trauma – Engaging Peace

The Post Glory Exuberance Disorder-PGED

Posted on June 9, 2017 by kathiemm

by Kathie MM

World War I Victory Parade – 700 Block Hamilton Street – Allentown PA. 1919.
In the public domain

Just google “perpetual war,” and you will find many articles on US involvement in what appear to be endless military actions around the world. Google “PTSD” and you will find many more articles on the pernicious effects of war on those who are sent to wage it.

Given the huge costs of war–financial and humanitarian–why do so many Americans continue to support their government’s military undertakings?

These excerpts from an article in Transcend Network by Johan Galtung provide one thought-provoking answer.

“Very well known is post trauma stress disorder, PTSD; no doubt a very painful disorder experienced by many, most, maybe by all of us. Something went very wrong: a shock, violence, physical, verbal, by and to individuals, groups in society, societies, groups of societies….

What would be the opposite of trauma? Evidently something positive…. [One] type of trauma is defeat in a war and the opposite is victory. Basking in the glory, not suffering the gloom of trauma. And then, if trauma could lead to a state of stress,…maybe deep and repeated glory could lead to a state of, let us call it exuberance?….

Death in a war is a major trauma for the bereaved and all, victory a major glory for many and all. The loser is traumatized, the winner glorified. The loser may suffer deep disorder, like nations traumatized by Western colonialism. Or they may say “Never Again” and launch a peace movement. The winner will do his best to keep war as an institution. Till his time comes to lose….

Because to any PTSD it makes sense to postulate a PGED [Post Glory Exuberance Disorder] as a strong cause having that PTSD as effect. If we want to reduce the PTSD, it is obviously insufficient to work on the victim side only, with therapies and remedies, when PGED reproduces PTSD. A whole system has to be changed….

Take the war system, … as alive as ever with threats of major wars in many places in the “Middle East” (West Asia), the USA-EU-Ukraine-Russia complex, and in the “Far East” (East Asia). The relatively peaceful continents are in the “Third World”, Latin America-Caribbean and Africa; the enormity of violence against them being structural more than direct war.

In this there is a message to those who naively believe that “development leads to peace”; right now it looks more like the other way around. Why, given all the suffering, the PTSD, caused by wars?

Because of PGED enjoyed by the winners. Not only basking in the glory of ticker tape parades and similar orgies, but in billions to the winners, incidentally also to some of the losers…. Wars make money flow.

The world’s major war machine is the United States of America. No US president winning a war has ever been blamed for human suffering caused…. The war in Vietnam was lost, a terrible trauma for US leaders, population, and the bereaved of 58,000 killed. But not of 3 million Vietnamese? Grotesque insensitivity. Questions raised were not about the political use of war but how to win future wars to overcome the “Vietnam syndrome”.

To win means collective glory and exuberance, individual profits in the billions high up, and some heroism, glory, and medals lower down. Of the millions killed and tens of millions bereaved: no word.

Try one minute, or an hour rather, to contemplate the total PTSD perpetrated by US warfare on the peoples of Afghanistan from 2001, and Iraq from 1991, and 2003. True, there has been no US PGED but even some US PTSD from the “unfinished wars” as CNN calls it. Also true, lots of US psychotherapy for PTSD has been made available both places.

But most in need of counseling are Americans hit by wanting PGED, demanding winnable wars as therapy; disasters to the victims all over, even counting in the millions, with enormities of PTSD in their wake.

We are victims of a negative psychology of individual therapy. And short on a positive psychology to provide work for negative and positive peace, for security and good relations to higher ups who want PGED. And to remove causes of war: unsolved conflicts and unreconciled traumas.”

______________________________________

Johan Galtung, a professor of peace studies, is founder of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment and rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University-TPU. Prof. Galtung has published 1670 articles and book chapters, over 470 Editorials for TRANSCEND Media Service, and 167 books on peace and related issues, of which 41 have been translated into 35 languages, for a total of 135 book translations, including ‘50 Years-100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives,’ published by the TRANSCEND University Press-TUP.

This is a shortened version of an article originally published on TMS: The Post Glory Exuberance Disorder-PGED.

Which way will you go?

Posted on January 5, 2015January 4, 2015 by kathiemm

To ring in the New Year, with its new choices and pathways, here is the fourth post in our current series from guest author Dr. Anthony Marsella.*

Beyond Propaganda, Media Deception and Abuses, and Lies

The United States of America and its closest international allies have chosen the path of war, with tragic consequences for the survival of humanity and our natural world. Our foreign and domestic policies are destructive — serving the political, economic, and financial interests of a limited number of individuals and organizations. Unless we retreat from this path, and choose the path of peace, we will find ourselves doomed to endless domestic and international violence and war.

