that we speak of that past (events that occurred during the apartheid regime) in everyday conversations; it is commemorated on set dates and engaged with timely. Then what might I be suggesting we are repeating if our daily conversations are filled with stories of ‘remembering’ this past. I believe that there are nuances to this remembering. For example, the way the country remembers the following dates; June 16 and March 21, is set in the background of demonstrating the power of resilience and courage without acknowledging the damage and suffering caused. There seems to be a particular dynamic of avoiding confronting the impact of the past and the need to exhibit valiancy. This dynamic seems to be a solid defence against these difficult, unprocessed feelings resulting from these extremely traumatic past experiences. There seems to be a denial or an escaping of the difficulty that comes with acknowledging the depth, impact and chronicity of these past experiences as they continue to colonize the present. There appears to be a conflictual dynamic expressed through the separation of the then ‘Hell’ from the current ‘Haven’, a fear of contamination and repetition. This is interesting given that acknowledging and engaging with difficult feelings, thoughts and experiences may lead to the resolution of repetitions of that past. How might we start these conversations and talk about the resulting feelings and experiences in a meaningful and healing way?

What to do then? ( Suggestions on how to begin the process of working through these traumatic experiences)

Commemoration days

The first step would be to use what's already available to us like the commemoration days. This will allow people to commemorate by exploring their experiences with these events. The commemoration days can be used as healing days as well where groups of individuals can convene to talk about their experiences. Professionals like psychologists, counsellors and social workers can be used to facilitating these groups. Days like June 16 (Youth Day) can be split in half, where one half is commemoration and the other is reserved for healing. I would like to call this the human experience half of that day.

Schools

The schools may include a mental health (human experience) hour where learners in groups express their feelings, thoughts and experiences about their lives. These may include current, past and future and in the form of expressive arts where direct conversation is difficult. For Example, the following formats can be used, story-telling, songwriting, art, singing all in the service of communicating difficult to engage with material.

Places of employment

In areas of employment, a lunch hour of a specific day can be dedicated as the human experience hour where deep and meaningful dialogues occur. These may begin as conversations about a specific day of commemoration including the meanings each individual holds about it.

These are suggestions that can be followed in talking about all major traumatic events that have befallen our country including the ones that do not make headlines. This can happen through the prioritization of mental health which has always been on the back foot of everything else. The healing hour or what I would like to call the human experience hour can be made available to all.

Often, people will ask " what healing are you talking about, so many years have passed and it didn’t even happen to you personally". I will provide two examples below as a response to this question.

Example 1, A white middle-aged woman whose father was in the military during the apartheid regime and as a result was not present as a father for her. This resulted in the strain of the relationship between her parents leading to her mom using alcohol as a coping strategy an action that led to a myriad of difficulties. She currently has no real relationship with her mother and since the passing of her father during one of his duty postings, she has an unhealed wound. Now, she is sitting with a lot of resentment, bitterness, anger and hatred towards the people that she blames for having taken her father away. And even though she has vowed not to let her resentment affect her children they also do carry conflicting feelings about other races.

Example 2, A young black woman who was active in the liberation movement was killed in the mid-70s by the then military through their violent information extraction techniques which included torture. She had a young son of 5 years at the time and he grew up not really knowing her but hearing stories of her bravery as well as the love that she had for him. As a young man he also became actively involved in politics following on his mother’s footsteps. He never got the education he needed and has always wondered what his mother would have done had she been alive as he was growing up. He has always shared the story of his mother’s demise with his children. Even though his life is not where he would like it to be given the restrictions and constriction of the type of education he received he tries his best to send his children to get better education and this means sending them to mixed raced private schools. His children have conflictual feelings about other races, particularly the white race and have vowed to never ‘allow themselves’ to be treated in unfair ways.

How can these individuals begin the healing process?

There is a clear thread of transgenerational pain, anger, hatred, resentment and suspicion. Demonstrating clearly that no one needs to have been directly involved to be extremely impacted. All these individuals need their pain to be acknowledged, witnessed and validated. This kind of pain can only be processed through an engagement with the other where is it listened to, witnessed, acknowledged, validated and responded to by the self as well as the other. No amount of reform and policy changes can access this kind of human experience and heal its pain. Otherwise this pain will always show up, uninvited, unannounced and unprepared for.

References

National Institute of Communicable Diseases. (2020, March 05) First case of covid-19 coronavirus reported in SA. Retrieved from https://www.nicd.ac.za/first-case-of-covid-19-coronavirus-reported-in-sa/

Shull, D., K. (2003) The Neurobiology of Freud’s Repetition Compulsion . Annals of Modern Psychoanalysis, 2(1)

Nir, B. (2018) Transgenerational Transmission of Holocaust Trauma and Its Expressions in Literature . Geneology, 2(49)

Related post

Descend into Chaos or Split: Managing Intolerable Experiences, By N Gqweta