Tag: hate

Reflections on the Orlando Massacre: The Hate-Violence-Hate Cycle and Beyond

Posted on by kathiemm

The Hate-Violence-Hate Cycle

by Dr. Anthony J. Marsella

 Hate begets violence begets hate! An endless descent into destruction, all under the guise of justification. 

 The hate-violence-hate cycle is hard wired and soft wired; but it is wired, and becomes reflexive. 

 How do we stop it?  Ask: Do we have a right to hate? Is hate a privilege? Is hate a choice? 

If it is a choice, then what sustains and promotes it, nurturing it in an endless cycle of violence, stoking its increase and generalization.

 No mysteries here? Why all the bewilderment? 

 We use the word hate with impunity, hating anything we wish as if it is good to hate. And when it becomes generalized, we fail to stop it. We enjoy hating! 

 Consider the endless targets now popular: I hate broccoli; I hate the New York Yankees; I hate ….. Name your hates!  It is a pernicious pleasure to hate. It establishes presence, it confirms identity, it asserts distinction. 

 Orlando was not the largest killing of innocent people, only seeking to live free of hate and violence. 

 Why are we surprised? 

 Did we forget Wounded  Knee, or a thousand others places and times? 

Let us not forget all those instances of aggression by our leaders.  But let us all remember that there are alternatives.  Peruse the chart below for some inspiration on socializing a culture of peace. Let’s do less hating and more loving right now, right here at home.

chart

Anthony Marsella, Ph.D., a  member of the TRANSCEND Network, is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii, and past director of the World Health Organization Psychiatric Research Center in Honolulu. He is known nationally and internationally as a pioneer figure in the study of culture and psychopathology who challenged the ethnocentrism and racial biases of many assumptions, theories, and practices in psychology and psychiatry. In more recent years, he has been writing and lecturing on peace and social justice. He has published 15 edited books, and more than 250 articles, chapters, book reviews, and popular pieces. He can be reached at marsella@hawaii.edu.

Arms for children

Posted on by kathiemm

By guest author Luciana Karine de Souza

What does a society do when its children kill? This question became intensely personal in Brazil with the recent shooting death of a college student in São Paulo. The victim was 19 years old; the shooter was 17.

Graffiti boy with gun
Seattle graffiti by bartleby78. Used under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Child and adolescent psychologists teach us that emotional stability, autonomy, and independence come with time and flourish when children develop secure attachments to the adults who care for them. But what happens when the adults providing children and adolescents with reciprocity, sensibility, monitoring, and so on, do so not for a humane education, but for crime education?

In today’s world, adolescents, and even younger children, are often introduced to guns early and taught how to engage in crime, drug trafficking, robbery, kidnapping, and even planned assassination. These firearms can provide not only money, but also prestige, attention, guidance, safety, and, in a way, some sort of education (how to be brave and strong when shooting, how to be firm and clear when confronting).

When we study and teach the concept of attachment, we focus on the positive roles of reciprocity, sensibility, safety, proximity, and attention in child development. To promote strong and secure attachment, we try to give our children love, embrace them with warmth, and surround them with our dedication. We offer them our arms and a safe haven. We strive to protect them, educate them, listen to them, and learn with them.

These arms, the arms of love, are the arms our children and adolescents need: arms to embrace them, safe and fulfilling arms, arms that protect them from violence, war, and hate. Not arms that kill. Not arms that fill the gap left by weak attachments. Arms that make them want to live and to allow to live. No arms should be stronger.

Luciana Karine de Souza is a full professor at Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Her teaching and research involve personality and social development in psychology, education, and leisure.

Violent behavior in context: Tucson and beyond

Posted on by kathiemm

Jared Lee Loughner, caught at the scene of the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the murder of six other people, has been repeatedly described as crazy, a nutbag, disturbed, and mentally ill—labels that put the blame for the violence on him as another “sole gunman” who has committed a heinous act.

Gabrielle Giffords shooting scene
Tucson shooting scene. (Photo by Steve Karp, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. From Wikimedia Commons

But heinous acts take place within contexts, and Loughner grew up within contexts where the spreading of hate and calls for violence against various groups have become rampant.

To understand fully the factors that contributed to the violence in Tucson and similar incidents, one must do an ecological analysis.

As described in our post on August 23, 2010, an ecological analysis assumes that the character and behavior of adult humans are shaped by forces at different levels:

  • The individual level (e.g., genetic predispositions, brain functioning)
  • The microsystem level (primarily the family)
  • The exosystem (e.g., the neighborhood)
  • The macrosystem (broad cultural values and mores)

Also important is the chronosystem, which focuses on changes in the individual’s environments over time that may affect his or her development.

In today’s post and the following ones, we examine how factors at each level could have contributed to Jared Lee Loughner’s attack on Congresswoman Giffords and others.

At the individual level, there is considerable evidence that Loughner may suffer from some sort of mental illness. There are also many reports that he abused drugs. Far too many people suffer from severe psychological symptoms, and far too many abuse drugs, but the vast majority of these people do not try to kill other human beings.

What other factors may have contributed to Loughner’s deadly behavior? We will return to this question in our next two posts.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology