elt@astrovax.UUCP (Ed Turner) (06/13/85)
There has been much discussion in this group lately concerning the severe psychological consequences associated with the violence of rape and of the lesser but still considerable psychological trauma associated with situations which seemed to threaten rape. Similar psychological problems (of varying degree) seem to occur for victims of other violent crimes to judge from stories in the media about the severe depression/anger/fear etc. which can result from ordinary robberies and muggings. Indeed, I have the impression that the psychological counseling of crime victims is a rapidly growing "field" of psychology. I cannot help wondering if the severity of the psychological trauma associated with violence or potential violence is a result of the fact that the typical victim (or potential victim) has almost no previous personal experience with violence. Despite the cliche that we live in a violent society, consider the following (randomly ordered) facts: 1) Most of us have not been involved in a physical fight since childhood (if then). 2) Many of us have never even seen a serious fight, a badly injured person, or a dead person (especially if you don't count the cosmetically prepared corpses seen at funerals). 3) No war has been fought in the US or Canada in living memory. 4) Even violence against animals is rarely seen; few have even witnessed the slaughter of an animal despite having consumed uncounted chickens, cattle, etc. 5) The violence we are constantly exposed to is the comic book violence of TV and the movies which tends to portray injuries as rather antiseptic and easy to recover from. Thus, I think that the severe psychological problems we have been hearing about are at least in part the result of the fact that violence is so rare that being the victim of a violent crime is likely to be an almost uniquely unfamiliar event in one's life but also common enough that a substantial fraction of the population will be victimized one or a few times. Does this make sense? Before anyone starts putting words in my mouth, I do *not* think that making violence more familiar would be a good way of avoiding these problems or that the psychological problems are any less real/severe/important etc. if the above conclusion is correct. It might help us understand how people living in other more violent times and places were able to stand it though. Ed Turner astrovax!elt
geoff@burl.UUCP (geoff) (06/14/85)
In article <615@astrovax.UUCP> elt@astrovax.UUCP (Ed Turner) writes: > >I cannot help wondering if the severity of the psychological trauma >associated with violence or potential violence is a result of the fact that >the typical victim (or potential victim) has almost no previous personal >experience with violence. Despite the cliche that we live in a violent >society, consider the following (randomly ordered) facts: <etc> I think Ed makes a very good point here. I read in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago about interviews with Vietnamese about their side of the war. They were fighting one of the biggest countries in the world, had their homes and families blown to bits around them, and came through it with vastly fewer psychological problems than our soldiers did. I guess they had grown up with it, so to them is was 'normal'. They could deal with it. In contrast, our soldiers were brought up in a very safe (by comparison) world, where the big problems were whether or not they could get a date to the prom. Suddenly they are in an alien environment with people bent on killing them -- and they can't tell friend from foe. Humans are adaptable -- but not infinitely so. On a smaller scale, this seems to be the same sort of thing as crime victims go through. And once it happens, it must be very hard to look at the world with the same eyes. geoff sherwood