The US government has fashioned an explicit global domestic and foreign policy that encourages endless fractures and divisions between and among nations, regions, genders, religions, ethnic groups/races, and social-economic classes. The government is pitting humanity against itself and against the natural world, promoting global chaos and collapse.

Efforts by the US power structure to use the deceptive “patriotic” attractions and seductions of war — blindly mantled in glory, soldiers’ bravery, and martial domination, replete with songs, parades, banners, and celebrations of victory and nationalism — are deceptive attractions and seductions of our bodies, minds, and spirits.

How many more must die from this lie that finds virtue in war? How many more must be wounded, traumatized, and punished by starvation, torture, and social upheaval and dislocation? Have we no conscience? Have we lost all sense of human dignity and worth? Have we no awareness of our assault on nature? Have we no sense of the exploitation and exhaustion of our natural resources?

Our leaders come before us, offering plaintive explanations designed to sculpt their destructive legacy in our minds as legacies of brilliant strategy, moral and ethical choices, and wise and learned tactics and actions. Through daily exposure to these messages, will humanity continue to accept such lies? Or can we choose a different path in 2015?

*This post is adapted from an essay originally published by Transcend Media Service at

https://www.transcend.org/tms/2014/10/two-paths-in-the-wood-choice-of-life-or-war/

Seeking the kindness of strangers, Part I

Posted on July 24, 2014July 20, 2014 by kathiemm

This is the first in a series of two posts by Alice LoCicero.

It is easy to blur the truth with a simple linguistic trick: start your story from “Secondly”…..Mourid Barghouti

Since 2006, I have worked with children and adolescents who come to the US out of fears and traumas similar to those faced by the children now at our borders, children seeking a fair hearing and requesting asylum here.

I know what their faces look like, and what their experiences have been. I have talked with children from four continents about experiences of torture, abuse, and trauma. I have helped them cope with their fears. I have been happy to see them gain asylum. I look forward to the citizens they will become. Several are in college or graduate school now. They have become contributing members of our society. We will all benefit.

Most important, the children I met have all depended on the kindness of strangers in many parts of their journey towards asylum. Ordinary Americans have helped them tremendously. I know how Americans can and do help children, once they understand their story. Once they meet them. Once they see their faces. Americans are not, by nature, mean and stingy towards children in need. So what is happening to make ordinary Americans so fearful of the children seeking help at our borders?

The manufactured “crisis” of the Central American youth coming to our border unaccompanied has a long history, and the media coverage of this situation starts with “Secondly.” Briefly, US intervention in the affairs of its neighbors has caused less stable and highly dangerous conditions, including chronic political instability, rebel forces and gangs. Many children, personally in grave danger, traumatized and terrified, have taken the huge risk of fleeing to the US border. Those that arrived alive and intact are now facing hatred, mostly whipped up by media misrepresentations that tell the story of the children starting at “Secondly.”

Dr. Alice LoCicero is a staff member at Boston Medical Center in the Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology, an adjunct professor at Lesley University, and a volunteer psychologist at Community Legal Services and Counseling Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her book, “Why Good Kids Turn into Deadly Terrorists: Deconstructing the Accused Boston Marathon Bombers and Others Like Them” will be released at the end of July.

Healing of trauma, Part 2

Posted on November 18, 2013November 17, 2013 by kathiemm

Second and final in a series by guest author Dot Walsh

Using his own experience to connect with victims of violence and trauma, Father Michael Lapsley sees himself as a wounded healer:

“My visible brokenness creates a bond with others whose brokenness is often less visible but just as real. The truth is that pain unites human beings. In my work as a healer, many people say they can trust me because I know pain.”

In 1998, Lapsley came to the United States and began working with non-profits providing programs for victims of domestic violence. He helped establish the Institute for Healing of Memories (IHOM) as a non-profit with partnerships in this country and has worked with veterans through an organization called the Warrior to Citizen Campaign. He trains facilitators to set up workshops for veterans, many of whom are homeless or living in transitional housing.

Creating a safe environment for the workshops is essential because many participants, especially veterans, carry layers of pain they are unwilling to share with strangers. Since telling one’s story is the beginning of the healing process, trust has to be developed so that a person can feel comfortable enough to talk openly. One veteran described this process as “peeling the onion of my pain.”

Listening carefully and then acknowledging someone’s pain is a next step. As Lapsley explained, without acknowledging the pain, there can be no healing. One veteran who spoke in a recent workshop told people this was the first time in 41 years he was able to talk openly about what he experienced in war.

I came away from my interview with Lapsley with an understanding of the commonalities of all the trauma rooted in our commonality as one human family and of the importance of telling our stories and having them acknowledged.

The effects of trauma can leave a person as a victim or as a victor depending on the choice made. Fr. Lapsley says, “In the end, what matters most is whether we are able to transform pain into a life-giving force.”

Dot Walsh is a lifelong peace activist and member of the Engaging Peace board of directors